Preckwinkle overly ambitious? Seeking fourth term while barely in third

Toni Preckwinkle fell short of her desire to be the first black woman ever elected as Chicago mayor, but still seems to have her heart set on going into history as a political first of sorts.

Preckwinkle looking toward 4th term in office

Preckwinkle, 72, has already served two terms as president of the Cook County Board, and managed to get herself elected to a third term – of which she has barely served one year.

BUT PRECKWINKLE LET it be known this week that she’s already planning her next re-election. An election cycle that actually won’t come about until 2022.

Which if she manages to carry it through and win, would keep her in office through 2026 and have her as an elected official at age 80. Not bad for a woman who previously said this year she was running her last campaign for office.

It would seem that Preckwinkle hasn’t let her political defeat earlier this year to Lori Lightfoot as mayor crush her political spirits. She’s going to be in public office as long as she can – and may very well envision herself becoming the equivalent of Richard J. Daley or Harold Washington.

Both of whom died while in office. With Washington taking that literally – he suffered a stroke while working at his desk.

NOW I’M SURE some people are completely appalled at the notion that Preckwinkle won’t just wither away into anonymity. There are those who were offended that she didn’t have to give up her county board presidency post in order to run for mayor.

Won't let Lightfoot victory set her legacy

They would have wanted her overwhelming defeat to Lightfoot (tempered somewhat by the notion that many more people didn’t bother to vote at all) to be a career-crusher. Something that would cause her name to go into the Chicago history books as evidence of her public disgrace.

Instead, Preckwinkle remains as county board president (the post known informally to some political watchers as the “mayor of Cook County”) and as chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party.

Making her political legacy one of coming close to reaching the titles (if not the actual power or influence) of Mayor Daley, the elder, himself.

Does Preckwinkle hope to last as long as Dunne or Daley?

WHICH MEANS I’M sure there are some who already are gearing up to cast votes against her come 2022.

Who knows? Maybe some people truly are petty enough to hold a life-long grudge against Preckwinkle for that pop tax measure (a penny per ounce) she pushed that boosted the cost of a can of cola upward by about 21 cents.

While some who truly carried the notion of Lightfoot as some sort of political saint may well want to hate on Preckwinkle for having the nerve to run against her earlier this year.

All I know is that there’s quite a bit of time between now and 2022. Who’s to say what will happen that will change conditions for Preckwinkle. Perhaps she’ll become politically fashionable again?

OR MAYBE SHE’LL come up with circumstances that show she won’t be able to run for a fourth term – which would be something extraordinary.

Will Preckwinkle have Washington-type ending?

Because if she truly were able to serve four terms as county board president, that would make her one of the longest holders of that office ever. You’d literally have to look back to George Dunne (who served from 1969 to 1971) to find someone who held the post longer.

The point may well be that Toni Preckwinkle isn’t going anywhere. She’s in office, and intends to carry on with her job for years to come.

The real question, one that we’ll see answered in 2022, is whether the electorate is in any mood to retain her in office. Or will voters remain as temperamental three years from now as they were back in May – and finally send her off to political retirement?

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Can Lightfoot, Preckwinkle connect? Or will the women be political rivals!

It was an intriguing political theory put forth by some – the notion that a Lightfoot political victory for mayor benefits African-American political empowerment by boosting the number of black people in the top government positions.

Lightfoot gets 5th floor office suite; Preckwinkle stays put in her half of city/county municipal building.. Photo by Gregory Tejeda

The way it was described by some, there were those people who wanted Toni Preckwinkle to not bother running for anything in this election cycle.

SHE WAS SUPPOSED to accept the Cook County Board presidency that she was re-elected to back in November – thereby leaving the mayoral post open for another black person to hold. Chicago’s local government structure would literally have its two highest-ranking positions held by African-Americans.

But that didn’t happen, as Preckwinkle insisted on running for mayor. Which creates the potentially awkward position of Preckwinkle and Lightfoot fighting it out for who is the more prominent black woman in our local politics.

