Personal Asides:

Tonight at Roosevelt U: Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke and Republican consultant Dan Proft…Later in the Term: Frank Avila and Roseanna Pulido to Give Differing Views on Hispanic Politics to My Roosevelt U Class…Political Shootout to Feature State Senator Christine Rodogno, GOP Treasurer Candidate and Democratic Strategist Mike Noonan, Stroger Campaign Manager.

Burke-Proft.

Guest lecturer for my Roosevelt University 6 p.m. hour tonight will be Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Marie Burke. She will be talking about the role of the courts in our society. Justice Burke has an outstanding background: from originating the concept of the Special Olympics which has become an international fete celebrating disabled children…to getting her law degree as a married woman and mother at age 40…to establishing a neighborhood legal clinic on the southwest side…to serving as an expert on children in the Jim Edgar administration…to the Illinois Court of Appeals as a Justice…to service as interim chair of the National Review Board for the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops where he took control of a flabby and disruptive panel and gave impetus to an outstanding series of recommendations for reform…to a member of the highest state court. We are pleased to welcome her.

The 7 p.m. lecture will be given by a young man who in a short period of time has become one of the most highly prized strategists for the Illinois Republican party: Dan Proft. He has given counsel to a number of high visibility races in the state, having led the Republican candidate for mayor of Cicero to victory there. He is now the major consultant to the campaign of Tony Peraica for president of the Cook county board. And we’re delighted to have him. That’ s tonight at Roosevelt, 430 S. Michigan, Room 618.

Lectures are off-the-record and no one can attend other than those who have registered for the class.

Avila-Pulido.

Frank Avila, a dissident Democrat, critic of the Hispanic Democratic Organization and especially Victor Reyes…who has run unsuccessfully for office as a Democrat without Mayor Daley’s blessing…will guest lecture at my class on December 14 at 6 p.m. Also speaking will be a woman of Mexican-American heritage who has become quite a cult figure in conservative Republican politics: Roseanna Pulido, the state chairman of the Minuteman group. She has trained Minutemen to go to Arizona and California and, armed with binoculars, report illegals coming across the border. She and Avila have different takes on the issue. It should be interesting. Avila has criticized the campaigns of Jim Oberweis whereas Pulido was a key campaign operative for Oberweis’ campaign for governor last March.

Rodogno-Noonan.

Guests on my Political Shootout program next Sunday on WLS-AM (890) will be State Senator Christine Rodogno of LaGrange, the Republican nominee for State Treasurer and Mike Noonan, Democratic strategist who is now campaign manager for Todd Stroger for president of the Cook county board. Senator Rodogno is a former social worker and LaGrange Village trustee. She has been in the state senate for about a decade and has been one of the chief budget negotiators for the Republicans. She faces Alexi Giannoulias, a community banker at Broadway Bank who was nominated with the backing of both U. S. Senator Barack Obama and U. S. Rep. Jesse L. Jackson, Jr.