Grande dame trio in charge of Chicago – now THERE’S a historic first

The Associated Press billed Monday’s inaugural as a “first black woman” being sworn in as mayor, while other news entities found ways to work either “gay” or “lesbian” into the headlines so as to justify the use of the word “historic.”

LIGHTFOOT: No. 55 in Chicago history

Yet the intriguing aspect that I think truly justifies considering this date historic, rather than just another political hack put into place, is the composition of our city government.

AS IN THE fact that our city’s mayor, treasurer and clerk are not only all women, but not quite so Anglo-oriented as people once would have thought possible.

We have, aside from Lightfoot as mayor, Anna Valencia as city clerk and Melissa Conyears-Ervin as city treasurer. As in an African-American woman, a Mexican-American woman and another African-American woman – to be specific.

The “old boys network” at City Hall is most definitely a thing of the past.

Unless they’re now going to be convening in that legendary (and most-definitely cliched) “smoke-filled room” and complaining in some 21^st Century version of the “He-Man Woman Hater’s Club” (remember the old Our Gang film shorts that continued to air for decades to come along with “The Three Stooges?).

VALENCIA: Getting clerk term in own right

FOR THE NEXT four years, it will be the women in charge around City Hall. Instead of the old variation of what was once considered diversity in city leadership – various ethnicities along the lines of the old New York political “Three I’s” structure (an Irishman, an Italian and someone of Israel – as in Jewish).

Not that it’s a total change. For in the case of Valencia, she already was Chicago city clerk. Her post was considered one belonging to Latinos (she’s of Mexican-American ethnic origins).

She took over the office when Susana Mendoza gave up the clerk’s post to become Illinois state comptroller in 2017, finishing up her city clerk term. The significance of this year’s municipal elections is that Valencia managed to win a four-year term as clerk in her own right.

 

CONYEARS-ERVIN: Returning to Chicago

Making her potentially the city government official with whom the typical city resident will have contact. It will be her name printed on all those city stickers that motorists are required to purchase if they wish to avoid being constantly ticketed by police while driving their cars around the city.

WHILE CONYEARS-ERVIN IS the one life-long resident of Chicago amongst the trio. Born on the South Side and raised on the West (the Austin neighborhood, to be exact), she was a member of the Illinois House of Representatives.

Until she gave up her Springfield-based post to become a part of the city political structure proper. As opposed to Mendoza, who gave up her city post to become a part of the Statehouse-based Illinois political structure.

Conyears-Ervin will be in charge of the city entity that manages municipal monies and investments, along with pension funds for city employees and the Chicago Teachers Union.

Which will put her right in the middle of the financial morass that will wind up preoccupying much of Lightfoot’s time and attention. Lori Lightfoot may well get the blame (or praise) for whatever becomes of Chicago’s financial situation. But Conyears-Ervin may well wind up being the person who will suffer severe headaches trying to figure out the convoluted fiscal mess and what (if anything) can be done to fix it.

VALENCIA HAD THE easiest path to election – since she managed to get all her opponents knocked off the ballot. She ran unopposed. While Conyears-Ervin had to beat now-former alderman Amaya Pawar – who if he had won the April 2 run-off would have been the first Indian-American citywide official.

PAWAR: Historic in own right, or standing in way?

Although his victory would have been perceived as screwing up the grande dame scenario of female leadership at the top of Chicago. Which is what we’ll see through the spring of 2023.

I do find one aspect intriguing in that there are those of Chicago who insist one has to be native-born and raised to really belong here. But in the case of Lightfoot of Massillon, Ohio and Valencia of Granite City, Ill. (where the nearest big city is St. Louis), it would seem we’ve handed over our city’s leadership to outsiders.

Or at the very least, to people who came to Chicago later in life – and came to realize how wonderful the city could be, to the point where they’re not likely to want to leave.

  -30-

Dem ‘top of the ticket’ that 99 percent of voters likely know nothing about

The jokes already are starting up about gubernatorial hopeful Ameya Pawar’s choice for a lieutenant governor running mate – he picked a mayor from the southernmost tip of Illinois.

