Posted on 08/08/2004 7:22:56 PM PDT by Hoosier-state
The Democratic Party machine, as Lake County knows it, may be on the endangered list over a rash of criminal indictments, racketeering lawsuits and, now, an Indiana Supreme Court ruling ordering a new 2003 mayoral primary election in East Chicago.
The might of East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick, one of the longest-serving mayors in the country, isn't the only thing being tested for its strength to survive.
Gov. Joe Kernan's gubernatorial race also is on shaky ground, said longtime Lake County GOP party member Randy Peters and Maurice Eisenstein, a Purdue University Calumet associate professor of political science.
"He's toast,'' Peters said.
Democratic candidates in a state that has voted for a Republican president for all but one election since Franklin D. Roosevelt, long have relied on a strong plurality of votes from two Democrat bastions, Lake and Marion counties, according to Eisenstein.
The 100,000-vote plurality Kernan is hoping to capture to retain office against Republican challenger Mitch Daniels has slipped by roughly 15,000 votes, Eisenstein said. Eisenstein said voters may be dissatisfied over Lake County's recent political "shenanigans" as well as the length of time it took Kernan to propose a solution -- a 2 percent cap of a home's assessed value -- to stem some of the more exorbitant property tax hikes in northern Lake County.
"The state's also cleaning up voter rolls,'' he said. "It'll be much more difficult to pull the hanky-panky stuff."
High-placed Democrats are too busy these days trying to keep themselves out of jail, or engaging in damage control for political allies, to get the vote out, Eisenstein said.
Pastrick was named along with 26 other defendants, including elected East Chicago officials, City Hall administrators and politically connected contractors, in a civil state racketeering lawsuit filed last Tuesday by Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter.
Carter, who said Pastrick and his cohorts were engaged in a corrupt enterprise, hopes to recoup more than $20 million in public money allegedly stolen to pour private sidewalks and patios for residents to cement the 1999 mayoral primary election.
Pastrick has called the lawsuit "political sabotage."
Pastrick could not be reached for comment Friday or Saturday, despite repeated calls. He did say last week after the civil action was filed that the lawsuit, coming so close to the fall general election, "smells of politics."
State Rep. Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville, said he isn't sure how to assess the impact of last week's lawsuit and "Operation Restore Public Integrity" indictments on the gubernatorial race.
"It's obviously a concern,'' Dobis said. "This is me speaking, but I believe the only way they can beat Joe Kernan is to dilute the plurality in Lake County -- and some of the things that have happened in the last six months could have that effect."
For instance, Peter Manous, a former Democratic state party chairman, turned in his law license and resigned from the party hierarchy before pleading guilty in April to conspiracy, fraud and making false statements to U.S. Labor Department investigators.
His childhood friend, Kevin Pastrick, Pastrick's son, one month later pled guilty in the conspiracy to invest $10 million of carpenter's union pension money in Coffee Creek, a Porter County land deal that allegedly earned him $600,000 in commissions.
For Manous, who allegedly collected a $200,000 kickback in the deal, and Kevin Pastrick, the pleas involved promises to cooperate with the wide-ranging investigations that include his family's political legacy.
James H. Fife III, a former county and state party leader and former close advisor to Pastrick, last Wednesday was named in the civil racketeering lawsuit and on Friday was indicted on six counts of tax fraud.
The Pastrick family, with son Scott once serving as treasurer of the national Democrat party under the Clinton administration, and son David currently serving as Lake County's coroner, has been described as the Midwest version of the Kennedy clan.
The GOP's Peters has called the Pastricks, "The Untouchables.'' Until now.
Anthony DeBonis, a lawyer for the North Township Trustee's office, who has worked alongside Fife and Dobis, wonders how the power base started to unravel.
Some speculate the probes go all the way to the U.S. Department of Justice, where gubernatorial candidate Mitch Daniels' sister, Deborah Daniels, is an assistant attorney general with the Office of Justice programs in Washington, D.C.
