When Kathy Posner decided to support independent Scott Lee Cohen for governor, she held a Meet and Greet at her magnificent Mag Mile condo, which I decided to check out. I was curious why Posner, who I know is a staunch Republican, would support an independent. Besides that, I was pretty sure I knew Cohen’s older brother, Randy, from my disco dancing days at Frankenstein’s — a Far North Side bar.

As I listened to Cohen, turns out he has some good ideas. And you have to hand it to him, he came out of nowhere basically and won the lieutenant governor nomination. I not only knew Cohen’s brother, I also knew his fiancée, Karen Berman Reisman, from working at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange once upon a time.

Cohen’s no angel as we know, but I’m a firm believer that people can change, and in second chances. So he had my ear at Posner’s party a couple of weeks ago.

Cohen, 45, wants to eliminate wastefulness, spending and mismanagement in state government, which I definitely like. He has experience as a successful small businessman managing budgets, departments and people, and wants to bring businesses back to Illinois, thus putting people back to work.

And I whole-heartedly agree with his education stance, that we need to transform our current system and have high schools teach hands-on skills. He’s right, not everyone wants to be a doctor. They may want to be in the trades, such as a plumber, electrician or truck driver.

“We need to implement those learning experiences and prepare our children to go out and receive and maintain a job,” said Cohen. He believes Illinois should raise its drop-out age from 16 to 18, and created a scholarship for students wanting to pursue a career in law enforcement.

Gov. Pat Quinn has cut important funding to our schools/ programs, and increased class sizes. All of that needs to be restored immediately as this is not the place to cut, Cohen said. “Education may be expensive but ignorance is much more costly,” Cohen said. Truer words were never spoken as far as I’m concerned.

Cohen, who lives around North Avenue and Ashland, has other interesting ideas about the state’s economy and budget, ones that actually sound doable. Cohen believes he won the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor in February, “fair and square,” but was forced off the ticket after receiving more than 214,000 votes and some death threats because he wasn’t “a ‘Good old Boy,’ and wasn’t willing to partake in their backdoor deals.

November will be here before we know it, and Cohen definitely gave me food for thought. I understand why Posner is changing parties on this. Not being too crazy about the other candidates, maybe I too should vote for the dapper Jewish guy with decent ideas whose brother and fiancée I know.

After all, this is Chicago. And that’s’ the way we do it here, isn’t it?

A Golden night The North Dearborn Association was chosen by local Raymi Productions as its annual nonprofit beneficiary from Taste of the Gold Coast, from 6 to 9 p.m., Aug. 26, at Sutton Place Hotel, 21 E. Bellevue St. Tix are $60 advance/$75 door for all you can eat goodies from Gold Coast restaurants, entertainment, silent auction.

Jonah and the weatherman Anyone catch adorable Jonah Malec-Mckenna on FOX morning news last week? Jonah, son of Dept. Of Environment Commissioner Suzanne Malec-McKenna, was there with mom and ended up doing the morning weather. Sweet.

---

By Informed Voter from South Loop
Posted: 08/24/2010 2:54 PM

Illinois voters do have another choice besides Quinn, Brady and a pawn shop owner who uses steroids and dates prostitutes. Rich Whitney (http://www.whitneyforgov.org/) is a viable candidate currently polling 11% of the vote (http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Release_IL_818.pdf). If you are not voting for Quinn or Brady, then vote for Rich!

---

By a voter
Posted: 08/23/2010 8:05 PM

Wow.. Scott lee Cohen is the most amazing person in the world and on November 2nd I'm rooting for SCOTT LEE COHEN! PS. You guys should all vote for him too!

---

By Dan Umansky from Gurnee
Posted: 08/23/2010 10:28 AM

That for sure is NOT Karen Berman Reisman in the photo with Scott Lee Cohen. The picture caption should be corrected.

---

By New Illinois from Edgewater
Posted: 08/23/2010 10:12 AM

Scott is a straight forward guy and speaks the truth. I'm over the party politics in this state. Look where it's gotten us! Come on! Scott has my vote!

---

By Informed Voter from South Loop
Posted: 08/19/2010 10:19 AM

Oh, he is against wastefulness and mismanagement in state government? Huh. That is a novel idea. Everyone is against waste and mismanagement in government. The problem is actually finding this ubiquitous "waste" once someone is elected. The easy pickings are gone; at this point what is one person's "waste" is another person's good public policy. What exactly would you like to see cut? We need details, not broad statements. A journalist should know this or are you more of a blogger?