'Mayor Lori' versus 'Boss Toni' could be awkward pairing for next four years

Preckwinkle won't disappear just because … 

Just a thought for those people who are thinking of voting for Lori Lightfoot to be mayor out of a belief that such an act will drive the political party boss Toni Preckwinkle into retirement.

Not only does she retain her Cook County Board presidential post if she loses, she also remains as chairwoman of the Cook County Democratic Party.

… Lightfoot manages to become mayor

MEANING IF LIGHTFOOT does manage to prevail in the April 2 run-off election, she’d have to deal with Preckwinkle as competition on two fronts. And with “Boss” Toni as party chair, she’d have to be capable of showing some sort of respect toward her.

Unless she literally wants to have the party hacks all ganging up on her mayorality in ways that would be reminiscent of the Harold Washington era. Because for all the symbolism of being the city’s first black mayor, it could be argued that he didn’t accomplish much of lasting value because of how early into a second term he died.

If anything, the Washington era was historic for the way in which the city got bogged down in partisan (as in racial) politics; it wasn’t a big plus for Chicago.

That doesn’t necessarily mean I’m saying Toni Preckwinkle is going to turn into some version of Edward R. Vrdolyak; going out of his way to thwart anything that Harold Washington tried to accomplish as mayor.

BUT THIS IS partisan politics. Anybody who thinks they’re going to “get tough” with Toni by having a symbolic Lightfoot smack her around ought to accept that she’s just as capable of fighting back.

And not just with her first campaign advertising spot – the one that basically implies she’s a “corporate lawyer” with ties to Republican politicos.

Personally, I’m not sure what to think of Lightfoot. Other than the fact she has been a federal prosecutorial-type and one-time Police Board member, she doesn’t have a government background to run on.

Could we get partisan brawl reminiscent of 80s?

Which allows many of the people currently backing her (including many of the North Lakefront types) capable of defining her to their desires – not necessarily by who she really is.

WE COULD WIND up very surprised by what a Lightfoot mayorality turns into. Whereas I’m inclined to think that a Preckwinkle mayorality is exactly who she has been during her time as an alderman from Hyde Park and as a county board president.

I’m thinking these thoughts based on a recent poll I saw – the results of which say that Lightfoot is leading Preckwinkle by roughly a 2-1 voter margin. As in this election could turn into a butt-whuppin’ of the sorts that Daleys usually administered throughout the years to the people who had the nerve to challenge them.

But it is early in the process. We still have nearly a month for various factors to come into play for people to make up their minds – particularly since the election last week showed two-thirds of those who voted didn’t want either Lightfoot or Preckwinkle as mayor.

Meaning I’m not sure what we should be thinking in terms of which of these two is the front-runner.

THERE ARE THOSE who think that some establishment types, particularly those who wanted William Daley to be in the run-off election running will back Preckwinkle. Because, or so the thinking goes, that one of the people who’d be in the running to replace her as county president would be John Daley.

Could there be a Daley family win?

As in a Daley brother – and another son of the one-time mayor Richard J. – the last person who was both mayor and party chairman simultaneously. The real establishment types would have wanted a “Mayor” Daley, but may settle for having the county board presidency.

Of course, the thought of that happening may well scare some voters into picking Lightfoot just so that the Preckwinkle post doesn’t become vacant for another Daley to have.

Which could result in Chicago politics becoming a Lightfoot/Preckwinkle brawl between mayoral opponents for the next month, and between “Mayor Lori” and “Boss Toni” for the next four years!

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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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Is Chicago’s political “Machine” dead? Evidence leans in both directions

“The ‘Machine’ is dead!” Or is it, “Long live the ‘Machine’!”

BERRIOS: Off to political retirement?

For those people who like to rant about Chicago politics and the dreaded “Machine” (a.k.a., the regular Democratic Party organization) that runs it, there was superficial evidence from Tuesday’s primary election to indicate both stances.

IT’S HARD TO say the “Machine” is alive and thriving when the Cook County Democratic Party chairman can’t even get himself re-elected to his own government post.