 

PAWAR: Went far beyond Sout' Side for running mate

Which certainly gives a geographical sense of balance; an alderman from the 47^th Ward up on the Northwest Side of the city and a mayor from the town where both Kentucky and Missouri lie on the other side of the rivers that create Cairo’s location.

BUT JUST AS most people don’t have a clue who Pawar is (the first Indian-American individual to serve in the City Council), I suspect most are going to be equally clueless about Tyrone Coleman – who is in his second term as Cairo mayor and also cites that he used to be a full-time Baptist minister (he's now an interim minister of a different congregation) and is founder of a community organization that serves young people as being amongst his credentials.

Although the Internet already is buzzing with the snide remarks of some who point out that Coleman is one of those African-American individuals who cites his religious faith as justification for snubbing (to put it mildly) gay people.

Which could be a factor that tanks this particular ticket amongst the kinds of people who vote in Democratic primaries. Although I’m sure others will look at this non-white ticket and be skeptical of its chances for succeeding.

It will be interesting to see just how many people do wind up casting votes for Pawar/Coleman – since I’m not kidding when I say that many would-be voters are not aware of the pair, who had their first public appearance Tuesday night at the German/American Cultural Center near Pawar’s home neighborhood.

 

Will we get a Coleman/Stratton ...

IT SEEMS THAT many people are thinking of this as the J.B. Pritzker/Chris Kennedy campaign, with those aware enough to want to have a third option focusing their attention of Daniel Biss – the one-time math teacher from Evanston who serves in the General Assembly and is willing to openly criticize Dem leadership.

Which could be the reason that Pawar felt compelled to publicly name a running mate. It creates the impression that his campaign has something resembling a full structure and ought to be taken seriously.

Compared to everybody else except for Pritzker, who as of yet have not paired up with anyone for the second spot within Illinois government.

 

... debate for lieutenant governor?

Biss’ big move for Tuesday was to announce his “The Road Forward” tour that is meant to be a 2,000 mile trip across the state so he can meet with people everywhere.

A NICE GESTURE, to be sure. But there are those same snide Internet commenters who are saying that Pawar has just one-upped Biss and shown himself to be the guy whom voters ought to focus their attention upon if they absolutely can’t stomach the thought of voting for either Kennedy or Pritzker.

Could this be what gives Pawar’s campaign chances a jolt of attention – even if just for a few days?

He is the guy who has been going about this campaign continuously offering up what he calls his own “New Deal” of ways to improve the quality of life in Illinois. Although I really doubt anybody thinks he’s the Second Coming of FDR.

They’re probably not thinking of him much at all. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn if down in the land of Southern Illinois, Tuesday’s announcement by Pawar about Coleman was the first time they ever acknowledged his existence.

BUT THEN AGAIN, the fact that Pawar may be able to take the majority of votes in Cairo may not mean much. Because Cairo is a shrinking community – largely due to the historic racial hang-ups of area residents.

 

BISS: Is he now lagging behind Pawar?

The one-time city of some 20,000 people had, in 2016, an estimated population of 2,359 – with 69.62 percent of its population being African-American. Much of the white population of Southern Illinois fled the city long ago and is content to let it rot – similar to the attitudes felt by some Chicagoans toward select South and West side neighborhoods.

So maybe Coleman has a life experience (he was born-and-raised in Cairo, left for 10 years to serve in the military, and says he was shocked by how decrepit his home city had become during his absence) that some in Chicago can identify with.

For those of you not quite sure of Cairo's location

At the very least, Chicagoans may finally figure out the local pronunciation of the municipality named for the Egyptian city on the River Nile. Because it sure ain’t “KY-ro.”

  -30-

Gubernatorial cash flow for '18 election cycle creates gap bordering on obscene

Democratic gubernatorial hopeful J.B. Pritzker comes from a wealthy family (Hyatt Hotels, among other sources of income). He’s so wealthy that he can afford to put in at least $7 million of his own money into operating a campaign for higher office.
 

GRIFFIN: Trump bucks, w/o the ego?

