THIRD TIME SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE CHARM!

Alderman Bernie Stone of the 50th ward is the oldest member of Chicago’s City Council. First elected to the Council in 1973, he is also the second longest-serving alderman (after Ed Burke). Two of his 2007 campaign aides were sentenced to prison this week for their participation in election fraud during the 2007 municipal elections. Stone denies any involvement. I have written three blogs which included references to Alderman Stone. The first one, “Inspector General not Inspector Gadget” (6/7/09) dealt with Stone’s criticism of David Hoffman, who was then Chicago’s Inspector General. I wrote, “Alderman Bernie Stone (50th) is an outspoken critic of the Inspector General probably because Hoffman investigated a Stone aide for voter fraud. Stone said in a Tribune story that the Mayor probably has voiced support for Hoffman, “…because he is afraid to fire him because of the reaction he would get. People might say he got rid of him because he’s criticizing the Mayor.” The second one, “Crooked Aldermen? A Job for the FBI according To Stone,” (2/9/10) recounted Stone’s not wanting the City’s Inspector General’s scope of duties to include investigating Aldermen. I wrote, ” In response to Chicago Mayor Daley saying that he wanted to add the responsibility of investigating Aldermen to the duties of the Inspector General, Alderman Bernard Stone said that the fact that 29 aldermen have been convicted shows there's no need for more scrutiny. "Law enforcement is doing an excellent job in sending crooked Aldermen to jail," he said. "Why do we need someone to duplicate that?" Hey, Bernie, maybe there would have been more convicted if there had been oversight?” In the third one, “City Payroll is no longer Relative,” (2/12/10), I wrote, “Alderman Bernie Stone makes it so easy for someone to take him to task for his entitlement attitude that I am almost embarrassed to take another shot at him. My blog a few days ago, “Crooked Aldermen? A Job For The FBI According To Stone,” recounted Stone’s not wanting the City’s Inspector General’s scope of duties to include investigating Aldermen. It also included a few other juicy tidbits about his past. This week he voted AGAINST barring relatives from the Aldermen’s part-time “stealth payrolls.” This fourth one gives Stone the dubious honor of being the most “popular” subject of my blog after Mayor Daley. Trust me; this is not an honor like multiple hostings of “Saturday Night Live!” According to the Sun-Times, “A Cook County Judge sentenced Ald. Bernard Stone’s (50th) former ward superintendent and another man to jail today for attempting to improperly steer votes toward Stone in the hotly contested 2007 aldermanic race. Anish Eapen, 40, and Armando Ramos, 36, both “attempted to steal democracy,” Judge Marcus Salone said before sentencing Eapen to 364 days in jail and Ramos to 270 days in jail. While arguing for probation, the men’s attorneys, Rohit Sahgal and Tom Breen, said that the two were not well-versed in election law and were taking orders from Stone and other 50th ward officials.” To this day, he has no idea what he did wrong,” Sahgal said of Ramos.” What did they do wrong? The Sun-Times continues “Eapen, who was handpicked by Stone to serve as a ward superintendent, and Ramos would target primarily Indian and Pakistani voters and coax them to take absentee ballots, prosecutors said. Both would watch as voters filled out the absentee ballot applications and forms for both the 2007 February general election and the run-offs in April later that year when Stone edged out challenger Naisy Dolar. At least one woman, Hema Panchigar, who isn’t registered to vote, testified in November that Eapen filled out her ballot. She signed the ballot, as did all her relatives, but said during the drawn out bench trial, ‘I didn’t mark anything.’ “

The two men said they were “taking orders from Stone,” yet Stone is not punished. In fact he called them, “political prisoners,” and he castigated former city Inspector General David Hoffman by saying that Hoffman singled him out in the ballot fraud investigation while ignoring to probe other aldermen.” They are not the ones who attempted to steal democracy. The one who attempted to steal democracy was David Hoffman,” an infuriated Stone said. “. . . This is a miscarriage of justice.” The only miscarriage of justice will be if voters in the 50th Ward elect Stone again in the upcoming municipal election in February 2011.