Apr 1, 2008 6:02 pm US/Central
Controversy In Race For Cook Co. State's Attorney
Tony Peraica Says Fundraiser Photograph Hints At Corruption In Anita Alvarez's Campaign
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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If elected as Cook County's next state's attorney, Anita Alvarez would make history not only as the first Hispanic to take the office, but also the first woman.
CBS
Republican state's attorney candidate Tony Peraica is raising questions about his opponent, Anita Alvarez. At issue is who she's posing with in a picture.
As CBS 2's Mike Parker reports, the controversy swirls around a March 6 fundraiser for Alvarez at a Southwest Side restaurant.
"It reinforces to the citizens of Cook County that what we have is corruption on steroids that is prevalent at all levels of government," Peraica, a Cook County Commissioner, said.
The photograph in question was on the front page of last weeks Spanish-language newspaper El Dia. It shows Alvarez, at her fundraiser, posing with three supporters. One of them, to her immediate right, is Jorge Montes de Oca, Jr. He is the son of the paper's owner.
That night, he was a wanted man. A warrant from Lake County, Ill., had charged de Oca with writing $51,000 worth of bad checks to a car dealer. De Oca has since been arrested and is now out on $30,000 bond.
Peraica also notes that several leaders of the scandal-plagued Hispanic Democratic Organization (HDO) were at the Alvarez fundraiser that night.
"The HDO has been at the epicenter of all the corruption that has gone on at the city of Chicago...Hired Truck…the hiring scandal..."
Alvarez declined to be interviewed on camera. She issued a statement instead.
It read: "To insinuate that any public official of Hispanic heritage has connections to the HDO is racist... These allegations are completely absurd and if they were not coming from Commissioner Tony Peraica, our campaign would consider this an April Fool's Day joke."
The statement did not address the pose with that fugitive.
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