Considering that Preckwinkle also holds the post of Cook County Democratic chairwoman, it means that Toni will be in a position where she could theoretically make life difficult for Lori Lightfoot.

She could decide to use the political party structure to thwart a “Mayor Lightfoot” from being able to accomplish much of anything – if she so wishes. Although admittedly, some people will dismiss her as petty and ignorant if she behaves that way,

The mayor 'elect' for a month

IS THIS WHAT is destined to happen, now that Election Day has come and gone – Lori Lightfoot having managed to come sweeping in and usurping the niche that Preckwinkle had planned on playing this cycle?

That of the “good government” type who engages in high-minded talk about the betterment of our society. Instead of the niche that Lightfoot wound up tagging Preckwinkle with – that of a political hack!

The question essentially becomes whether or not Preckwinkle and Lightfoot can “play nice” with each other and figure out ways in which the two can co-exist within the Chicago political structure for the betterment of our city.

Remains as 'mayor' of Cook County

Or are we destined to have the next three-and-a-half years become a period in which the Preckwinkle/Lightfoot rivalry takes on ugly overtones. Will Preckwinkle decide she needs to show us just how big a political “Boss!” she can be.

HERE’S ACTUALLY THE intriguing question, for those people who want to view this now-complete election cycle as one for the betterment of African-American political interests in Chicago.

Would those interests have been boosted more by having both a black mayor and black county board president? Or would they have been boosted had Preckwinkle prevailed and become the first person since Richard J. Daley himself to serve as both mayor and county Democratic chairman?

Would an all-powerful Preckwinkle have been a nice prize for black political interests? Or was it sexism that wound up making some people think that the two positions were simply too much power to put in the hands of a lone woman. Along with the notion that a “Mayor Preckwinkle” also would have created the chance for a “Cook County Board President John Daley” – a notion some black activists would find abhorrent.

How different scenario could be with Wilson win

Keep in mind that back when black political operatives were suggesting that Preckwinkle defer to another black candidate for mayor, the likely favorite was Willie Wilson. Considering how she managed to qualify for the Tuesday run-off while Wilson fell short by merely finishing fourth in the 14-candidate field, it’s not surprising she felt no need to defer to him.

THE RESULT OF all this political scheming is that we now have a mayor-elect who doesn’t come from the current political set-up. Lightfoot has been a corporate attorney and a federal prosecutor, in addition to a one-time member of the Police Accountability Task Force.

Daley remains as county finance chair

In short, the kind of person who might arouse suspicion from incumbent politicos.

But keep in mind that several people bearing the polical label of “Democratic Socialists” managed to get themselves elected to the City Council. There’s going to be an assortment of aldermen anxious to assert the fact that the city technically has a “weak mayor” system of government.

Lightfoot may get the title of “mayor,” but there will be many individuals anxious to tell her just how little she can do while in office. We’ll have to wait and see whether Preckwinkle will be their leader?

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Preckwinkle to put Garcia’s political influence to the test on Election Day

Rep. Jesus Garcia, D-Ill., would like to think he’s the predominant Latino politico in Chicago, and the upcoming run-off election for mayor will be a significant test.

GARCIA: Cook County grudges come to life

For Garcia, formerly a member of the Cook County Board before being elected to Congress, has come out publicly in favor of the mayoral campaign of Lori Lightfoot.

OR ACTUALLY, IT’S more like he’s come out as being opposed to the mayoral aspirations of Toni Preckwinkle – who was his county board colleague as county board president.

Meaning this is about political payback. He doesn’t want Preckwinkle to prevail. He’d like for her to go down to a shameful defeat come April 2.

Part of it is because back in 2015 when Garcia wound up running against Rahm Emanuel for mayor, Preckwinkle managed to fail to support Chuy’s mayoral aspirations back then. So he doesn’t feel compelled to offer her any support.

There’s also the fact that when the county assessor’s post was most recently open in the 2018 election cycle, the two were split – with Preckwinkle backing Joe Berrios’ bid for re-election while Garcia came out in favor of Fritz Kaegi.

