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Waukegan Mayor Vows to Bring Casino

WAUKEGAN, Illinois – As reported by the Chicago Sun-Times: "Trying to revive his city's battered economy, Waukegan Mayor Richard Hyde pledged during his campaign two years ago that he would fight to bring a gambling casino to the Lake County town of 90,000.

"Hyde, a Democrat appointed acting mayor eight months earlier, won that election in a landslide, but the casino never materialized.

"Heading into the city's Feb. 22 primary election, economic development is still a key issue, but this year even Hyde -- who is facing four Democratic challengers -- acknowledges there's little chance of Waukegan winning the state's 10th and presumably final casino license.

"…Hyde is facing two city council members, Sam Cunningham, 38, and John Balen, 81, Lake County board member Robert Sabonjian, 49, son of a former mayor, and former Waukegan library president Alex Garcilazo, 46.

"All but Sabonjian have expressed support for casino gambling in town, seeing it as a way to help the city pay for a planned $1 billion, decades-long renovation that would rebuild 400 acres downtown and redevelop decaying industrial and residential areas along the city's Lake Michigan shoreline…"

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