Yet in light of the modern-day realities of electoral politics, that last sentence is sure to cause some people to snicker.

SEVEN MILLION??!? What a joke. What a pauper. Why doesn’t he just give up now?

Because let’s not forget that Pritzker, assuming he’s able to get the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor in the 2018 election cycle, would be running against incumbent Gov. Bruce Rauner.

He being the guy who might as well have self-funded his 2014 election bid with his own personal wealth from having worked as a venture capitalist. And he being the guy who has said he can spend some $50 million of his own money on his ’18 re-election.

That figure became even more bloated this week when it became publicly known that Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, plans to put up some $20 million of his own money to support Rauner’s re-election desires.

THEORETICALLY, THAT MAKES the obscenely wealthy-in-his-own-right Pritzker the guy who’s going to get outspent by at least a 10-1 ratio.

Although it should be noted that much of the $50 million that Rauner plans to spend is money he will ration out to various campaigns of people wishing to serve in the Illinois General Assembly – provided they’re willing to pledge their loyalty to HIM!

Pritzker has $1 in his campaign fund ...

For that, from Rauner’s perspective, has been his biggest problem, and the reason why it can be argued he hasn’t accomplished a thing during his time thus far as governor. He has to work with a state Legislature of the opposition party – and the fact that Rauner came into office with such hostile intentions means they see nothing wrong with telling him to “stuff it” every time he spews his anti-organized labor rhetoric and tries to pass it off as “reforms.”

Rauner wants a stronger presence in the General Assembly of people inclined to back him – or even just to be hostile to the interests of the urban portion of this state that does comprise about two-thirds of Illinois’ population.

 

... for every $10 available to Rauner

GRIFFIN, WHO IS considered one of the most-wealthy people in the United States, and at the head of the pack in Illinois, certainly is someone sympathetic to the Rauner agenda.

Which most likely is the Griffin agenda that Rauner is doing the dirty work of trying to implement in Illinois state government.

The only real question is why doesn’t Griffin just run for office himself so he can try to push for these things? We’re seeing in Washington these days what happens when business-oriented people get in over their heads and try to “play” politics.

Then again, perhaps it isn’t fair to compare anybody to Donald Trump. His ego is so over-bloated that it likely would have taken him down no matter what!

PRITZKER, OF COURSE, is counting on the notion that so many people are repulsed by inactivity of Springfield these days and are willing to place the blame on Rauner. Thereby negating any financial advantage he might otherwise have – he and other Democrats would like to think that no one can “buy” political office.

GOV. PAWAR?: Not likely!

Except, of course, that perhaps Rauner is evidence that office can be “bought.” All I know is that it will be an ugly brawl for Illinois governor next year. The kind of people willing to put in money aren’t going to hesitate to use it to bash their opposition about willy-nilly.

And if it turns out that one of the other Dem gubernatorial dreamers winds up getting the nomination, they’re going to be so overwhelmingly spent. Although it could wind up that a “Gov. Ameya Pawar” could be a symbolic statement of substance over money.

Fat chance of that happening!

  -30-

Do we really like Rauner more? Or can he drop below Christie in the rankings?

Is Bruce Rauner’s favorability amongst Illinoisans really on the rise? Or are we just moving on to other people we despise a little bit more we do our state’s illustrious governor?
 

RAUNER: Can he rise to middle-of-the-pack?

The Morning Consult group came out with their latest survey – one that ranked all of the nation’s governors and senators based on how well they’re liked by their constituents.

THE BIG NEWS of their survey is that Chris Christie of New Jersey, who at various times in the past was supposed to be a presidential favorite AND someone that Donald Trump should consider for vice president or a prominent cabinet post, is now the most unpopular governor in the country.

Which probably shows how rankings such as these don’t mean a whole lot. It’s not like there’s anything about Christie’s underlying persona that has changed significantly. It’s just that we’ve now decided we want to think more negatively about him.

So what does it say about their ranking for Rauner – who supposedly is the 44^th most popular (out of 50) governor in the nation. He’s one notch ahead of Wisconsin’s nationally-known governor, Scott Walker.

