Wednesday, March 16, 2016

EXTRA: What next, governor?

WILSON: What will Willie run for next?
It will be interesting to see what becomes of Willie Wilson.

The African-American business executive whose wealth was self-made got the political bug in him when he ran his failed bid to become Chicago Mayor in last year’s election cycle.

SO MUCH SO that he declared himself a presidential candidate, got himself put on the Illinois ballot for the Democratic primary, and managed to take 0.3 percent of the vote in the race most people saw as being between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

Even though voters also had the option of picking Wilson or three other people for the party’s presidential nomination.

Although there were votes yet to be counted as of Wednesday morning, it seems just over 6,000 people cast ballots for Wilson – far less than the 50,000-plus of voters who thought Willie was fit to be Chicago mayor.

Not that anyone, probably even Wilson himself, ever thought he had a chance to win the Tuesday primary election. You don’t win the nomination if Illinois and South Carolina are the only states where you’re even on the ballot.

IT IS MORE about wanting to have a voice with which to express oneself on issues of personal concern. It helps that Wilson has enough funds to get himself on the ballot so as to force people to listen to him.

Personally, I’d suggest creating a weblog – it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than trying to run for electoral office.

Although it’s obvious Wilson has the itch for electoral office, and may well try to run a future political campaign. What the heck, Illinois governor is up for grabs in 2018.

Maybe Willie can dream about being a factor in what will otherwise be an ugly political campaign as Democrats go all out in their efforts to knock Bruce Rauner out of office in such an ugly fashion that the humiliation the governor feels ensures he never gets the desire to run for office again!

  -30-

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