ALSO PLAYING INTO this is the fact that when Garcia gave up his county board post to run for the seat in Congress, he wanted to hand-pick his replacement – Alma Anaya. But Preckwinkle offered only the most tepid of support for her.

All in all, it means Garcia has his reasons to not be inclined to want to see Preckwinkle succeed. And if, by chance, there turns out to be evidence that the Latino vote in Chicago this coming election swings heavily in favor of Lightfoot for mayor, I have no doubt that Garcia will be more than eager to take credit for it.

He’ll gladly take it as a feather in his cap that he personally deprived Preckwinkle of a significant (and growing) share of the electorate, and it will further bolster his desire to see himself as Chicago’s most politically powerful elected official of Latino ethnic origins.

Will Toni defeat redeem for Garcia … 

Similar to how in last year’s elections, he was more than eager to take credit for the fact that Dan Burke lost his seat in the Illinois House of Representatives – saying he turned out the significant Latino vote in that Southwest Side legislative district in order to bolster the Latino caucus within the General Assembly.

BUT FOR ALL that accomplishment might mean, there’s also evidence that there are limits to Garcia’s political influence. Such as the Feb. 26 election when Garcia made it known he was targeting the aldermanic re-election bid of Burke’s brother, Ed – as in the long-time Finance chairman who liked to think he was the almighty powerbroker of City Hall.

Despite the growing Latino population of that ward (about 80 percent), Burke solidly won re-election. He got the remaining white voters to turn out in force to generate some 53 percent of the vote – meaning he didn’t even have to endure a run-off election.

And he overcame all the hostile rhetoric that has been spewed about Burke on account of the fact that federal prosecutors were slinging toward Ed. As in if there ever was a time when Ed Burke should have been politically vulnerable, this was it.

If anything, Ed Burke’s victory showed the limits of Garcia’s influence over Latino Chicago. It puts thoughts into peoples’ minds that maybe Chuy isn’t as almighty as he’d like us to think he is.

BY THAT STANDARD, being able to claim he “took down” Preckwinkle’s mayoral aspirations would be face-saving, to a degree.

… his failure to beat Burke?

Of course, there was the fact that in the Feb. 26 election, the Latino segments of Chicago were the ones where the mayoral race was seen as a political battle between Susana Mendoza and William Daley, with some extra votes for Gery Chico.

Preckwinkle and Lightfoot really didn’t factor into the equation. Making some wonder if come the run-off, the Latino voter turnout will be tepid, at best. Will Garcia be able to get the Spanish-speaking enclaves of Chicago to care at all about who the next mayor will be?

That will be the real test – as we will learn whether anybody ought to be paying any significant attention to Garcia and his thoughts in future elections.

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Politics creates strange bedfellows

There are no permanent enemies in electoral politics. Or maybe the reality is there are no permanent friends – just people you’re allied with for the time being.

PRECKWINKLE: Got two endorsements

Take the mayoral campaign of Toni Preckwinkle – whom some are determined to believe is desperately clinging to life and is on the verge of political oblivion.

YET EVEN PRECKWINKLE is still capable of finding people willing to say they support her political aspirations. And not just the labor unions whom Toni had been hoping all along would be the life’s blood of her campaign for the right to work on the City Hall side of the municipal building, rather than the County Board side.

Preckwinkle picked up a pair of people who, at one time, might have been a major political coup. But now?

We’re talking about the endorsements she got from one-time state legislator and county board President Todd Stroger and from the rap music star Chance.

As in the guy who was the pulse that was the only reason anybody took seriously the mayoral aspirations of Amara Enyia. The one who kicked in the campaign cash that enabled her to actually have a campaign.

THE GUY WHOM some thought might inspire young black Chicagoans to care about this election cycle enough that perhaps Amara could have a chance of winning something.

STROGER: Sympathizing w/ Toni? Nah!

But as it turned out, Chance’s support was only good enough to get Enyia a 7 percent share of the vote in the Feb. 26 election – not even close to qualifying for one of the spots in the current run-off election.

