Chicago City Wire

R. Cary Capparelli, GOP candidate for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, recently described the way Democrats select candidates as “corrupt.”

"The process to pick party Democrat candidates is corrupt and prearranged," Capparelli said in a press release. "Monies are exchanged and promises made."

"Michael Madigan sent in his crony lawyer to knock me off the ballot and lost. He resorted to spending over a half-million dollars to win the primary with an unqualified candidate that vowed to be loyal to him. I ran as the anti-Madigan candidate.”

"People are tired of high taxation caused by needless spending by Democrats.”

"First, and foremost, I am the 'anti-Democrat machine' candidate. Everything that is wrong in the city, county and state can be blamed on 'machine Democrats.' In my situation, I can do this best by identifying as a Republican. If elected, I'll represent the best interests of the people, not the elite, at the MWRD.”

The process to select Democrat candidates for judge in Cook County was most startlingly revealed by "This American Life" in its episode “Old Boys Network,” in which an insular group of Democrat party members select candidates. 

“These are the sergeants who boss around the foot soldiers of the Democratic machine. These are party officials,” the program’s host Ira Glass said. “And if you want to become a judge, you go before them and try to get your name put onto the official Democratic Party ticket on the ballot, which helps.”

“Chicago's a city that elects its judges, and there are always so many judges up for election -- dozens of names on the ballot -- too many to know who they are," Glass said. "This is one area where lots of people will just vote for whoever the party recommends. So, candidates come up before the Democratic Party machine, in what used to be literally a smoke-filled room. When indoor smoking was allowed in Chicago.”

Since they used gerrymandering to take control of the state's top court, Democrats in Chicago have had a mostly dominant influence over state politics for the past 60 years.

A Fair Maps initiative that was expected to pass in the state in 2016 but was later pulled from the ballot due to an opinion written by former Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride made that decision seem more foresighted.

Former House Speaker Michael Madigan, who has been charged with 22 counts of corruption, gave Kilbride a lot of support. He was the first justice of the state Supreme Court to lose retention, as per Kilbride's plan.

Madigan has been active this campaign season despite corruption charges.

Despite resigning from the General Assembly and as the chairman of the state’s Democrat party, and currently facing 22 counts of public corruption related to a bribery scheme and a single bribery charge in anther scheme with AT&T, Madigan, a South Side resident, has continued to impact state politics.

Madigan was reportedly seen in his previous campaign office on Chicago's southwest side, according to a recent NBC Chicago report.