Who there was a time way back when he was going out of his way to provoke labor unions in his state when HE would have been the most unpopular, and people likely would have thought Christie was “cool.”

TO GET MORE specific about Rauner, the Morning Consult group says his approval rating has gone up significantly (from 33 percent back September to 42 percent now) while his disapproval rating went from 56 percent then to 49 percent now.

 

CHRISTIE: Can he rise above Rauner?

It’s not that Rauner has done anything differently in recent months to make people like him any more than they did before. If anything, Illinois’ governor has shown himself to be terminally stubborn – digging in his heels with his desire to have a legacy as the governor who undermined organized labor’s influence within state government.

We’re no closer to a budget. Rauner seems determined to believe he can prevail because everyone will “Blame Madigan!” Perhaps he envisions a “South Park”-like song (“Blame Canada”) with Illinoisans singing as they venture to the polling places come the 2018 election cycle?

What will really determine things is whether the cycle shifts that people go back to blaming Bruce, or if that just gets old for would-be voters.

 

Are Richard  Durbin and ...

WILL PEOPLE LISTEN to messages like the one from gubernatorial candidate Ameya Pawar, who on Tuesday blamed Rauner for program cuts to senior citizens, college students, child health care and the mentally ill.

Will we be outraged a little more than a year-and-a-half from now? Or will we get tired of hearing such talk and move on?

He won’t be helped by the fact that this does essentially remain a Democratic-leaning state; even though Rauner’s rhetoric would have you think his 2014 election converted us to being lovers of the GOP elephant – even though many modern-day Republicans seem embarrassed by the fact that Abraham Lincoln was ever one of them.

The same Morning Consult study showed Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., with a 52 percent approval rating, and 50 percent for Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. His having been around longer (more than two decades in the Senate and close to four decades in D.C. overall) does give him a certain ignomy (34 percent disapproval).

BUT HIS APPROVAL is identical to that of Cory Booker of New Jersey (whom some are contemplating as a ’20 presidential hopeful) and Timothy Kaine of Virginia (remember him, he could have been our vice president now).

 

... Tammy Duckworth more like Ill.?

Does that make Illinois a place inclined to see Rauner continue to plummet in the future. Or can he stabilize himself during the next year into an unmemorable governor?

Will Rauner continue to move up the popularity polls to the middle of the gubernatorial pack? Or will the coming of Election Day next year be the factor that puts more heat on him, causing Rauner to drop to the Number 50 slot (being the governor who couldn’t get a budget passed ever during his four-year term is a pretty nasty legacy to have)?

I’m sure Chris Christie himself wouldn’t be bothered in the least to be deposed as the possessor of the bottom slot on the gubernatorial favorability rankings.

  -30-

Pritzker gets into mix, but do we really want a ‘rich guy’ battle for governor?

The field of candidates who will ask us to consider making them our state’s governor for the next four years is shaping up.

Pritzker's going for gov...

Just a few days after being the guy who merely tagged along with Bolingbrook mayoral hopeful Jackie Traynere when she campaigned for votes, J.B. Pritzker went ahead and formally declared himself to be one of several who want to be the Democrat who challenges Gov. Bruce Rauner come next year’s election cycle.

THE ILLINOIS REPUBLICAN Party immediately went on the attack; proclaiming that Pritzker is Illinois House Speaker Michael “Madigan’s billionaire” (after Pritzker called Rauner President Donald J. "Trump's local partner") and the guy who has gathered in those cliché-laden smoke filled rooms with political hacks to concoct tax hikes that will hit us all in our wallets!

“Like a true machine politician, J.B. Pritzker mirrored the Madigan tax hike plan behind closed doors, before even announcing his campaign,” GOP state spokesman Steven Yaffe said. “It’s clear that Pritzker’s loyalty belongs to … Madigan and his plan for higher taxes with no real reform.”

Ignoring, of course, the fact that many people in Illinois view Rauner’s version of “reform” as nothing more than a politically-partisan hang-up with regards to organized labor and unions. There’s a reason Rauner’s approval rating stinks (not quite one-third) and isn’t much better than the Madigan approval ratings.

