From the Sun-Times:

Who needs voting shenanigans when you have over-the-top hysteria?

November 9, 2006
BY MARK BROWN Sun-Times Columnist
My favorite election-night moment may have been in the wee hours of Wednesday morning when Todd Stroger campaign manager Mike Noonan went before reporters outside Cook County Clerk David Orr's office to advance the argument that the latest totals showed it was no longer feasible to believe Tony Peraica could still win.

His reasoning was sound, as would later be proven, but with the Cook County suburban vote still only half counted, his approach did not sit well with Peraica supporters, previously whipped into a frenzy by their candidate's allegations of election shenanigans. They crowded around Noonan with campaign signs to try to squeeze into the television picture.

As he was being jostled, Noonan suddenly spun around and barked: "Just don't touch the hair, OK?"

Then he turned back to the cameras, broke into a big smile and laughed before continuing his spiel, the tension in the cramped space significantly defused.

This was typical of the bizarre political guerrilla theater that erupted after midnight Tuesday, when most of you were probably safely asleep in your beds.

It was only then that Peraica angrily induced his supporters, on hand for a hoped-for victory celebration at the Inter-Continental Hotel on Michigan Avenue, to march to Orr's offices at 69 W. Washington to demand an explanation of the glitches that had resulted in fewer than half of suburban precincts reporting their vote totals by that hour.

They actually did march en masse, some 100 to 150 strong, through the otherwise mostly deserted downtown streets.

Watching them move along Dearborn Street in the dark, a television camera light or two bobbing up and down so as to give the appearance that some were carrying torches, more than one of us found it reminiscent of a movie where the villagers storm the castle with pitchforks intending to slay the monster.

Things getting out of hand
After arriving at the County Building at 69 W. Washington, Peraica went immediately to the basement, where workers from the clerk's office were receiving boxes of election materials from suburban precincts.

Peraica began interrogating one of the employees, demanding, "What is going on here? How do we know the ballots have not been tampered with?"

His supporters, some of whom appeared to have been over-served during the earlier partying, crowded around and egged him on, the situation on the verge of getting out of hand.

After a while, Peraica seemed to get the message that he was picking on the wrong person and headed for a freight elevator to go upstairs to the clerk's office.

But security guards for the county would not allow him upstairs, nor any of the news media members following him, and blocked the elevator doors from closing. This was odd because there were already many reporters and photographers upstairs in the clerk's office, as well as Noonan with his contingent from the Stroger campaign.

I learned the latter fact after I managed to jump on another elevator while the security guards weren't looking.

Unfortunately, that caused me to miss out on some of the confrontations that later ensued between Peraica supporters and individuals attempting to deliver the equipment carrying the vote totals. There were allegations from the Peraica camp that the arriving boxes were not properly sealed and allegations from Orr that "hooligans" (re: the Peraica folks) were tearing the boxes open and also had broken an elevator.

Peraica, who eventually got upstairs, said he never saw any of these confrontations either. He blamed the arrest of one of his supporters, former professional boxer Johnny Lira, on an "overzealous" police officer.

Spoiling for a fight
While Peraica had every right to be angry about the performance of the clerk's office and the right to be present with a competent team to oversee the returns and demand answers, there was no need for the over-the-top hysteria that nearly created a mini-riot. You don't call out a group of people who have been drinking for hours to help you solve a problem unless you're spoiling for a fight.

It was a foolish, ill-advised performance on Peraica's part, one that left more than a few people who voted for him feeling less disappointed by his loss.

I'm on record here as not being a big fan of new Cook County Board President-elect Todd Stroger, but we certainly benefitted that night from his laid-back style.

Luckily, just before Peraica went ballistic, Stroger had calmly informed his supporters that he was going to get some sleep and would confidently await the outcome of the contest when he woke up in the morning.

If he would have called out his own troops to march on the clerk's office the way Peraica had, it could have been disastrous.

As it turned out, Stroger never made it to bed. He said he got too wound up watching the craziness on live television.

By the time I pulled out at 2:20 a.m., dozens of police had arrived, taken over the lobby of 69 W. Washington and lined a path from the street to enable the safe delivery of the election equipment. Peraica's crew and a smattering of Stroger backers milled around, hurling taunts at each other.

I went home, secure again in the knowledge that nobody has more interesting elections than we do in Chicago.