Sure enough, Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios is out – having lost his primary bid to a political amateur. Albeit one with University of Chicago academia experience. Although in many ways, that qualifies as the ultimate “nobody nobody sent” that the old school says is completely undesirable.

Of course, Berrios had so many people singling him out for a political demise. He had built up throughout the years a massive list of people who had nothing but contempt for his political existence. He was counting on the Democratic organization to turn out the votes to lead to his electoral success.

What is it that made Berrios so many electoral enemies? The fact he liked to have family members on his government office payroll didn’t help his image. Nor did the perception that he was using his office to give significant property tax breaks to business interests who contributed financially to his campaign fund.

HENCE, WE HAD a lot of voters who went to their polling place Tuesday (or an Early Voting center during previous weeks) with two goals in mind – a choice for governor, and ANYBODY except Berrios!

Which is why we now have Fritz Kaegi as the Democratic nominee, and likely the eventual Assessor for the next four years.

Unless Andrea Raila, a third candidate whose campaign got seriously hemmed in by Kaegi-backer antics to keep her off the ballot, succeeds in forcing the election results to be tossed out and a special election to be held.

LIPINSKI: Returning to D.C.

If the ‘Machine’ still had significant life, that might be a possibility. But since there aren’t “re-dos” in electoral politics (just as “there’s no crying in baseball), we’re likely stuck with Tuesday night’s election results.

BUT BEFORE WE say the ‘Machine’ is a relic of the past, keep in mind the apparent victory of Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill.

He’s the Congressman from Southwest Side Chicago and surrounding suburbs whose Democratic partisan leanings are due to his support for organized labor and unions. On many of the social issues that a new generation of Democrats think are all important, he’s hostile – particularly abortion.

Lipinski, the son of Bill Lipinski who also served in the City Council and later in Congress back when the ‘Machine’ was a reality of political life, always gets people claiming he’s “too conservative” to be a Chicago congressman. But this election cycle, he got a challenger in the form of Marie Newman and the many national Democratic support groups willing to prop up her campaign financially.

But according to the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, the 56.58 percent of votes Lipinski got in the city portion of the congressional district far exceeded the 51.59 percent support the Cook County Clerk’s office says Newman got in the suburbs.

THE DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATION can be said to have done its part to send Lipinski back to Capitol Hill and ensure that the Democratic caucus has people representing various points of view on issues within its membership. Although the people who always make this argument don’t seem the least bit concerned that the Republican caucus is overwhelmingly dominated by conservative ideologues.

But back to Berrios for a bit. I suspect there are some people whose objections include a tinge of ethnic hostility. I remember when his daughter, Toni, lost her re-election bid to an Illinois House seat in 2014, with some voters saying they didn’t want Latino political representation for an area with a gentrifying population.

BURKE: 

But before anybody thinks I’m saying Joe Berrios was picked upon for his ethnic origins (he’s Puerto Rican), I’d have to acknowledge the political victory the very same night for Aaron Ortiz – who defeated Dan Burke for his Illinois House seat.

Burke most definitely would have won yet another term (he’s been at the Statehouse since 1991) if the ‘Machine’ were truly thriving. Now, he’s probably wondering what’s the world come to when Ed Burke, the City Council’s long-time Finance chairman, can’t even get his own brother re-elected to office.

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Will Dems follow orders, back Foxx?

The Cook County Democratic Party put the word out Thursday – loyal Democrats are supposed to back Kim Foxx’ bid to be the new state’s attorney.

FOXX: The official choice of Dem party

With the party deciding to slate her bid over that of incumbent State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez and challenger Donna More, it means that the political operatives in charge of getting people to actually turn out and vote for Democrats on March 15 will be under orders to stress votes for Foxx.

OR, IF THEY happen to be among those people who just can’t bring themselves to vote for the woman who was once chief of staff to county board President Toni Preckwinkle, they will be under orders to keep their mouths shut and do nothing to interfere with Foxx’ campaign operations.

