Scott Lee Cohen has decided to give up his bid for office less than a week after he won the Democratic Party’s nomination for the Illinois Lt. Governor’s office. The Dem Illinois Lt. Governor candidate quits the race amid a domestic-abuse scandal that came to light after the nomination. Cohen is accused of abusing his ex-wife and has also been accused of threatening an ex-girlfriend, who has previously been charged with prostitution, by holding a knife to her neck. Cohen has also admitted to steroid use in the past.
Cohen announced that he was dropping out of the race at a Chicago bar during halftime of the Super Bowl. Cohen is the owner of a cleaning supplies business as well as a pawnbroker from the South Side of Chicago. His potential running mate, Governor Pat Quinn, as well as Senator Dick Durbin and Rep. Danny Davis had all urged Cohen to drop out. Read more about Scott Lee Cohen’s colorful past, see a video where Cohen addresses the allegations against him and leave your thoughts about the decision to drop out of the race for the Illinois Lt. Governor’s office.
Cohen, faced a great deal of opposition from within his own party after the accusations of domestic-abuse were made known. Initially Cohen remained defiant amid calls for him to step aside, but decided yesterday to announce that he was no longer seeking the office.
Cohen was arrested in 2005 for Domestic Battery charges, and has been accused of failing to pay back child support and taxes. In making the announcement that he was stepping aside in the race he appears to be blaming the Democratic party for his troubles. Cohen was quoted as stating the following:
“Many people came out to support me when I announced. The Democratic Party didn’t, but many people did. This is the hardest thing that I’ve ever had to do in my life.”
The Illinois Democratic party ha set rules to deal this type of scenarios, and the new candidate must be chosen by a vote of the State central committee. It will be interesting to see who is chosen to replace Cohen. The Democratic party in Illinois has a lot of work to do to repairing their image, especially after Rod Blagojevich and the whole scandal related to President Obama’s former seat in the United States Senate.
So, Scott Lee Cohen joins the list of disgraced Illinois politicians that have made a name for themselves for all the wrong reasons. Cohen will be known as the Dem. Illinois Lt. Governor candidate who quits the race over a domestic-abuse scandal. So what do you think? Should Cohen have accepted the nomination, or should he have simply not ran in the first place. I just don’t understand what’s going on in Chicago. It will be interesting to see who will step in and seek the party’s nomination for Lt. Governor now that Scott Lee Cohen has stepped won and is out of the race. What do you think? Should he have gotten out of the race sooner, or should he have ran in the first place? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
February 11th, 2010 at 10:16 am
I believe Cohen should have stayed in the race. What happened to Scott Cohen at the hands of the party bosses in Illinois is not only alien to American democracy, but it is in deed hostile to the basic idea of government by consent of the people. Lincoln’s words in the Gettyburg address refering to the possibility that America could witness the end of government of, for, and by the people are upon us now, in a most compelling way, it ain’t about rhetoric anymore…
Another reason I’d like to have seen Cohen stay in the Lt governor’s race is because he’s not a lawyer, his occupational profile as a pawnbroker in my view fits with the lives and experiences of everyday people, people not tettered to the idea that the government & the professional classes should manage our lives, from our dinner plates to our coffins. The current administration’s ongoing project of takingover the American economy flourishes on Washington’s notion of “too big to fail”, big bloated government enchroachments, nannying down the people’s freedom with choking taxes & police state regulations…. Whereas the model of the pawnbroker, is regular people, about self-reliance, people creatively defining their problems & solutions according to principles of free-market, private-property and personal responsibility.
For the record I’m not a democrat, and frankly had never heard of Scott Cohen until this atrocious soviet-assault on my freedom as an American.
V. Varnado
Oak Park, IL