Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran Crosses Party Lines to Endorse Michael Waller for State's Attorney

Democratic Sheriff Mark C. Curran, Jr. (left) will announce on Wednesday that he will endorse incumbent Lake County State's Attorney Michael Waller (right of Curran), a Republican, in the November election. While this announcement will no doubt take the MSM somewhat by surprise, it had been rumored for some time by people in the know up here in Lake County.

Curran's office announced a press conference to be held tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. The short release is as follows:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

September 9, 2008

Contact: Sheriff Mark Curran

Phone: 847-721-1869

Lake County, Illinois

Sheriff Mark C. Curran, Jr. to Endorse Waller for States Attorney
Media Conference Alert

Tomorrow (Wednesday, September 10), Sheriff Mark Curran will hold a brief media conference to discuss his endorsement of Lake County States Attorney Michael Waller for re-election this November.

The conference will take place at 11:00 AM tomorrow morning in front of Sheriff Curran’s former law office located at the southeast corner of Grand Avenue and West Street in Waukegan. (235 N. West Street)



Curran is expected to say that Mike Waller has spent 35 years serving the Lake County legal community in an exemplary manner and he has earned the respect and votes of the citizens of Lake County. Curran will likely also note that Waller has received numerous other professional endorsements.

Curran recently endorsed a fellow Democrat for circuit court clerk, so he appears to be a classic north shore ticket splitter, but deserves a lot of credit for supporting Waller and bucking not only the party line, but also Democratic Party Chairman Terry Link. Whether the thumb-in-the-eye to Link was made easier by the damage to Link's political stature caused by the recent indictment and arrest of two of his political workers who passed nomination petitions for him, well, only Curran can answer that question. Interestingly, the two indicted campaign workers also circulated petitions for Waller's opponent, Michael Jacobs, who Waller will face for the second time in the November election. (Hey, Mikey, does Barack know you're using his picture on your website? I hear that's a real no-no without official permission...) Don't worry, though, we'll have more on Mr. Jacobs sometime very soon.

Getting back to Curran, he recently made many headlines with his self-incarceration in the Lake County Jail for a week to conduct some first-hand research into jail conditions. While this was widely criticized as a political stunt, we gave him the benefit of the doubt, and it appears the media attention he garnered is likely to help bring improvements to jail conditions.

Michael Waller was a Lake County Assistant State's Attorney from 1973 to 1979. From 1979 to 1986, he was in the private practice of law in Waukegan. In 1986 he returned to the Lake County State's Attorneys Office as Chief Deputy. Mr. Waller was appointed State's Attorney of Lake County in 1990. He was elected State's Attorney in 1992, re-elected in 1996, 2000 and 2004. See his official bio here.