So now, Chance has become a part of the Preckwinkle bandwagon. Which doesn’t surprise many political observers. It was always noted that one of the chairmen of the Preckwinkle campaign is Ken Bennett – a.k.a., Chance’s father.

All it means is that Chance’s mayoral preference went down the tubes, and his father convinced him to remain involved ever-so-slightly. But not as much as he was for Enyia.

BECAUSE IT SHOULD be noted that Chance’s endorsement does not come along with any campaign cash. He’s not giving Toni any money to get through the remaining days of this election cycle.

CHANCE: Won't open his wallet

I don’t know if it’s true, but there were always those predicting that Chance would wind up being swayed over to Camp Preckwinkle. Although those pundits were usually speculating a scenario in which this would unify African-American voter support for Toni against someone like William Daley.

Nobody figured this would be a Lightfoot/Preckwinkle brawl!

But this move strikes many as being more predictable than the one in which Stroger put aside his own animosities toward Preckwinkle to say he supports her. Because there are those of us who remember the 2010 election cycle in which Toni turned Todd into the ultimate example of a political hack who was unfit for office when she beat him for the county board president post he inherited when his father, John, had to step down.

COULD IT BE that Todd Stroger somehow sympathizes with the way Toni Preckwinkle’s reputation is being so thoroughly trashed by those Lightfoot backers eager to engage in demonization? Not likely.

LIGHTFOOT: Not likely losing sleep

It’s more likely that Stroger is being truthful when he says he hopes that a “Mayor Preckwinkle” will give him the time of day and be willing to listen to his concerns for things he’d like to see achieved across the city’s South Side. While a “Mayor Lightfoot,” he suspects, would be likely to turn her old federal prosecutorial instincts on him to try to find a way to get him indicted for something.

I’m not saying for sure that will happen. A part of me doesn’t think Stroger was ever ambitious enough to do something corrupt.

But it would be intriguing to see if current circumstances are such that Toni and “the Toddler” are now political allies – or will be for as long as the two see some mutual benefit to tolerating each other’s existence.

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Could Toni P. someday be head of local regular Democratic organization?

It was just one week ago that some people were convinced that Toni Preckwinkle was a political has-been.

PRECKWINKLE: Soon to be the new boss?

The Cook County Board president, after all, was the woman whom the electorate was going to revolt because of the “pop tax” – that penny-per-ounce fee on sweetened beverages that she lobbied for, but that the county commissioners eventually repealed.

IT SEEMS THAT Cook County residents weren’t as worked up about that tax as some ideologues wanted to believe. Either that, or the fact that she ran against a political mediocrity like Robert Fioretti gave her a victory in last week’s Democratic primary.

With her fate assured for the next four years (there isn’t a serious Republican challenger for the Nov. 6 general election), the long-time alderman from Hyde Park turned eight-years-and-running county president wants to strengthen her post.

Such as her public statement Friday that she wants to become the new chairwoman of the Cook County Democratic Party – a post that some local political watchers believe is more significant than that of the Illinois Democratic Party chairman (because local is ALWAYS more important than state).

The post is open because of another electoral result from Tuesday – the defeat of Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios. He’s the man who has been county Democratic boss since 2007.

BERRIOS: Will Toni friendship last?

BUT HIS DEFEAT as assessor undermines his ability to keep the Democratic Party post. Why should the Democratic Party’s local organization keep as its boss a guy who couldn’t even win re-election?

Which has Preckwinkle publicly saying she’s willing to challenge Berrios for the position that enhances his political party.

Consider Richard J. Daley, who may have committed many significant acts toward the long-term future of Chicago as mayor. But it was the fact that he doubled as the Democratic Chairman that gave him the power to keep getting re-elected as mayor, and also to have an influence that caused national Democrats to care what he thought.

