In what quickly became the headline story from the results of the Illinois Primary on February 2nd, Scott Lee Cohen was nominated as the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor. This charming gentlemen spent around $2-$3 million of his own money to win the election. Here is where things get weird.
Dem Lt Gov Candidate Scott Lee Cohen
The Chicago Tribune, in writing on his victory, immediately highlighted he was charged with domestic battery. Then news came fast and furious. He was a chronic user of anabolic steroids. He was abusive to his wife and children and even went so far as to try to “force himself” on her. He held a knife to his prostitute girlfriend’s throat. As he was spending millions running for office, he was a dead beat dad falling behind on child support payments he obviously could afford. His divorce file was found and put online. Those documents were not even sealed.
This, of course, presents a huge problem for Illinois Democrats. The Lt. Governor runs independent in the Primary but in the General the Governor and Lt. Governor are paired. Governor Pat Quinn is, understandably, less than pleased. However, by law, there is no way to get rid of the Lt. Governor candidate unless that person drops out. To say the Democrats are in a state of panic is to put it mildly.
Beneath the headline grabbing story are two questions. Why did the press miss this and how did this person still manage to win a Primary?
It is not credible to believe the media did not know about this. All of these salacious tidbits are public record in court files. As stated above, they also started running this story the second Cohen was the Primary winner. The divorce records weren’t sealed and most dockets for cases are online. They knew but they sat on it.
Why? If the media snipes a candidate in the early primary campaign for items such as this, it’s maybe front page news for a day. Right now the media has got a full fledged firestorm they helped cause which they are using to sell papers. They’re broke and this is the kind of scandal the media thrives on. So much for the sainted Chicago media.
The other question is how in the world could this happen? The field of Lt. Governor for the Democrats included some high-profile names. The powerful House Speaker backed Rep. Art Turner. Several state senators also ran including Senator Ricky “Hollywood” Hendon who provided great comic relief with his radio advertisement. In the end, credible politicians were beaten by a guy who abused his wife, used drugs, and apparently tried to cut a hooker. Republicans may be tempted to laugh at this, but for a decade we couldn’t beat these guys but Mr. Slice and Dice eat their lunch. That should say something about the state of the party.
Sen. Terry Link (one of the candidates for Lt. Governor) says he warned people about these records. There doesn’t appear to be an public evidence of that save perhaps a phone call to Gov. Quinn’s campaign. In the end, no one made this public. Not the media, not his competitors and not the Republicans. The voters gave this guy the nod because he spent a few million and had yard signs up from hell and back.
There’s something seriously wrong that this got this far, but then again, this is Illinois.