She also is a former federal prosecutor in Indiana, Dobis said, "and that could be a real handy tool." Whether she is a link in some way between federal prosecutors and Lake County's corruption probes is unknown, Dobis said, "but it sure is suspicious."
John Curley, chairman of the Lake County Republican Central Committee, did not return a call to comment.
Peters confirmed that Daniels' sister is working in Washington, but not at a level where she might be pulling strings.
"Sure, (Republicans) want to take out the Democrats,'' Peters said. "But only on a level for clean, honest government. That ain't plotting. That's just showing the people they'll do a better job, and be more responsible and get better services. Now Pastrick is moaning and groaning. But, hey. We got a two-party system.
"Finally, people are waking up. They've been hit with these taxes. They've gotten hit in the pocketbook, and they're tired of the shenanigans."
Terry Burns, a state Democratic party spokesman, said Kernan's reputation is impeccable, his campaign contributions are outpacing Daniels' and voters in Lake County are savvy enough to distinguish among candidates and races.
Burns also said the party will take Attorney General Steve Carter at his word that the state lawsuit is not political. At the same time, he said he can't help but question the timing of Carter's lawsuit last week.
"It's been roughly five years since this allegation occurred," Burns said.
U.S. Attorney Joseph Van Bokkelen said the timing of the indictments and Carter's lawsuit is coincidental.
Van Bokkelen said his moves are not motivated by politics. He added that Carter's authority to take action stemmed from a State Board of Accounts report that was certified in 2001. Carter said the state lawsuit is unprecedented, as it names a municipality as a corrupt enterprise. He said former Gov. Frank O'Bannon tried to collect money spent on the alleged "Sidewalk for Votes" scandal for more than three years, and the state lawsuit not only was carefully prepared by a national racketeering expert, it also was signed by him.
"The other side of this is, you can't investigate public corruption just because it's political,'' Van Bokkelen said. "That's political."'
Stephen R. "Bob" Stiglich, Lake County Democratic party chairman, said the party will deal with the situation, as it has in the past.
"We don't allow circumstances to divide the party as a whole," Stiglich said.
"If people want to be biased and take it out on the party, that would be wrong,'' he said. "The decisions, these matters, need to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, and votes should be determined by how people have served and will serve."
Debra Gruszecki can be reached at dgruszecki@nwitimes.com or (219) 933-4158.
bump!
FYI
I do not like Kernan, and I didn't like O'Bannon either. I'm hoping Mitch gets in office. I do love our atty general though. He's a great guy.
ping
I love it when the Dems get caught breaking the law. Too bad they don't get prosecuted more often.
Sheesh, maybe we should give Lake county to Illinois, fits right in with Chicago politics.
That's what I was thinking. Perhaps the "footsteps" are getting closer to opening that same door in Cook County. That would be a real coup.
This is big news here in IN.
If Stiglich says "the party will deal with the situation, as it has in the past" then the prosecutors and all those involved in prosecuting these jerks should be on the look out, and I mean potentially for their very lives. I was born and raised in East Chicago and those Pastrick guys are not just corrupt, they are dangerous. There was a man named Hank "Babe" Lopez who was the Commissioner of E.C. Parks, I know the Lopez family personally (one of his nephews is my best friend), this guy (Hank) reportedly got involved with Pastrick`s shady dealing and when he came under investigation, it was rumored he would turn states evidence, but he disappeared suddenly. A few months later he was found shot, gangland style, and dumped with his car in the Little Calumet River (its an obscenely filthy river that bisects North West IN.). Thats just for starters, don`t get me started on the Jay Given murder, for instance key evidence in the hands of the E.C. police like the .45 cal. casing found at the murder scene were later found missing or mutilated (extractor and firing pin makings).Why do you think I became a conservative? I grew up seeing first hand what real power in the hands of Demon-crats can create; IT SURE AINT PRETTY! God help America if the National Dems ever gain that kind of power.
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