State Rep Race

State Rep Challenger Hopes to Derail Machine
By Jim Vail


Anyone who takes on the machine has to have guts.

Anyone who defends a governor who the ruling class wanted eliminated has to have guts.

Meet Aaron Goldstein - a criminal lawyer who decided to toss his hat in the ring to unseat Jaime Andrade, who has temporarily replaced Deb Mell as the 40th district state representative.

Goldstein has defended the little guy throughout his career in law when he worked as a public defender and provided legal assistance for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.

He is in favor of supporting unions, raising the minimum wage, legalizing marijuana, protecting teachers' pensions and electing a school board.

He claims he's always had the guts to do what's right.

But I asked Goldstein the other week, how can a little guy like him stand up to the likes of corrupt operators like house speaker Mike Madigan, who controls the house like a true godfather. 

He told Secondcityteachers that there comes a time when you have to stand up to the big guys, even if it's means getting whacked.

He gave the example in the legal world of substitution of judge, where a lawyer can ask a judge to be dismissed from a case before the trial has even begun.

It is a little used practice because it's considered offensive to the judge, and lawyers can easily get black listed as a result. 

But Goldstein said he used it one time to dismiss a judge he knew would not be fair, and his higher ups questioned him.  Many careers could be easily derailed as a result, he said.

"But it was the right thing to do," Goldstein said. "In the end I got a lot of respect."

There are five challengers to take machine daughter Deb Mell's seat. Mell was handed her father's seat as alderman in the city council after her machine father decided to call it quits.

One candidate, Chicago public school teacher Mel Ferrand, was removed from the ballot because she did not hand in the right application.  Goldstein said he has no idea if her appeal will win, but he did say the law is pretty clear on this.

Ferrand's removal from the ballot was announced at the last Chicago Teachers Union delegates meeting where endorsements of candidates are made.

Goldstein said he has approached the CTU for an endorsement but has not heard anything yet.

In other state rep races, the CTU's two endorsed candidates - Jay Travis and Will Guzzardi, were each cut a check for $15000 and $7500, respectively, according to an inside CTU source.  

The 38-year-old attorney also said the drug war must end and machine politics be challenged.

"(Dick) Mell was never a good campaigner, he'd just clear the field."

He said there is one persistent myth that the machine may be perpetuating when it comes to signing petitions to support candidates, an area where the machine excels.

Goldstein said you can sign as many petitions for candidates running in the same party's primary.  However, you cannot sign two different party petitions.

Goldstein said Blagoyevich was independently minded and his not playing according to the democrat party rules got him into trouble.  

The fact that the government had tapes of the former governor talking about making deals to sell Barack Obama's senate seat, but never proving that anything happened, made the ruling of guilty highly quesitonable, he said.

One judge in the Blagoyevich appeal agreed that impeaching the governor on grounds of horse trading has no merit since that was exactly how former California governor Earl Warren became a Supreme Court justice, when president Eisenhower had promised him the judgeship if he delivered enough votes in his state.

The real story behind Blagoyevich goes back to Dick Mell who was furious after the former governor closed a land fill that Mell had financial interests in.  When it comes to having dirt on politicians, there is no short supply.

"The problem with the democrats," Goldstein said, "is no one stands up."

Goldstein mentioned that Deb Mell voted for the education reform bill that is behind the massive attacks on public schools and its teachers.  Her replacement Andrade, who worked for her father Dick Mell, also voted for the recent pension bill that drastically cuts future pensioners' benefits.

Goldstein said he does not want to see the expansion of charter schools and its union-busting tactics, and a roll back of the massive Race to the Top emphasis on standardized testing.

So how hard is it running against the machine now?

First, the money, thanks to Mell, is rolling in for Andrade.  The Leader Bar, near Irving Park and Albany, gave the machine candidate $7,000, while Mell's campaign fund is providing a ton of cash as well, he said.  The current limits to donate to a campaign are $5,000 for an individual, $10,000 for a corporation and $50,000 for a campaign fund.

Not to mention the phone calls. The latest Goldstein said is a call going out asking constituents if they knew the state rep challenger represents criminals, so could this mean he's soft on crime, he said.

While Goldstein said he decided to run now because it's difficult to beat an incumbent, the machine, unfortunately, is still humming along.