It is going to be interesting to see the way that various sides try to take over the way we remember the filling of a vacancy in the City Council.
At stake is the seat that was abandoned when Billy Ocasio gave up the title of “alderman” to be a high-ranking aide to Gov. Pat Quinn.
UNDER EXISTING PROCEDURES, Mayor Richard M. Daley gets to pick the replacement alderman who will finish out the remainder of Ocasio’s term (which ran through 2011). Much has been made of how so many of the current aldermen owe their initial appointment to Daley that he “owns” them.
But in the case of Ocasio’s replacement, it was threatening to become an outspoken partisan political battle.
But this one would not have been “Democrat” versus “Republican.” It would have been “gay” versus “straight,” or perhaps “gay” versus “religious.”
For Ocasio originally said he wanted Daley to pick as his replacement the Rev. Wilfredo DeJesùs. The reverend has developed a reputation as an activist for the interests of the growing Latino population in Chicago (which may account for up to one-third of the overall city population by the year 2020).
HIS ACTIONS AND attitudes largely are in line with what could be considered the mainstream of the Democratic Party, or even liberal interests, EXCEPT …
The reverend also happens to share the religious interpretations of the Bible that are often used to look down on homosexuality. There are those who think he’s liberal to everyone, except gay people.
As a result, gay rights activists were gunning for a fight.
They were preparing to go all-out to let Daley know that if he went along with Ocasio’s preference and gave a City Council seat to DeJesùs, they would be prepared to take it out on him with a political backlash.
WHO KNOWS HOW ugly things could have gotten?
On that point, we’re never going to know. Because this week, Ocasio said he now would prefer if the mayor would pick his wife, Veronica, to get the seat. Several Latino political people are willing to praise this move, claiming she is experienced in her own right (she is an aide to Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.)
That will stir up the anger of the good-government types, who will claim that nepotism is at work and that the last thing we ought to get in Chicago government is yet another political family.
But I can easily envision Daley taking the same attitude that his father did whenever good government types would complain. “How many trees do they plant?” he would ask, implying he contributed to the public good and they did not.
THE GAY THING, however, could have made him look intolerant, while also having the potential to stick and alter his legacy (which he’d like to think is little more than urban beautification).
In the end, the gay activists “won.” DeJesùs will not be an alderman. They may even gloat a bit. I’m sure activists will always try to portray this moment as a victory that shows their growing political influence. But I couldn’t help but notice the way that DeJesus is trying to deny those gay activists any sense that they achieved a political victory at his expense.
The official reasoning given by Ocasio for his change in support (as reported by the Chicago Tribune) is that DeJesùs does not live in the 26th Ward.
That would be a legitimate reason for not giving him the political appointment. But I don’t believe the reasoning given that Ocasio says he did not realize DeJesùs really lived in the neighboring 31st Ward.
EITHER OCASIO IS stretching the truth, or he is truly clueless if he overlooked a detail such as that.
Part of this issue is that many political people have a loose interpretation of residency when it comes to representing a particular community. There are always the instances where someone is prepared to move into an area – if they get a political appointment.
There also are the cases of people who have multiple addresses, which allows one to figure out later which one he needs to use to accept a political appointment.
The latter appears to be the means used by DeJesùs to justify the confusion about his own residency – he says he owns a plot of land in the 26th Ward and is in the process of having a home built upon it.
SO MAYBE HE someday will be a fully legitimate resident of the 26th Ward (the land that once gave us politicos like Vito Marzullo, who upon seeing how Richard J. Daley and the Chicago delegation were treated at the 1972 Democratic National Convention got revenge against national Democrats by turning out his ward in droves for GOP opponent Richard Nixon). For the time being, he isn’t.
The ward may even be better off, as Daley aides say the mayor is considering several people for the aldermanic replacement pick.
It just seems too convenient for DeJesùs to suddenly realize that his residency was an issue. It really seems like he doesn’t want his political opposition to be able to take credit for his failure to get the post.
Which, in the end, makes this an issue of whose political spin will prevail.
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTES: Billy Ocasio’s departure from the City Council and the process of replacing (http://chicagoargus.blogspot.com/2009/05/aldermans-career-path-in-reverse.html) him is turning out to be more drawn out than usual.
The Rev. Wilfredo DeJesùs was “mainstream” Democrat enough to meet with Barack Obama (http://www.nhclc.org/about/news/mar2008_1.html) while leading his own church (http://www.mynewlife.org/Staff.aspx?staff_id=9363) near Humboldt Park.
