The Chicago Tribune's pick in Metro East's 12th CD is former Belleville mayor Rodger Cook over Jason Plummer:
The Republican primary has its own former NFL player. Rodger Cook, 55, of St. Libory, also played for Belleville East, was captain and MVP at Illinois State University and signed as a free agent with the St. Louis Cardinals. A former police detective, he beat the (Belleville) machine in 1993 and was elected mayor. He campaigned to end free health coverage for the city's 16 part-time aldermen and made the city attorney a fixed-salary job. That track record earns him our endorsement over Jason Plummer, 29, whose family fortune helped to secure the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in 2010, and psychiatric nurse Theresa Kormos of O'Fallon.