But the real key to comprehending this campaign is the response of another candidate, Daniel Biss, the state senator from Evanston, who cited the fact that some people think is Pritzker’s big advantage – the fact that his family is ridiculously wealthy and he could match the kind of money Rauner plans to put into his own political futures.

... unless Kennedy can thwart his path

RAUNER, AFTER ALL, is the guy who began this year by stating his intentions to spend some $50 million of his own fortune on his campaign and those of others to try to create a state Legislature that would be sympathetic to his anti-union desires.

As Biss told the Capitol Fax newsletter, “do we try to out-Rauner Bruce Rauner or offer a truly Democratic alternative that empowers ordinary Illinoisans.”

I’m sure in his own mind, Biss thinks people will pick him as the alternative, allowing him to overcome the difference in campaign funding that he just won't have.

Just as I’m sure 47^th Ward Alderman Ameya Pawar (who on Thursday called Pritzker, “an accomplished investor and philanthropist” and welcomed him to the campaign) has visions of becoming the gubernatorial nominee every time he goes about making illusions to the “New Deal” of Democratic demigod Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Will Dem winner be up to brawl w/ Rauner?

ALTHOUGH THE GUY who may wind up playing well with the Democratic Party public is the one who’s related to another of the Dem demigods – as in Christopher Kennedy, the son of Bobby and nephew to both Jack and Teddy.

If you need the subtitled translation, that’s the son of a former attorney general and presidential candidate, and nephew to a president AND a long-time U.S. senator.

There are those who think this Democratic primary will wind up being a battle between Pritzker and Kennedy, with the latter letting it be known this week that during the past six weeks he has been a candidate, he has raised over $1 million in contributions from some 3,000 individuals.

PAWAR: Too gentlemanly for fight?

That’s not insignificant! Particularly if the powers-that-be within Democratic Party interests start kicking in their own money. Kennedy could be the one who can take on the guy whose family wealth includes the Hyatt Hotels chain.

COULD THIS WIND up being the Kennedy/Pritzker brawl, seeing these two bloody each other up leading into a knock-down, dragged out, all-out brawl (got to overdo the clichés here) against Bruce Rauner?

Or could one of the lesser candidates manage to catch the public eye? Something of which I’m skeptical, particularly in the case of Bob Daiber, the superintendent of schools in Madison County (across the Mississippi River from St. Louis) – who seems to think he’s the 21^st Century answer to Glenn Poshard.

Remember his 1998 campaign where he won the Democratic primary by dominating the rural Illinois vote? Only to get his behind kicked in the general election by Republican George Ryan – a fate likely to recur in 2018 if Daiber was really nominated.

KELLY: Who?!?

Then, there’s William J. Kelly, the guy who’d like to challenge Rauner for the Republican nomination and who knew just enough about television and media to gain himself public attention (but hardly any votes) for his failed mayoral campaign of 2015. And whom I’m sure someone will contact me on his behalf to rant and rage about the fact that his political fantasies were relegated to the final paragraph of this particular commentary!

  -30-

Ill. '18 gubernatorial dreamer pool starting to winnow itself down to size

Cheri Bustos, the member of Congress from the Illinois part of the Quad Cities, has let it be known she is not going to be a candidate for governor come next year’s election cycle.
 

BUSTOS: Out, w/o ever being in

An announcement, I’m sure, that elicited a whole lot of yawns from political geeks, particularly those from the Chicago area, who probably figured that a Bustos candidacy wouldn’t have had a chance of succeeding anyway.

THEN AGAIN, I’M figuring there are probably many people who live in the other third of Illinois (a.k.a., downstate) who are thinking it equally ridiculous that 47^th Ward Alderman Ameya Pawar has delusions of someday being allowed to live in the Executive Mansion in Springfield.

PAWAR: Can he gain political traction?

Yet Pawar was the first person to declare himself an actual candidate – a status that Bustos never made it to. Even though there were some who figured that she had a chance to gain some votes just because she would have been the only significant candidate for governor from outside of the Chicago metro area.