In short, it wasn’t the “Mayor of Chicago” that John F. Kennedy sought out when he ran for the presidency in 1960 – it was the “Democratic chairman” who turned out all those hundreds of thousands of votes that resulted in Illinois’ electoral college going into the JFK column, rather than for Richard Nixon.

Would JFK have sought Daley if he weren't chair

HECK, IT CAN be argued that it was the fact that Edward R. Vrdolyak served as Democratic chairman from 1982-87 that gave him the power to influence a council majority to openly defy Harold Washington during much of his mayoral term.

Other significant names to serve as Democratic chairman for Cook County include George Dunne, Jacob Arvey, Edward J. Kelly and Anton Cermak – the latter of whom used the party chairman post to rise to being Chicago mayor.

This will be the class of politicos that Preckwinkle would elevate herself to – IF she can become the Democratic chairwoman for the county of Cook.

She’d be the first woman to hold the post, although she’d be replacing the man who was the first Latino to ever hold the post. Depending on how strongly Berrios would want to hang onto political power, this could become an ethnically-inspired political brawl.

ALTHOUGH IT COULD wind up that the political elements wishing to elevate the number of women holding political posts could rise up to fight for Preckwinkle. It would be something of an achievement if the el jefe of Cook County Democrats became a la jefa.

CERMAK: Used post to become mayor

Kind of odd, since Preckwinkle herself was a Berrios backer. She constantly spoke out on behalf of retaining Joe as county assessor; even when others were bashing him about for all the family members on his government payroll and allegations that he gave tax breaks to his political donors.

So now, by saying she wants to replace Joe Berrios, Toni Preckwinkle is turning on him at his lowest moment. Which may illustrate a reality of electoral politics.

Political allies are friends so long as they can do something for your – and no longer! Not bad for somebody who some people wanted to believe would be political history by now.

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It’s about time – ’18 election cycle’s “put up-or-shut up” moment arrives

Friday was the day retail fanatics felt compelled to queue up outside of their favorite stores in search of particularly-good sales for holiday shopping.

Never-was gubernatorial candidate Ameya Pawar will have counterparts following this week's nominating petition filing period.

Monday will see similar lines of political geeks – candidates in some cases, their operatives in others. Although those lines will be at Illinois State Board of Elections offices, as it’s finally time for people wanting to run for political office to file the nominating petitions to gain themselves spots on the March 20 primary ballots.

FOR ALL THOSE people who have been going about throwing out hints that they want to be candidates for electoral office, they’re going to have to show the required support levels indicating they’re deserving of a ballot slot.

Between 8 a.m. Monday and 5 p.m. Dec. 4 (a.k.a., next Monday), the candidates will file their petitions showing signatures of support from people indicating they’d actually vote for this person.

Now I know some people think this is unfair – they think it ought to be easier to actually get on the ballot. Let everybody on the ballot (they’d say); let the voters decide on Election Day.

Yet I think there is too much clutter in these early stages, and candidates for office ought to be capable of defending their ballot existence by showing some support.

JUST THINK THAT there are about eight people saying they want to be the Democrat running next year for Illinois governor and for state attorney general.

DAIBER: Will he continue to exist?

Most of us can’t even come close to naming all of them, and the only people who truly want all of them hanging around are the ones interested in causing political confusion.

As in the only way they can win is if enough people cast votes for them without knowing who they’re supporting. Which may sound ludicrous, but does anyone seriously think Mark Fairchild or Janice Hart would have won Democratic primaries back in 1986 based on their merits?

Yes, those are the two followers of Lyndon LaRouche who managed to win that year’s gubernatorial and Illinois secretary of state primaries, with voters not realizing their tie to the would-be presidential hopeful that some consider more fascist than Democrat.

MY POINT IS that there have been people trying to talk themselves up as candidates even though there’s really no evidence anybody wants them or would support them.

RAOUL: How many opponents will remain?

As for one-time gubernatorial hopeful Ameya Pawar who came to the realization a few weeks ago he couldn’t win the Democratic primary, he’s alone. Although it’s quite possible that many of the other seven people who think they’re going to be running for the office will fail to meet the standard to get on the ballot.

