Scott Lee Cohen, pawnbroker, drops out of Illinois race

[ChairmanAgnostic]

Source: Chicago Tribune

Scott Lee Cohen, the pawnbroker whose surprise victory in last week's Democratic lieutenant governor primary was followed by scandalous revelations about him, quit the race tonight at the urging of party leaders.

Cohen made the tearful announcement at the Hop Haus tavern on the Far North Side.

"For the good of the people ...I will resign," he said, adding: "The last thing I ever, ever wanted to do was to put the people of Illinois in jeopardy in any way."

When Cohen became a candidate, he disclosed that a 2005 domestic battery charge against him had been dismissed. It was only after his victory Tuesday that the details became known: His girlfriend at the time, a prostitute, had accused him of holding a knife to her throat but had failed to appear in court, leading to charges being dropped.

Read more: http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/02/speaker-madigan-met-with-cohen-urged-him-to-quit.html

---

This is really good news. He won the D nomination for Lieut Gov, after severa famous journalists ignored his story, the wife beating allegations, the pulling a knife on a woman, his steroid use, and his profession.

He threatened to fuck up the entire state for the Ds.

[TheCowsCameHome]

1. That's a break.

[KingFlorez]

2. Good, he was a terrible choice

He certainly would have brought the ticket down and in this year, Democrats don't need any extra problems in states.

[jwirr]

3. That will help. Why would you even run when you had so much

muck in your past?

[LTR]

20. Sure

As a Libertarian.

:)

[jmowreader]

29. True. He should have run as a Republican

When Democrats with scandals in their past run, as soon as the scandal comes out they resign. The next place you hear about them is in the Enquirer.

Republicans with scandals in their past make statements to the press before the press gets a chance to react: "I robbed nine banks, stole 42 cars, raped fifteen women and murdered three grandmothers. After I did all that I put my trust in Jesus, and now I am ready to serve my state!" They then go on to win the election because Jesus said he was okay...

[frazzled]

4. Thank you, Jesus

So who will our brilliant Democratic Party of Illinois pick to replace him?

I think the fair thing to do would be to choose Art Turner, who's been around Springfield for decades, and got the second greatest number of votes. It will probably be Quinn's choice at this point.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. The office normally is as important as a third teat on a sterile feral boar

except when a charlatan like Blogo holds office.

Heck, we could probably leave that spot open, and no one would notice.

[frazzled]

8. Sure, until the governor gets indicted ...

C'mon, it's been happening with some regularity in the modern era. We might as well be prepared.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

10. all too true.

[murielm99]

19. Quinn will have a say,

because the governor and lieutenant governor run as a ticket.

But this is what I think will happen. This is what the party is talking about doing:

The State Democratic Central Committee will be the slating committee to choose a new candidate. The central committee is composed of two people, one male and one female, from each Congressional District. They will fill the slate and place the candidate directly on the ballot in the general election to fill the vacancy. Usually, this process is used when there is "No Candidate Filed," something we have seen on our ballots.

The slating process is governed by 10 ILCS 5/8-17. The candidate has to be nominated to fill the vacancy within 60 days of the date of the primary.

HOWEVER, there is a new wrinkle. In 2009, the General Assembly passed Public Act 096-0809, an incumbent protection act, which sucks if you live in a red area. A candidate slated by his or her party must collect petition signatures equal to the number of signatures that would have been required for placement on the primary ballot, in addition to meeting the election code's previous slating requirements. (The petition signature is the new wrinkle).The person nominated must file his or her nominating petitions within 75 days after the day of the general primary.

I have been on slating committees. One was for a Democratic county board member who resigned and had to be replaced. One was for a candidate for state senate. The law has to be followed precisely, unless we want republicans to challenge the candidate and scream to high heaven. I am not a lawyer, so what I am saying is from personal experience, and from what I am now hearing and reading about from within the state party.

Madigan rules the state central committee with an iron fist. They will choose whomever he wants. It will be a downstate person, meaning someone not from Chicago.

Notice that Cohen resigned after a discussion with Madigan. I think they paid him, i.e., reimbursed him for some or all of his campaign expenses. Cohen spent something like 2.5 million of his own money. I think, if that is what happened, they can get away with it. The new ethics legislation is weak. It restricts how much individuals and organizations can give to each candidate. But I think the party can still throw as much money at an election as they please. (This is speculation on my party, but we are talking about Illinois Democrats).