Personally, I remain unsure how the election for a new state’s attorney this year will turn out.

I don’t doubt that people upset by incidents involving police violence against black people will be in place, and there will be some people more than willing to see incumbent Alvarez go as punishment for the fact it took her office about a full year to decide to prosecute the Chicago cop who shot Laquan McDonald to death.

Even those who I’m sure want to protect the interests of Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Sacrifice Anita, but keep Rahm!

BUT THE FACT is that Foxx will not be in a head-to-head political fight against Alvarez come the Democratic primary. More, a one-time federal prosecutor who also has been involved with the Illinois Gaming Board, has her own share of supporters.

The overly-simplistic way of viewing this fight is to say Foxx will dominate the South Side and suburbs where significant numbers of African-American people live (she is a resident of suburban Flossmoor), while More will be the preferred opposition to Alvarez for North Side and suburban voters who are overwhelmingly white.

PRECKWINKLE: Will she decide election?

Which could result in a split that gives Alvarez just enough voters to win a three-way fight.

So what does this decision to slate Foxx really mean?

IF IT IS a factor in getting North Side and suburban political types to get on board with the program for Foxx, it could be significant. It could be what enables her share of the vote to top Alvarez – particularly if it drives More’s campaign into irrelevancy.

But the one thing I have learned about being around political people is their talk in public often does not match their actions.

RAUNER: Will ties help, or hurt, More?

I could very easily envision a whole batch of whispering taking place up north that enables More to keep getting voter support – even though publicly the officials will claim they’re going along with the political party’s pick on Thursday.

For all I know, the fact that More has a record of financial ties (as in campaign contributions) to Gov. Bruce Rauner could wind up being a boost for herself – even though I’m sure both Alvarez and Foxx will go out of their way to make More out to be the governor’s lackey because of it.

IN SHORT, I remain confused about how this particular election will turn out – and remain convinced that the race for Cook County state’s attorney will be the prime campaign at stake on March 15.

ALVAREZ: Any love for Anita these days?

U.S. president? Forget it! Who really cares which of those clowns running in both major party’s political primaries manages to take Illinois voter supports? Just a bit more evidence of the overly-local tendencies Chicago and suburban voters tend to have when it comes time to walk into the voting booth on Election Day!

And one that could provide yet another anecdotal story about how the political parties just don’t mean as much these days as they did in the days of “the Machine” when “Boss Daley” could bark orders at who should get elected to office.

Somehow, I don’t think Preckwinkle has the same boss-like tendencies.

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We’ll get to see how much (or little) party politicking has changed in Cook

Political party officials, and not just in Chicago, are usually stubborn types who think they’re always right and that if they just stand fast in their ways anybody who has the nerve to complain will just go away!

BROWN: How long will she keep the lawbooks?

So it is with that attitude in mind that we ought to appreciate the happenings of Friday in which the Democratic Party for Cook County decided to openly dump on Dorothy Brown in her desire to get elected to a fifth term as Cook County court clerk.

HERS IS THE office that keeps track of what happens in the court system, and has been criticized often in the past for maintaining antiquated office procedures that often make it more complicated to get information than it ought to be.

Brown also has come under criticism, and investigation, on claims that employees of her office were being forced to make payments to Brown if they were to have any chance of having their desires for job promotions taken seriously.

In short, bribes. That is if we’re to believe the little tidbits that have come from the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago.

Recently, there were reports that federal investigators came to Brown’s home, and wound up confiscating her cell phone. Although Brown – who claims that all political people wind up being investigated at one point in time or another – says the phone was taken from her outside her house.

THAT IS A point that might matter to her, but I doubt many in the general public will make any such distinction.

Which may be why the Cook County Democratic Party, which earlier this year slated Brown as the officially preferred candidate for county court clerk in next year’s March primary, felt compelled to take it back.

They gathered on Friday, heard Brown out, then gathered in a back room for a brief bit of time before deciding to rescind her as the party pick.