Except that I think the kind of people who are inclined to want to vote in elections for someone from outside of Chicago are exactly the kind of people who will unite in 2018 behind Bruce Rauner’s re-election dreams.

Because his “Dump Madigan” strategy is really one that will only appeal to non-Chicago people. Those of us more urban voters will see the strategy for the nonsense that it is – because we know our local political officials aren’t nearly as united behind anybody, particularly the Illinois House speaker, as they want to believe.

Are we really destined for a Kennedy ...

IF IT TURNS out that Rauner dominates the rural Illinois vote, there might not be enough non-Chicago voters left for any other campaign to gain significant political support from.

The real significance of Bustos’ announcement that she prefers to run for another term in Congress is that the gubernatorial field is starting to shrink – even though we have just over a year before any votes are cast in that particular primary election.

Although it may still be a few months before the candidate field winnows down to where we can say who is actually running. And I still won’t be surprised if there’s at least one person who winds up running a serious campaign whose name hasn’t emerged yet.

... vs. Pritzker brawl to see who wins ...

I know some political observers are determined to view this upcoming election cycle as the Chris Kennedy vs. J.B. Pritzker primary. Although I’m pretty sure there are others of the Democratic persuasion who would wretch at the very thought.

THE IDEA OF the politically-top heavy family taking on the family with enough cash that they could afford to match the millions of his own money that Rauner says he will spend to try to get himself re-elected ALONG WITH a Legislature more to his liking than the incumbents.

They may think that a Democratic version of Rauner (ie., a rich guy) is the last thing the party needs, just like some Dems are going to forevermore be convinced that we’d be spared the thought of a “President Donald J. Trump” if only voters last year had dumped Hillary Clinton and gone with Bernie Sanders instead.

But then again, I wonder how many people aren’t going to be enthused about the notion of Illinois getting its very own Kennedy. The family has had members run for political posts in so many states, but our own local Kennedy tales focus on how Chicago supposedly “won” the 1960 presidential election for Chris’ “Uncle Jack.”

I don’t doubt that many voters will be desperately scouring all the other names in search of somebody, anybody, else whose candidacy they can latch onto in their desire to beat Bruce Rauner.

... the right to challenge Rauner come Nov. '18?

BECAUSE THEY FIGURE the absolute last thing Illinois needs is to have eight years without a budget. Yes, political people really are capable of being that stubborn, unless voters themselves take matters into their own hands at the ballot box.

I really do believe that Rauner is vulnerable because of the inability of state government to operate the way it’s supposed to. While some will be willing to blame Madigan, this is still an urban-leaning state politically.

But the inability to pick a credible candidate to challenge Rauner is most definitely why no one should write off his chances of getting “four more years” and giving us voters more partisan agonies to endure.

  -30-

Is Illinois ready for Pawar? Are Dems ready for ’18 governor campaign?

Chicago-area Democrats have one thing going for them when it comes to the 2018 election cycle when Illinois picks a new governor – incumbent Bruce Rauner who likes to let us know how much we’re supposed to hate Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan is despised almost as much.
 

PAWAR: Illinois' first Indian-American gov?

Rauner may have a personal fortune from his time as a venture capitalist, but no one out there is really going to be enthused about wanting him back for another term in office.

IF THE ’16 presidential cycle devolved into the campaign about “Who Do We Hate the Most?,” the ’18 battle for Illinois governor will be even worse.

I don’t doubt that the other 96 counties of Illinois will lean against anything having to do with Chicago or the local Democratic organization. But the level of contempt that Rauner has aroused within the six-county Chicago area is strong, too.

And let’s not forget that those six counties do account for about two-thirds of the state’s population – with Cook County alone being nearly half the state’s people.

But whether that will be sufficient that people should think Rauner’s re-election bid has the stink of death over it similar to how soon-to-be former Sen. Mark Kirk’s campaign did this year has yet to be determined.