Their campaigns will end before they even began. Will Bob Daiber (the regional schools superintendent from the part of Illinois down near St. Louis) still be around?

Or will this officially become a less-cluttered J.B. Pritzker/Chris Kennedy political brawl? We’ll see come next week.

JUST AS MOST of us likely can’t even come close to naming all of the Illinois attorney general dreamers on the Democratic side. If a few of them disappear before ever becoming official, it will be more comprehensible to the electorate.

STROGER: Will he have valid signatures?

It will be the same for many other political offices. Personally, I’m curious to see the Democratic primary for Cook County Board president, where Toni Preckwinkle has two challengers talking up long-shot campaigns against her.

But Todd Stroger has only declared himself a candidate as of last week. Can he truly produce nominating petitions with enough valid signatures of support by this week?

Anything’s possible, but I’m sure that Preckwinkle operatives are counting on Stroger doing a sloppy-enough job that they can challenge his petitions and keep him off the ballot that way. Which means the serious politicking can get underway following this coming week, rather than the stupid speculation we've been engaging in up to this point.

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Make up your mind, Todd

I’m sure some political watchers choked on their own phlegm when Todd Stroger, the one-time Cook County Board president who has become the ultimate example of someone who got into politics due to family connections, said he plans to seek re-election to the post that he lost some seven years ago.

STROGER: Changing his mind

Stroger, who also served as a state legislator before becoming the county’s chief executive, told WFLD-TV he will challenge incumbent Toni Preckwinkle come the March 20 primary.

IF STROGER REALLY does take such actions, he will be one of three people in the Democratic primary next year. Since one-time Alderman Robert Fioretti also has said he wants to run for the post.

And like Fioretti, Stroger indicates he plans to beat up on Preckwinkle over her effort to impose a “pop tax” that caused a massive public stink. The tax that will cease to exist at the end of next week was capable of boosting the price of a can of Coca-Cola by a notable amount.

Yet Stroger is the guy whose own political unpopularity rose to ridiculously high levels when he tried balancing the Cook County budget many years ago with a sales tax increase – the one that when piled on with all the sales taxes that local governments charge rose the overall tax to over 10 percent in Chicago.

It will be interesting to see just how capable either Fioretti or Stroger will be in terms of challenging Preckwinkle.

BOTH OF THEM are convinced that she is so unpopular because of the pop tax that anybody can beat up on her.

I don’t doubt that Toni could be defeated by the right challenger. But I’m skeptical that either of these guys is capable of filling that role.

In the case of Stroger, his unpopularity is so intense even now. The thought of Stroger running for any government post is usually enough to outrage political watchers – particularly if they have their hang-ups over the way that Todd got into office to begin with.

PRECKWINKLE: Seeking a third term

His father, John Stroger (the namesake of the Cook County Hospital) was the county board president when his own health took a turn and he had to step down. He orchestrated his son being chosen to replace him in a way that made many feel Todd was forced down their throat.

OF COURSE, IT should be noted that the Chicago political scene has had so many multi-generation families holding elective office so that it shouldn’t have been strange that John would turn to Todd to replace him.

I don’t doubt that for some people, the fact that John Stroger was a black public official somehow aroused their ire. As though white pols can get away with semi-sleazy behavior while we expect our black pols to be on the straight-and-narrow.

But that’s the situation we’re going to be in – that is, if Stroger really winds up getting himself on the ballot to run for Cook County Board president. I’ll be curious to see if he can get the necessary nominating petitions filed by the Dec. 4 deadline.

And let’s not forget that Stroger for a while was the guy talking about a political comeback by running for a seat on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. Not the most public of posts, but it would put Stroger on a public payroll and give him a title that would allow him to think of himself as a government official again.

WE’LL SEE WHICH post Stroger winds up running for. Will we really get a three-way fight for the Cook County Board’s boss?