I will be waiting to see how much of my speculation comes true. We will all be learning something about the slating process, the state central committee and the new law.

[frazzled]

24. Well, Madigan had personally endorsed Turner

I don't know what that will mean for the slating process or the state central committee. I don't think the petition signatures would be a problem for any Democratic candidate, because this is a statewide position, so not dependent on specific areas. For Turner, he would already have collected those signatures anyway, to have qualified for the primary ballot.

[No Elephants]

6. He disclosed it. No one investigated further anyway. Several journalists ignored the story?

Oh, the victim mentality. Why in hell didn't the Party vet him?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. no one gave a pawnbroker the slightest chance of winning.

His radio ads, tho, were a thing of beauty. And still, no journalist followed up.

[alcibiades_mystery]

22. As soon as he won, the Chicago dem machine put a bug in the ear of the Trib and Sun-Times

And sunk the guy inside a week.

Don't let anyone tell you that machine politics doesn't run Illinois anymore.

[apnu]

28. Chicagoian here... the Machine is alive and well. (nt)

[surrealAmerican]

25. The local media was focused on the governor's race ...

... and the senate race. They payed very little attention to the other races. Newspapers have been cutting reporters in recent years for financial reasons.

[GinaMaria]

9. Good. The email can finally stop from this tool

Scott Lee Cohen hosting a job fair
Scott Lee Cohen creating more jobs....

[dalaigh lllama]

11. *happy dance*

[tomm2thumbs]

12. what a mess - glad it has moved downstream

he was in over his head, bigtime

[mopinko]

13. people, think before you vote

ferchrissakes.

[UTUSN]

14. K&R #8 for, doing the CORRECT - Democratic THING and THANKS!1 n/t

[Luciferous]

15. Good

[change_notfinetuning]

16. "He threatened to fuck up the entire state for the Ds." As if they haven't

fucked it up good enough all by themselves. With few exceptions, the entire Democratic leadership in Illinois and Chicago should be trashed.

A worse outcome than Cohen for Lt. Gov. was in the race for Obama's senate seat. David Hoffman had experience and integrity, but voters chose the guy who didn't vote until he was 28 years old (five years ago) and has as many skeletons in his closet as Cohen. Giannoulis is an easily-beatable lightweight, with ethical problems, and a slim chance, at best, of keeping the seat for the Democrats. That, in my book, is far more serious than having Cohen on Quinn's ticket.

[saigon68]

27. Come November its going to be a blood bath

[WatchWhatISay]

17. So I guess neither party is vetting anybody anymore

How did they let this happen?

It's no better than the McCain campaign nominating Palin without knowing about all her baggage.

[alcibiades_mystery]

21. It was an election

Cohen had the ONLY ads for Lt. Governor that I even saw, and they were not bad ads, in a hokey kinda way. His victory was a big surprise.

There's no doubt that the Chicago Dem machine sunk him with these stories as soon as he won. They didn't expect him to win.

[ChicagoSuz219]

18. Thank you, Scott Cohen! n/t

[AngryAmish]

23. Why did they disenfranchise me?

I think I'll step up and say I voted for this guy. I liked the ads.

That said, when a politician has to say during an interview "I swear to God I didn't try to cut her throat" then that politician is not in the best position politically.

[izzybeans]

26. his victory should be a lesson on messaging, though.

His ads touted the job fairs he organized and stated how he wanted to bring that focus on job creation to the office.

You would never know this dude was a pawn broker if you went on his ads alone. No one was talking about him. Very few people I know knew anything about him except for those ads. It seems the voters want jobs, who woulda thunk it?

[jmowreader]

30. Why are we so down on pawnbrokers all of a sudden?

They aren't any more disreputable than Citigroup, Bank of America or Wells Fargo. They're certainly more honorable than the guys selling Credit Default Swaps and Collateralized Debt Obligations. Let's face it: you can pawn a guitar once. Okay, you can get it out and put it back in, but you can't hold nineteen simultaneous pawn tickets on it. But AIG, not only did they let people take out fifteen or sixteen different tickets on one guitar, they let Paul take out a pawn ticket on Peter's guitar. That's just wrong.

The issue here is whether Scott Cohen's a crook who juices, beats his wife and who's got a ho for a girlfriend--a ho he pulls knives on, at that--and not whether he's a pawnbroker.