Carol Marin disects the Cook County Republican Chair race,
In the end, does any of this really matter?
Chicago Ald. Brian Doherty (41st) is the lone Republican on the City Council. What does the Cook County GOP do for him? “Not too much … it’s completely ineffective,” he claims. Still, he says, he’ll vote for Murphy over Peraica because he thinks she’s trying hard.
Which takes us back to Mike Feeley, who won’t be voting for Murphy. Like Doherty, Feeley is one of 80 Republican committeemen from Chicago and the suburbs who will pick the next chair of the Cook County GOP later this month.
Despite the indictment that hangs over his head, Feeley says he still takes his role as Republican committeeman seriously. He says in the last couple of days he has been pressured by unwanted calls from Murphy, her supporters and people he believes are close to Vrdolyak. He has told them to go away and leave him alone. He has decided to vote for Peraica. In doing so, he says what everybody seems to say about the Cook County Republican Party. “There’s nothing they can do for me.”
UPDATE: Mike reports in comments that Doherty can’t actually vote in the election since he is not Committeeman–Mike McCauliffe is. I’m guessing Dougherty said something to the effect that he was supporting Murphy and Marin mistook that as voting for him.
With all due respect to Carol Marin, her article contains a glaring misunderstanding of how this process works. Brian Doherty, who is quoted as saying he is going to “vote” for Muphy, is the Alderman of the 41st Ward, but not the Republican Committeeman. Only committeemen get to vote in this matter. So Doherty’s quote doesn’t really add up.