Talk about burying the lede...

The top story in the latest edition of The Rock River Times, a weekly newspaper here in RascalLand, concerns the competition among four local lawyers for the appointment to succeed Paul Logli as Winnebago County state's attorney.

Logli, who is vacating the office to accept an appointment to a local judgeship, had suggested that the County Board pick his longtime No. 2 man, Chuck Prorok, to serve out the remainder of his term. But Board Chairman Scott Christiansen (right) decided instead to go with Phil Nicolosi, and the choice is expected to be ratified by the full board on Thursday night.

The story in The Times, which is characteristically overwritten and includes some gratuitous Mafia-baiting of the Italian-American Nicolosi, doesn't get to the most interesting passage until about the umpteenth paragraph:

Nicolosi’s brother Paul is president and CEO of The Buckley Companies, LLC (formerly Principal Group). Christiansen’s D-2 campaign disclosure reports show $31,400 in contributions and loans from Buckley to the chairman’s campaign. A third of the $15,000 in loans was forgiven...The Rock River Times asked Christiansen if Buckley’s contributions and forgiven loans were a factor in making his appointment. “No, absolutely not,” Christiansen responded.

One can imagine that many readers moved on to other stuff before learning that Christiansen chose the brother of a financial benefactor rather than the more experienced longtime assistant to the incumbent state's attorney.

And one wonders how much public attention this angle will get before the full County Board decides whether to ratify Christiansen's choice.

The Rascal told you so

More than a month ago, I predicted here that Winnebago County State's Attorney Paul Logli (right), a Republican, would be appointed by Illinois Supreme Court Justice Bob Thomas, another Republican, to a Circuit Court judgeship vacated by Gerald Grubb, yet another Republican.

I further predicted that Logli's deputy state's attorney, Republican Chuck Prorok, would be appointed his successor by the Republican-controlled County Board.

Well, the Rockford Register Star reported today that Logli's judicial appointment by the high court has come through and that he's recommending Prorok as his successor.

So, now Logli gets to run in next year's election as an incumbent judge, and Prorok likely will be able to run as an incumbent state's attorney. Incumbency, of course, traditionally has its electoral advantages.

Such are the politics of the criminal justice system in Winnebago County.

By the way, a reader of the Rockford Rascal has passed along this link to a piece about Logli and law school Professor Alan Hirsch exchanging snarky letters in the Los Angeles Times last year over the issue of prosecutorial misconduct in general and in the alleged Duke University rape case in particular.

Mike Nifong, the prosecutor in the Duke case, has since been disbarred for unethical conduct.

This is almost funny

A guy writes a letter to the Rockford Register Star accusing our local prosecutor of being crooked (while offering not a hint of evidence), and then the paper's Web site posts a comment from a reader in which we learn that the letter writer has an arrest record, which perhaps explains the guy's disdain for the prosecutor.

In the Internet age, a person with a shady background should be careful about whom he publicly disparages.

Another backdoor arrangement?

The Rockford Register Star reports today that Winnebago County State's Attorney Paul Logli, a Republican, will not seek re-election to that post next year and likely will run for a circuit judgeship.

The paper also says Circuit Judge Gerald Grubb, another Republican, will retire on Aug. 1 and will be replaced by an appointment made by Illinois Supreme Court Justice Bob Thomas, yet another Republican.

The paper further reports that Deputy State's Attorney Chuck Prorok, a Republican, is interested in seeking election as Logli's successor.

You can see where this is going, right? The stage would seem to be set for the appointment of Logli to Grubb's job as judge and the appointment of Prorok to Logli's job as state's attorney. That way, the two of them can run as incumbents in next year's election. Incumbents, of course, almost always have a great advantage at the ballot box.

This kind of thing is called backdooring. It's an arrangement whereby a person fills an elected post by political appointment rather than by election and then presents him- or herself to the voters bearing the title of the office (as in Judge Paul Logli, if that's what happens in this case).

Stuff like this is a Republican tradition in Winnebago County politics, especially with respect to judgeships and the state's attorney's office. It happened on several occasions in the 1970s and '80s. Indeed, it was by appointment, not election, that Logli first became state's attorney in 1986.