IT'S a little too early for a resurrection ceremony, but the Cook County Republican party is beginning to show some signs of new life. For the first time in a long time, the party has been pushing hard for election of some serious candidates for county-wide office, including sheriff and the 1st District Illinois Court of Appeals. The cadidates are qualified and presentable and there is money and television time behind them. They also are getting help from Gov. James R. Thompson. The most visible race is for sheriff. Donald G. Mulack, an assistant in Atty. Gen. William J. Scott's office, is running against incumbent Richard Elrod. Mulack has taken a "good government" approach to the race, reminding the voters that the sheriffs office controls the Cook County Jail, which has an escape record envied only by the inmates of other institutions. And he has charged Eirod with staffing the office through patronage politics. Mulack, young, slim and sporting the kind of sincere expression that appeals to reformers — and grandmothers — has managed to put together enough money to take his campaign to television. And his spots are effective. One shows him outside the jail, with barbed wire behind him, talking about the "human misery" inside the walls and the concern of the general population outside — about frequent escapes. Mulack also has charged Elrod's staff with covering up beatings, escapes and inmate deaths by failing to report them to Springfield. To a certain extent, Mulack also has momentum going for him, since he beat the GOP endorsed candidate — long-time party figure Louis J. Kasper— in a bitter primary fight. That race was not even particularly close. But some of Mulack's assets are also liabilities. His "good government" tack, for instance, left him on bad terms with some members of his own party because he would not endorse a total patronage concept of running the department. Mulack, in fact, flatly told Republican leaders if they wanted GOP loyalists put in jobs in the sheriffs office, they had better back Kasper "because he's an expert on that." The momentum he picked up in the primary also has a negative aspect. Kasper was an aide to State's Atty. Bernard Carey at the time and is a longtime associate of former Gov. Richard B. Ogilvie. Ogilvie, especially, was a strong Kasper supporter, and Mulack's challenge and ultimate victory left a decided wedge down the center of the county GOP. That split leaves Mulack without the active support of some of the party powerhouses. Another major GOP push is for three seats on the 1st District Appeals Court. The candidates, former state Rep. Brian B. Duff, Jon R. Waltz and Calvin P. Sawyier, are running as a team. They have hired a new, energetic public relations firm and also are using television to get their message to the voters. The judicial candidates are appealing to the popular sentiment for the two-party system. They point out no Republican candidate has ever been elected to the 1st District Appeals bench established by the 1964 judicial article. They also have criticized the operations of the court's current Democratic administration. And they found a convenient handle for doing so in the recent case involving the race track bet messenger services. It's a case which also illustrates how a Chicago-based court can have an impact throughout the state. Essentially, the GOP candidates charged the case was assigned irregularly (the assignment of cases is supposed to be done by lot, but no public monitoring of the process is permitted) to a judge who eventually held it for months before ruling in favor of the services. The result was the services stayed in operation months longer than they otherwise might. Although no wrongdoing has been proven in the case, the candidates charged it gave the appearance of impropriety. On the other side of the coin. Democrats are trying to make inroads into the traditionally Republican Cook County Board seats located in the suburbs. New Trier Township Democratic Committeeman Lynn A. Williams is given the best bet — but still is regarded as a longshot. What are the odds of any of the Republicans winning? Among the factors to consider are the turnout, which promises to be very light; the concern of the Chicago Democratic "machine" about the seriousness of the challenge; and Thompson's "coattails" power, which has to be regarded as questionable. Registration has been light, and all signs, including general voter apathy about candidates on the hustings, point to a low turnout like the record set in the March primary. That might be bad news for the GOP, if the Democrats are concerned enough about this election to flex their traditional muscle in the city of Chicago. That decision depends on the way county Democratic Chairman George Dunne assesses the chances. Obviously, Dunne would not like to lose the sheriffs office and that race alone may be enough to guarantee the precinct workers will be out in force. Then there's the coattails question: Will Thompson's appeal at the top of the ticket be of any help to the GOP candidates on the county ticket? A good question, but as former Secy. of State Michael Hewlett is fond of saying, "There is no such thing as coattails in Illinois." November 1978/Illinois Issues/33
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