THE ONE THING that Rauner’s re-election bid has going for it is that we don’t have a clue who the Democrats will find to run for governor. Particularly since veteran Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., has decided he wants to remain as a part of the Illinois political establishment in D.C. – rather than be the so-called CEO of state government.

Will governor learn people like him less...

The lack of a credible challenger is to the point where the Politico newspaper took seriously the talk that 47^th Ward Alderman Ameya Pawar wants to run for governor.

Pawar, the suburban Evanston-born son of immigrants from India, is now in his second term in the City Council, and apparently thinks he can replicate his initial electoral victory of 2011 – back when he beat long-time Alderman Eugene Schulter on a puny campaign fund.

In part, he had the appeal of being the first Asian (let alone Indian) elected to the City Council. He has been able to maintain a bit of a progressive image as he has served as alderman. He has been among the most interesting of public officials to serve in the council in recent years.

 

... than they do the Ill. House speaker?

YET I ALSO don’t doubt that all the things that are his strengths as a Chicago alderman will be turned into negatives if he tries to run an Illinois statewide campaign.

Particularly since I don’t doubt that the masses of Southern Illinois who helped remove most of the remaining rural Democrats serving in the General Assembly will be willing to hold Pawar’s ethnicity against him. After all, this is the new Era of Trump in which we no longer give much credence to such considerations!

I don’t think the “Little India” community along Devon Avenue is enough to propel a statewide campaign for public office. And if Pawar seriously thinks he can go knocking on doors all across Illinois to introduce himself, he’ll find out just how big (500 miles long, 350 miles wide) the state is.

There’s also the inevitable tie that Rauner will try to make (and that rural residents will be gullible enough to believe) that Pawar is nothing more than a political lackey to Mayor Rahm Emanuel (who lives in Pawar’s ward) and, by extension, Madigan.

THE REALITY IS that people in Chicago Democratic politics tolerate each other, at best. They don’t really know how to play nice. I remember back when Susana Mendoza was a state legislator whom Madigan thought of as a bit of an annoyance and he was glad to see her leave state government for the city clerk’s post.

 

KENNEDY: Will he ever campaign?

Yet Rauner spewed the nonsense that she was a Madigan puppet to the point where it was obvious Mendoza didn’t get the same Democratic coat-tails from Hillary Clinton’s presence on the ballot that Senate candidate Tammy Duckworth did.

Consider that if Pawar has his weaknesses, he gets taken seriously at this point because there’s no one else. Billionaire J.B. Pritzker (as in the Hyatt Hotels chain) has never run for office before. And as for Christopher Kennedy (nephew of JFK and son of Bobby), the one-time manager of the then-family-owned Merchandise Mart likes the idea of being thought of as a candidate for office – but has never shown the willingness to put in the work of an actual campaign.

All of which means that if Democrats are to put up a credible candidate for governor two years from now, it probably will be somebody whose name hasn’t cropped up yet. Let’s not forget that we didn’t hear of Rauner until March of the year before he managed to defeat Pat Quinn for the political post.

  -30-

Election Day was an ethnic collage

This election cycle is giving us so many “firsts” when it comes to ethnic politics that it is a perfect display of the mish-mash of ethnicities that comprise our city.

PAWAR: The 1st Asian-American alderman



Being “ethnic” in Chicago no longer is limited to identifying oneself as “Irish” or “Polish,” although I’m not saying those groups have withered away in the city.

SOME ARE MAKING much of the fact that Chicago has its first mayor of the Jewish religious persuasion, while we not only got the first female elected to be city clerk, she’s a Latina.

Among the aldermen, there are those political observers who are amazed that Ameya Pawar got himself elected to represent the 47^th Ward in the City Council. Many people seemed to think that the retirement of Eugene Schulter from the council would result in nobody getting a majority – and the top two guns going at it in an April 5 run-off election.

Yet Pawar, an Indian-American who is only 30 (and expects to complete work on a second master’s degree from the University of Chicago later this spring), managed to get 51 percent of the vote on Tuesday in that Northwest Side ward that includes the Ravenswood and Lincoln Square neighborhoods.

In short, he will be Rahm Emanuel’s alderman – presuming that the tenant who has leased Emanuel’s house for nearly a year actually leaves when the lease expires (he’s been throwing out some hints lately that he’d like to stay).

I’D SAY THE chances of that happening are extremely fat, except there probably are people who never would have expected a person with India ethnic origins (or anything Asian) to ever get elected to the City Council.

MENDOZA: The 1st city-wide Latina



So the City Council now has its first Asian-American, and he came from a neighborhood that doesn’t have a large ethnic enclave that would be expected to cater to him. But that is an area where many people who can’t quite afford Lincoln Park or Lakeview proper choose to live.

I’m sure for many, the thought of having an “Indian” alderman seemed exotic – although I also understand that some people living in that ward (in a moment of disclosure, I lived there for one summer of my life some 27 years ago) resented Schulter’s efforts to designate a successor to himself.

But if the end result is that the City Council will provide a greater diversity than it did in the days when political people thought ballot diversity consisted of nominating candidates from each of the “three I’s” (Ireland, Italy and Israel) and no one else, then we’re all better off. Although I couldn't help but notice that in the far Southeast corner 10th Ward that has the city's original Spanish-speaking enclave, non-Latino Alderman John Pope got a solid 59 percent of the vote; even though some activists had thought this might be the year that the ward would get a Latino as alderman.

THOSE PEOPLE WITH an interest in Latino political empowerment instead will have to get a kick out of seeing Susana Mendoza rise from the ranks of being a legislative aide to then-state Rep. (later Alderman) Ray Frias (which is what she was when I first met her while covering the Illinois Statehouse scene just over a decade ago) to the post of city Clerk.

I’m not sure what I think of her campaign idea to raise more money for the city by selling advertising space on city stickers to businesses. I can fully appreciate why people would not want to have their personal automobiles turned into billboards for a company that gave the city – and not themselves – some money.

But her youth (she’s not even 40 yet) and energy will make her a worthwhile public servant, while also providing proof that the city’s Latino population (officially, 29 percent, compared to 32 percent white and 33 percent black) does have the ability to provide significant numbers of votes. Her victory may even have been a factor in the resignation of state Sen. Rickey Hendon, D-Chicago, from his post, as some have reported that Hendon (who backed Mendoza's African-American female opponent) was "embarrassed" by how much she won by.

It was her domination of the Latino voter bloc that gave Mendoza a base of votes that combined with other people to give her that 60 percent victory on Tuesday, and the chance to say that she is the highest-ranking Latina in city government.

FOR THE TIME being, that is.

For any serious look at the maps being published this week about which wards and precincts voted for whom would show that the few areas that did not get on board the Rahm Emanuel bandwagon were the areas that have predominant Latino populations. Many of those wards went for former Chicago Public Schools/City Colleges of Chicago/Chicago Park District boss Gery Chico.

Although when one looks at the Latino voter bloc, it seems the majority wanted either Chico or former city Clerk Miguel del Valle as mayor, with Emanuel taking the votes of the roughly one-third of Latinos who were more interested in having an “in” with the expected mayoral winner, rather than trying to elect “one of our own” on Election Day.

EMANUEL: NOT Illinois' 1st Jewish official



Not that I’m ranting about Rahm, even though I haven’t forgotten his apathy toward immigration reform during his two years as chief of staff to President Barack Obama and will be watching to see if he takes a similar apathetic attitude toward the Latino population. For his own sake, he’d better not.

AS FOR EMANUEL himself, we now have a mayor who is Jewish (although Chico, had he won, had an ex-wife and daughters who also are Jewish). That is a “first.”

But it is one I am less inclined to be impressed by, mainly because Illinois had its first Jewish governor during the 1930s – the honorable Henry Horner, who served until his death in 1940.

It’s about time Chicago caught up to the rest of the state in this regard. Here’s hoping that Emanuel gets a better-lasting legacy than Horner – whom I’d suspect is remembered (if at all) by most Chicagoans these days as being the namesake for the public housing development that used to exist near the United Center arena.

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