At stake is the seat that was abandoned when Billy Ocasio gave up the title of “alderman” to be a high-ranking aide to Gov. Pat Quinn.
UNDER EXISTING PROCEDURES, Mayor Richard M. Daley gets to pick the replacement alderman who will finish out the remainder of Ocasio’s term (which ran through 2011). Much has been made of how so many of the current aldermen owe their initial appointment to Daley that he “owns” them.
But in the case of Ocasio’s replacement, it was threatening to become an outspoken partisan political battle.
But this one would not have been “Democrat” versus “Republican.” It would have been “gay” versus “straight,” or perhaps “gay” versus “religious.”
For Ocasio originally said he wanted Daley to pick as his replacement the Rev. Wilfredo DeJesùs. The reverend has developed a reputation as an activist for the interests of the growing Latino population in Chicago (which may account for up to one-third of the overall city population by the year 2020).
HIS ACTIONS AND attitudes largely are in line with what could be considered the mainstream of the Democratic Party, or even liberal interests, EXCEPT …
The reverend also happens to share the religious interpretations of the Bible that are often used to look down on homosexuality. There are those who think he’s liberal to everyone, except gay people.
As a result, gay rights activists were gunning for a fight.
They were preparing to go all-out to let Daley know that if he went along with Ocasio’s preference and gave a City Council seat to DeJesùs, they would be prepared to take it out on him with a political backlash.
WHO KNOWS HOW ugly things could have gotten?
On that point, we’re never going to know. Because this week, Ocasio said he now would prefer if the mayor would pick his wife, Veronica, to get the seat. Several Latino political people are willing to praise this move, claiming she is experienced in her own right (she is an aide to Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.)
That will stir up the anger of the good-government types, who will claim that nepotism is at work and that the last thing we ought to get in Chicago government is yet another political family.
But I can easily envision Daley taking the same attitude that his father did whenever good government types would complain. “How many trees do they plant?” he would ask, implying he contributed to the public good and they did not.
THE GAY THING, however, could have made him look intolerant, while also having the potential to stick and alter his legacy (which he’d like to think is little more than urban beautification).
In the end, the gay activists “won.” DeJesùs will not be an alderman. They may even gloat a bit. I’m sure activists will always try to portray this moment as a victory that shows their growing political influence. But I couldn’t help but notice the way that DeJesus is trying to deny those gay activists any sense that they achieved a political victory at his expense.
The official reasoning given by Ocasio for his change in support (as reported by the Chicago Tribune) is that DeJesùs does not live in the 26th Ward.
That would be a legitimate reason for not giving him the political appointment. But I don’t believe the reasoning given that Ocasio says he did not realize DeJesùs really lived in the neighboring 31st Ward.
EITHER OCASIO IS stretching the truth, or he is truly clueless if he overlooked a detail such as that.
Part of this issue is that many political people have a loose interpretation of residency when it comes to representing a particular community. There are always the instances where someone is prepared to move into an area – if they get a political appointment.
There also are the cases of people who have multiple addresses, which allows one to figure out later which one he needs to use to accept a political appointment.
The latter appears to be the means used by DeJesùs to justify the confusion about his own residency – he says he owns a plot of land in the 26th Ward and is in the process of having a home built upon it.
SO MAYBE HE someday will be a fully legitimate resident of the 26th Ward (the land that once gave us politicos like Vito Marzullo, who upon seeing how Richard J. Daley and the Chicago delegation were treated at the 1972 Democratic National Convention got revenge against national Democrats by turning out his ward in droves for GOP opponent Richard Nixon). For the time being, he isn’t.
The ward may even be better off, as Daley aides say the mayor is considering several people for the aldermanic replacement pick.
It just seems too convenient for DeJesùs to suddenly realize that his residency was an issue. It really seems like he doesn’t want his political opposition to be able to take credit for his failure to get the post.
Which, in the end, makes this an issue of whose political spin will prevail.
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTES: Billy Ocasio’s departure from the City Council and the process of replacing (http://chicagoargus.blogspot.com/2009/05/aldermans-career-path-in-reverse.html) him is turning out to be more drawn out than usual.
The Rev. Wilfredo DeJesùs was “mainstream” Democrat enough to meet with Barack Obama (http://www.nhclc.org/about/news/mar2008_1.html) while leading his own church (http://www.mynewlife.org/Staff.aspx?staff_id=9363) near Humboldt Park.
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