COOK COUNTY - Palos Park businessman Sean Morrison runs a successful international security service, but he's not happy with the amount of taxes he and others that live in Cook County pay. Morrison, 44, is focused now on challenging the only Republican on the three-member Cook County Board of Review, Dan Patlak, who he also challenged in 2010. Morrison says corruption at the BOR needs to be cleaned up and he's the person that can lead the charge.
Morrison met with Illinois Review to give his reasons for challenging his fellow Republican in the 2012 GOP primary. Whoever wins the 2012 primary will face Democrat puppetmaster Jeremiah Joyce's nephew in November 2012.
In Part 1, Morrison explained how he got into the security business, and what led to his interest in running for office. In Part 2, he's even more frank about his criticism of the current BOR, and why and how things should change.
IR: Why are you focused on the Board of Review seat, and what would you do to change things there?
IR: What has been the response to your call for BOR candidates to limit donations from attorneys that practice before the Board of Review?
IR: Many Cook County taxpayers don't understand the problem with lawyers that come before the Board of Review. The clout of law firms before the BOR cannot only dramatically save clients, but bring huge amounts of money into the firm. If a lawyer can save a client $300,000, the law firm can make $100,000 on the BOR's ruling. Such a ruling benefits the client and the law firm financially ...
IR: So would the suggestion of limiting practicing attorneys to $250 per campaign year would disallow buying favor with the BOR, and would eliminate some of the basic problems in the assessment controversy?
IR: But isn't this expectation of campaign restrictions unrealistic and isn't the practice of getting campaign donations where one can what everyone does?
IR: The idea of limiting donations also creates an extra challenge for those candidates that don't have discretionary funds to spend on campaigns. While Patlak has the incumbency, with donation limits from attorneys, you'd have a leg up. Is that fair?
Are you willing to put $100,000 of your own funds into the campaign again?
Morrison: Yes, we will definitely fund.
IR: Should ability to raise campaign dollars be based on self-funding?
IR: As to the invitation to the event you mention, there was discussion about whether or not you invited people to sponsor your event with a higher end donation. The night previous to the IR interview, at the Bremen Township GOP Candidate Forum, Morrison said Patlak lied when he suggested Morrison had opened the door to large donation donors, with no publicized restrictions based on whether or not the donations were made in connection to attorneys or law firms. Could you explain what happened Thursday night?
Morrison went on to tell why Patlak said what he said accusing his old boss Maureen Murphy of taking thousands of dollars from BOR practicing attorneys.
And then the question from IR - why not spend your money on defeating Democrats instead of a fellow Republican?
Part 3 will continue the conversation with Morrison ...
IR:
