February 04, 2010
Quinn's running mate says he has "no intention of stepping down"
Update by John Chase at 8:08 p.m.
While many Democratic leaders are suggesting Scott Lee Cohen consider stepping down as the party's lieutenant governor candidate U.S. Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias is calling for Cohen to exit the race.
"These are disturbing allegations," he said in a prepared statement. "Domestic abuse has no place in our society much less in public office."
UPDATE by David Heinzmann at 6:57 p.m.
Scott Lee Cohen vowed to stay in the race for lieutenant governor today, saying he has shown honesty and courage that will bolster the Democratic Party’s chances in November.
Acknowledging that he behaved badly while taking anabolic steroids in 2005 when his marriage broke up, Cohen said he understands why his past has caused a firestorm within the party. As of Thursday evening no other politicians had contacted him to ask him to step down, he said.
If they do, he won’t.
“I’m going to respond that my honesty and integrity in putting it out there is the best thing that could happen to the party," Cohen said in an interview with the Tribune, part of an effort to respond to growing calls among Democrats that he step aside and not risk dragging down Gov. Pat Quinn, his running mate in the general election.
Cohen did not deny choking his wife, as she alleged in the divorce, but said he had no recollection of it, and it actually took place before they were married.
His ex-wife, Debra York-Cohen, was with him today and said she stood by the allegations in the divorce but said his philandering and volatile behavior took place during a brief period time when he was using steroids. The allegations included him frightening their four children and threatening her verbally and physically.
“It was a short period of time, and it’s certainly not something that the people of Illinois need to be concerned with,” York-Cohen said.
UPDATED AT 6:22 p.m. with Cohen's media blitz, divorce records.
The Chicago pawnbroker who won the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor ramped up a media campaign this evening to defend himself in the face of growing pressure from party regulars to drop out as Gov. Pat Quinn’s running mate.
Quinn suggested Scott Lee Cohen should quit rather than risk dragging down the Democratic ticket in scandal over his background, including his 2005 arrest on misdemeanor domestic battery case involving an ex-girlfriend with a prostitution conviction. Other leading Illinois Democrats called on Cohen to quit, while acknowledging there may be little they can do legally to make it happen.
Cohen said he had no intention of dropping out and was the victim of false allegations. But as Cohen sought to set the record straight, with his ex-wife at his side for media interviews, the records from his 2005 divorce case portrayed a troubled marriage.
In the divorce records, Cohen’s ex-wife accused him of using illegal drugs, rages and abusive behavior, including choking her.
“Over the past year my husband has been taking injectable anabolic steroids, including but not limited to Winstrol, Cretin, and Steen, and as a result he has an erratic, explosive temper,” Cohen’s ex-wife, Debra York Cohen, said in a petition for an order of protection. She described rages at their children, his admission to several affairs, and alleged he tried to force himself on her sexually.
Cohen responded to some of the allegations in his petition to visit his children during the couple’s separation.
“Although I may have taken steroids and or performance enhancing drugs in the past I have not utilized any of these drugs in the last two weeks … Although from time to time I have screamed and yelled at my children, that is my parenting style and my prerogative. I have never abused my children, I have never hurt my children and I have never done any harm to them,” Cohen said, according to the records.
The divorce records contain a judicial order for Cohen to submit to periodic urine tests for drugs including steroids and other controlled substances. The divorce records also indicate money problems for the couple.
The record contains a Sept. 8, 2006 letter from a mortgage company demanding $23,557.26 for unpaid payments on a $650,000 mortgage for the couple's Northbrook home. The letter threatens foreclosure.
Posted by Monique Garcia, John Chase and Michelle Manchir at 12:05 p.m.; last updated at 3:37 p.m. with John Schmidt talking about 1986
The Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor issued a statement today saying he has no intention of dropping out of the race, just hours after Gov. Pat Quinn said the Chicago pawnbroker should consider stepping aside for the good of the party's ticket.
Scott Lee Cohen said he wants his ex-girlfriend to talk about her prior complaint against him, which resulted in his 2005 arrest.
Here is the statement, issued through the public relations firm that assisted his campaign.
"I have no intention of stepping down or stepping aside. When the facts come to light, after my ex-wife and ex-girlfriend speak, the people of Illinois can decide, and I will listen to them directly. I am asking my ex-wife and ex-girlfriend to come forward and to talk with the media.
There are questions, and I will provide all answers honestly and openly. I only ask for time to do the interviews. 2005 was a difficult time in my life. I was going through a divorce, and I started running with a fast group. I was in a tumultuous relationship with the woman I was dating. We had a fight, but I never touched her. She called the police, however, she never came to court, and the charges were dismissed. I realized this relationship was not healthy, I ended it, and we parted amicably."
Cohen then released a second statement: “I tried to tell everyone about this early on. I wanted to talk about all of these issues, but everyone wrote me off, and said I didn’t have a chance to win. Now that I’m the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor, the day after the election, there are questions. I am happy to answer any and all questions; I just need time to do so.”
Cohen's statements came after Quinn said today that his new running mate should consider withdrawing from the race because his background could hurt the Democratic ticket in the November general election.
Cohen "has an obligation to step aside" if his past becomes a problem, Quinn said at a news conference.
"I do believe that the person who's had these matters brought up about himself should at least have a chance to talk about them to the public, but if his explanations are unsatisfactory, and so far they have been, then he has to do the appropriate thing," Quinn said.
"Our country and our state are bigger than ourselves. The Democratic Party is bigger than me or any other candidate. If there are matters that are raised about your conduct that disqualify you from running in a proper way for an election in the fall, then the only appropriate thing is to step aside. And I think that's what we're looking at here."
Quinn did not say Cohen's name once during the hour-long news conference.
Quinn also said he has spoken with Michael Madigan, the Illinois Democratic Party chairman and House speaker, about the process for finding a new lieutenant governor nominee should Cohen step down.
"In those circumstances, then the state central committee has to come together and they have to select a replacement," Quinn said. "Any of those who are interested in vying for something will have to wait."
Quinn also was asked if knew about Cohen's problems beforehand.
"No one in my campaign staff told me anything about it and I don't think anybody knew about it, at least I didn't," Quinn said. "I had no idea of these matters and I learned reading the papers, watching TV. I consider them very, very serious and grave matters. I think any citizen would feel the same."
Quinn said it was not the job of the Democratic Party to vet Cohen, but rather the job of the voters.
While governor and lieutenant governor candidates run separately in the primary, some candidates pool resources and campaign as a team. The idea is that a governor candidate doesn't want to get stuck with an undesirable running mate in the fall. Among Democrats, neither Quinn nor Hynes took a lieutenant governor candidate under their wings. On the Republican side, governor candidate Andy McKenna teamed up with lieutenant governor candidate Matt Murphy for campaigning purposes.
Democrats might pressure Cohen to drop out, but it's doubtful that they can outright force him off the statewide ticket as state law now exists. Democratic voters elected Cohen Tuesday after spent more than $2 million of his own money on his lieutenant governor bid. Cohen bested five other candidates, including some state lawmakers.
Election attorney Burt Odelson, who worked for Adlai Stevenson III’s gubernatorial campaign in 1986 when he was paired with an acolyte of political extremist Lyndon LaRouche, said there is nothing in the election law that would allow Quinn or the Democratic Party to force Cohen off the ballot.
“The Democrats and the Republicans are locked in,” Odelson said. “The governor and the lieutenant governor are tied together.”
The only way they can be split, Odelson said, is if Cohen withdraws or Quinn withdraws and formulates a separate party, like Stevenson did in the 1986 campaign he eventually lost.
“This is a very unique situation. It’s another chapter in Chicago and Cook County and Illinois history,” Odelson said.
John Schmidt, who was one of Stevenson’s attorneys in 1986, said he finds the situation Stevenson faced 24 years ago to be very similar to the Quinn is facing today.
“Stevenson decided there was no way you run for governor and say vote for me and oh, by the way, you also should vote for this other guy,” Schmidt said. Although they looked into trying to find ways to force LaRouche follower Mark Fairchild off the ballot, they discovered they couldn’t. So Stevenson eventually decided to withdraw as the Democratic nominee and launch the Solidarity Party.
“Short of him talking Cohen into stepping down...I don’t see how you can run with him given what we’ve known,” Schmidt said. “A guy who was arrested for holding a knife to a woman’s neck?”
Any efforts to try to pass a law in the General Assembly to negate the primary results, he said, “would be unconstitutional on its face.”
“After you’ve been through a process to say we don’t like the guy who won and try to change the law? That just doesn’t work,” he said.
He said Quinn’s best defense from this hurting the Democratic ticket is for him to be clear with voters.
“There’s a lot to be said with standing up and saying either Cohen gets off the ticket or I will run as an independent,” Schmidt said.
Quinn was faced with the new crisis even as his rival, Dan Hynes, announced he was conceding the Democratic primary nomination for governor.
Cohen, a pawnbroker who was the surprise winner in the little-publicized contest among half a dozen candidates, had previously disclosed his 2005 arrest. He described it Wednesday as an argument with his drunken girlfriend and said he didn’t lay a hand on her, though she called the police and had him taken into custody.
But the official police and court records show that the woman alleged Cohen put a knife to her throat and pushed her head against the wall.
In their October 14 arrest report detailing the complaint from the 24-year-old woman, Chicago police noted they observed “mild abrasions from knife wound” on her neck. They also noted “minor scars on her hand from her trying to defend herself against the arrestee swinging the knife at her.” The report notes the woman was seen by ambulance personnel but not taken to a hospital.
The case was dropped a month later when the woman did not show up for a court date.
Cohen won in large part because his self-financed campaign ran TV commercials late in the race showing him running job fairs to help the unemployed. He only garnered 212,900 votes but it helped him defeat opponents, including state Rep. Art Turner and state Sen. Terry Link.
A little more than a year after former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s removal, the state’s Democratic powerbrokers focused much of their time, energy and money on the top tier race of governor, leaving the less-known lieutenant governor’s race to go well under the radar.
The lack of a Democratic cohesive strategy leaves the party unclear of its options for the general election.
It also adds yet another punchline on Illinois politics, which has been the focus of national jokes and derision since Blagojevich’s high-profile arrest, impeachment and indictment.
In conceding the race this morning to Quinn, Hynes was asked how he’d feel if he had won and been paired with Cohen.
“The first I learned of any of this was when I read the paper this morning,” Hynes said. “But we’re going to let that sort itself out, and figure out, you know, with more information. I think that some decisions will be made. But I’m not in a position to make those decisions, given the fact that I just learned about it this morning.”
Cohen is scheduled to appear on WTTW's "Chicago Tonight" at 7 p.m.
Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, who would have to appear on the statewide ticket this fall with Cohen, echoed Quinn's comments.
“We would agree with the governor that Mr. Cohen needs to explain himself," White said in a statement. "He needs to address these issues, and if he can’t adequately, then he should consider strongly getting out."
