ALTHOUGH
THERE WAS one point in time when the Poshard people felt optimistic. It was in
the autumn when their operatives started spouting the word that a news
development would become public in about two weeks – one that they insisted was
so shocking and appalling that it would ensure a Poshard victory.
As
I recall, it was about two weeks later that the public became aware of that accident
involving an illicitly-licensed truck driver that resulted in the deaths of
children.
Which
later turned into a matter of Ryan’s political people accepting bribes and Ryan’s
willingness to look the other way – so long as campaign donations kept coming
in.
In
short, the first hint of the stink that later would result in Ryan having to
spend just over five years in federal prison.
NOT
THAT IT made one bit of electoral difference. Because by that point in time,
Poshard’s public perception amongst many voters was so low that there was nothing
that could have revived him.
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| Will 'dead kids' work for Preckwinkle … |
If
anything, all it did was reduced the size of the landslide by which Ryan would
have won. It may have caused many people to decide that a vote just wasn’t
worth the time to take to cast in that election cycle.
So
why am I bringing up this political history from some two decades ago?
Because
it popped into my mind when I learned Wednesday that mayoral hopeful Toni Preckwinkle
IS going to use the final five days of the election cycle to air campaign ads
meant to devastate the electoral chances of a victory by Lori Lightfoot.
THE
CAMPAIGN AD is meant to remind us of a fire on the city’s West Side – one in
which four children were killed. How is this relevant?
 |
| … any better than they did for Poshard? |
It
was during a time when Lightfoot was on the city payroll as chief of staff of
the Office of Emergency Management and Communications. Which means she was in
charge of the 911 emergency dispatch system.
Which
ultimately took the blame for the fact that firefighters were not properly sent
to the fire scene in time to make a difference. The courts called for
sanctions, particularly since they claimed city officials – including Lightfoot
– were “shockingly lax” and “cavalier” in their attitude toward addressing the
problem.
Or,
as Preckwinkle has a narrator say in her advertising spot that we’re likely to
hear a lot of in coming days, “With lives on the line, Lori Lightfoot didn’t
bring in the light, she covered up the truth.”
TONI
PRECKWINKLE IS resorting to trying to smear the blood of long-dead children on
Lightfoot in hopes that it will shock and appall so many voters from jumping on
the Lightfoot bandwagon – and perhaps shift back to supporting her desires to
be mayor.
 |
| Will voters believe allegations against Lightfoot? |
It
just seems so much like the Poshard tactic; resorting to the images of dead
children to try to make people appalled at the very idea of a “Mayor Lori”
serving at City Hall. Or course, it didn’t work for Glenn. Which is why I’m
skeptical it will serve Toni any better.
It
may shock and appall some would-be voters into not casting a ballot for
Lightfoot. But I can’t help but think that Preckwinkle has already sustained so
much damage to her public image that there’s nothing to be done to revive her
electoral chances.
If
anything, use of such a tactic may merely convince some voters that both of
these candidates are unworthy of our support. Could it make some of us wish
that Bill Daley’s mayoral campaign could have prevailed and that we were voting
for “Mayor Daley III” when our votes are tallied come Tuesday?
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