It was just a few weeks ago that an overly cocky Alderman Joe Moore (Chicago, 49th Ward) said that the "fat lady has not only sung, she's left the stage." He was referring to the recently sidetracked - if not derailed - challenge from challenger Don Gordon.Gordon lost to Moore in the April 17 runoff election by less than 260 votes. Gordon challenged the validity of hundreds of Moore's votes. Bloggers had pictures of Moore breaking election laws. Dozens upon dozens of witnesses have stories of the same. Then, mysteriousy, the judge in the Gordon challenge did a fast lane switch and roared down an exit ramp.
So Moore made light of the expression, "It ain't over til the fat lady sings." She may have left the stage, but it seems she might respond to powerful request for an encore.
The Chicago Tribune reported today that there is a city-wide investigation into recent aldermanic voting. According to the Trib:
Ald. Bernard Stone (50th) said Tuesday that the city's inspector general isinvestigating absentee ballots cast in the election earlier this year that returned him to the City Council for a 10th term in a probe that Stone contended "is occurring all over the city of Chicago.
"All over?" Bernie Stone, a well connected man, says so. Don Gordon has been smiling a lot lately. I mean, a lot. Now, perhaps, we know why.
The Trib continued with more of Bernie Stone: "Some of you aldermen had better be advised that [Inspector General David Hoffman] is going all over different wards in this city issuing subpoenas to various people in this city," Stone said at a meeting of the council's Budget Committee. "I didn't know whether he had authority to do that, but he's doing it."
Hoffman (photo, above left) has a reputation as a reformer and a watchdog. He was appointed as the city's Inspector General on October 25, 2005, less than two years ago. An August 5, 2007 article in the Sun-Times noted that "Two years ago, Mayor Daley asked a former federal prosecutor who specialized in hunting down street gangs to root out City Hall corruption from within."
Sing, fat lady, sing.
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