Judge sides with prosecutors in Chicago patronage chief's case

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

A federal judge on Wednesday rejected a serious legal attack against the prosecution of Mayor Daley's former patronage chief, Robert Sorich, and three others, ruling that prosecutors were well within bounds to bring the charges.

"The government's theory in this case is a frontal assault on political patronage as it has been practiced in the city of Chicago," U.S. District Judge David Coar wrote.

Defense attorneys for Sorich argued that prosecutors were stretching the law to make political hiring criminal. They argued prosecutors were in uncharted territory and effectively trying to run the City of Chicago's hiring decisions.

It appears the federal government is interested in the Chicago Way of hiring in a few politically connected neighborhoods.