FIORETTI: Seeking a political comeback

And if so, will it be truly competitive? Because a part of me wonders if Fioretti and Stroger will be the long-shot guys who take votes from the Anybody But Toni voters, while a plurality of more sensible people will wind up picking Preckwinkle – who until the pop tax came along was regarded rather highly by the electorate.

Largely, of course, because she wasn’t Todd Stroger. Does anybody seriously think that voters would return to Todd to replace Toni?

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Fioretti may be longer-shot political comeback than that of Pat Quinn

Robert Fioretti is ambitious, we’ll have to give him that much.

FIORETTI: Wants to be county boss

The one-time alderman of Chicago’s 2^nd Ward was among the people who tried challenging Rahm Emanuel for his mayoral post in the 2015 election cycle – finishing fourth with just over 7 percent of the non-partisan election that year.

NOW, HIS DESIRE to be able to call himself a prominent political person is being resurrected with his talk that he’ll run for the Democratic nomination for Cook County Board president.

In short, he’s willing to challenge Toni Preckwinkle – gambling on the fact that people so upset over the pop tax that will cease to exist in a couple of weeks will remain so peeved that they’ll vote for Anybody But Toni.

Maybe even Bob.

It’s obvious that Fioretti has no intention of letting this issue go. He kicked off his active campaigning for county board president with an appearance Monday at the Lansing Municipal Airport.

THE AIR STRIP in that south suburb literally has as its eastern boundary the Illinois/Indiana state line. Making it possible for Fioretti to engage in a lot of political trash talk about how the people of neighboring Dyer, Ind., have lesser tax rates than those who live in Lansing and Cook County proper.

PRECKWINKLE: Won't be unopposed

Ignoring the fact that Indiana-based municipal governments usually offer far less in the way of services to their residents than the ones in Cook County do. Which basically means you get what you pay for – and I view that as one of Illinois’ and the Chicago-area’s strengths.

But back to the voter choice coming up March 20 in Cook County as to who should be our county board president (the Republican Party structure is too weak to come up with a credible challenger, meaning the primary likely will be the election).

Maybe it’s because I remember Fioretti’s time as an alderman as being one where he was one of the most-outspoken of the aldermanic creatures in the City Council. It meant he got quoted in the news reports far more often than many of his colleagues – and it gave him a prominent name on the political scene.

EMANUEL: Beat Bob badly in 2015

BUT TO BE honest, a lot of his talk just came across as cheap. As though it was someone talking just for the sake of hearing himself speak. Not because he necessarily had much of anything worth saying.

Reporter-type people who cover government bodies at all levels learn to deal with such people. You learn to tell the difference between the people who actually have some comprehension of what government does and which ones are merely good for a quote that helps fill out space in the many stories that get written about government activity.

So was I shocked that Fioretti would be the type with the bloated-enough ego to think that all of Chicago (and not just the residents of the Second Ward) was ready for his feisty rhetoric about how fouled up Emanuel and everybody else was?

Let’s remember that when the City Council district boundaries were redrawn the last time, Fioretti was the one whose home suddenly wound up in a new district. He lost his supporters. He has to try to run for something different – or else face irrelevance.

SO WHEN HE couldn’t become mayor or even make it into a runoff election (the Anybody But Rahm voters preferred Jesus “Chuy” Garcia instead), he needs to pick another post so as to avoid irrelevance.

 

GARCIA: Rahm critics preferred Chuy to Bob

So now, he’s going for the county board, where without him it seems that Preckwinkle would be unopposed for the post she has held since 2010. Not that I think Toni is entitled to run unchallenged – competition is always good.

But it’s best if it is a serious challenger who has a vision for why we should vote for them – and not just “Dump Toni!” because she tried to plug a hole in the county financial picture that Fioretti himself might wind up having to concoct some sort of tax hike to fill if he were somehow capable of getting himself elected.

We’ll get to see for ourselves just how petty our electorate is capable of being come the 2018 election cycle – and whether Fioretti gets to become the Chicago version of Pat Quinn; the former governor who has run for so many offices throughout the years and will be making his own political comeback bid next year for state Attorney General.

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