The O’Malley Family
What does this say about Illinois voters if this tactic works? Bizarre!
Gov OKs bill targeting wannabe Irish judges
Hoping to stop lawyers from adopting Irish names to run for judge, Gov. Blagojevich has signed a bill requiring candidates who have changed their names within three years before running to have a “formerly known as” under their name.
The law excuses candidates who changed their names due to marriage, divorce or adoption.
State Rep. John Fritchey IV (D-Chicago) proposed the change after the Sun-Times revealed that attorney Frederick S. Rhine changed his name to “Patrick M. O’Brien” to run for judge.
He followed in a long line of attorneys who adopted their mothers’ maiden names or just adopted an Irish name such as “Fitzgerald” to run even though they had not a drop of Irish blood.
Rhine changed his name in October 2005 but in the end did not run as O’Brien in 2006 judicial elections.
Though the census shows the Irish or part-Irish amount to less than 20 percent of the Cook County electorate, candidates with Irish names — especially female candidates — tend to sweep judicial elections.
“What does this say about Oklahoma voters if this tactic works? Bizarre!”
Don’t you mean Illinois?
Chicago is in Illinois. Blagojevic is governor of Illinois. The story is not about Oklahoma.
Actually, this is in Illinois, which probably makes a lot more sense given our colorful political history…
Um…this isn’t in Oklahoma. It’s in Illinois. I mean, what are the chances that there is another Governor named “Blagojevich”.
And as far as I know, Oklahoma doesn’t have a substantial Irish population like Chicago does, so why would an Irish name in Oklahoma matter in any way?
Oops! I saw the headline “Gov OKs…” and that state’s abbreviation got stuck in my head. Another reason I shouldn’t post things early in the morning before my morning Diet Pepsi!
Signed a bill = fed up?
“The law excuses candidates who changed their names due to marriage, divorce or adoption.”
I understand marriage and divorce but how the hell do you have people running for judge that were adopted within the last 3 years?
A few weeks ago, I joked to a friend that Barack Obama should start spelling his last name “O’Bama” and spend the next couple of years pretending he’s white and Irish. I didn’t realize that half of that strategy was already in the playbook for some Illinois politicians.
8. Funny. He could always say he’s Black-Irish. Yes there is such a thing.
#8 – The 44-year-old candidate had himself formally adopted by Mike O’Bannion, the janitor at his corporate law office, as a way to “come out of the o’closet.” Poor fellow was an Irish Catholic born inside a Jewish body.
Hey, Fusion is Irish. We’re the ones that got the whole Island together in one big group.
#7 Gig
This is Chicago. We vote when we’re dead so why can’t we run for office when we are 6 months?
And don’t you even think about telling us we can’t! Got it! 🙂
Being Irish in Chicago is as good as “Diebold”
From Time magazine, 1986: The two candidates who won the Illinois Democratic state primary nominations for Lieutenant Governor and secretary of state in shocking upsets are actually followers of reclusive, ultra-right-wing, perennial Presidential Candidate Lyndon LaRouche. Mark Fairchild and Janice Hart, two travelers from the Twilight Zone of politics, narrowly defeated the handpicked nominees of Adlai Stevenson III. Stevenson won the Democratic primary for Governor with an overwhelming 88% of the vote. … Apparently many voters around the state, unfamiliar with the candidates, cast ballots for Fairchild and Hart because their names sounded more ) comfortable to them than those of their regular Democrat opponents, George Sangmeister and Aurelia Pucinski.
Illinois has a long, rich history of voting for oddball wackos with regular-sounding names.