By days’ end, the party shifted their preference to 8^th Ward Ald. Michelle Harris. Meaning that party precinct workers, when working their areas and encouraging people to vote, are supposed to tell people to pick Harris for county court clerk.

WHETHER PEOPLE WILL actually do that is yet to be seen. Perhaps in the old days, it would have been a shoo-in for Harris to win the nomination (and most likely, the general election next November).

HARRIS: How long until she blamed for flaws?

But I wonder if many people will have been so used to hearing the “Dorothy Brown” name throughout the years that they will give a knee-jerk reaction and vote for her. Will anybody remember five months from now what happened on Friday?

We’d like to think they would. But who’s to really say how seriously people will take the political party hacks who acted on Friday as though they could will away the presence of Dorothy Brown?

Personally, I think Friday was memorable for one moment – the point when Brown tried arguing that the county party structure had no authority to rescind her slating because she gave the party a $25,000 donation AFTER being slated earlier this year.

SHE CLAIMED IT was the equivalent of a legally-binding contract, although her description also makes it sound more like a bribe; like she bought the right to be the officially recognized choice of the Democratic Party.

As it is, I have already read my share of anonymous Internet commentary saying Brown has no concept of a contract, and has revealed her ignorance.

It will be curious to see just how extensive that thought is among the electorate. Will Brown manage to get herself re-elected despite the slating shift; thereby requiring an indictment and eventual criminal conviction to remove her from office?

Or will it soon become Harris who becomes the person who takes the blame for now antiquated the court clerk’s record keeping measures are?

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When do endorsements matter?

It never fails to amaze me the degree to which political people think that official endorsements mean much of anything.

QUINN: He wants the state slating!

You’d think the fact that officials see how low they turn up in political polls ranking their approval, and they’d realize that we’d think just as little of the people offering up the endorsements as we do of the officials who supposedly are being supported.

IT IS WHY I’m going to find it amusing if the Democratic Party of Illinois sticks to its plans to meet Sunday in Springfield for a formal slating session.

Of course, the only statewide election of any significance on March 18 where there is a likelihood of a contested Democratic Party primary is the fight for governor.

That is what will be at stake – will the official mechanism of the Democratic Party at the statewide level make a formal statement that it prefers to have Pat Quinn seek another term as governor?

Or will there be enough dissent that the party won’t take a stance – which would leave the state committee chairmen (two from each congressional district; one male and one female) to say whatever it is they really feel next year when the gubernatorial campaigning reaches its peak.

IF THERE IS an official candidate slated for office, it means the party officials have to publicly back that choice. They may secretly want the other candidate, and may do things in private to undermine the slated candidate. But publicly, they will not oppose the preferred candidate.

The Chicago Tribune reported last week that the reason the party is bothering is because Quinn, himself, asked for a slating session. In theory, it means that he’s confident enough that HE will be the official pick.

DALEY: Does he win by losing slating?

In reality, it will be embarrassing for his campaign if the party can’t get a sizable majority of support for Quinn. They don’t have to back the Bill Daley opposition campaign for Quinn to come out a loser.

Will there be enough Democratic Party love for Quinn (or distaste for Daley) that the party officials (particularly those from the rural areas who think the incumbent governor is too Chicago-oriented) put aside the fact that many of them think of the Mighty Quinn as the political equivalent of a cocktail weenie?

AND IF, BY chance, the Democratic Party of Illinois (whose chairman, by the way, is none other than Michael J. Madigan himself) takes a solid stance, will anybody take that endorsement seriously?

FRERICHS: He wants backers

Will anybody in today’s day and age care about what the party officials think?

Heck, I don’t think it means much that the Cook County Democratic Party decided already to officially slate Quinn for governor come 2014!

In fact, to the Chicago city voters who will be the basis of whatever support Quinn does get in next year’s primary will probably think it more important that the Cook County party organization took a stance than that the Illinois party people did.

THIS COMING WEEKEND, if it actually takes place, could wind up being a complete act of futility. Except for the fact that political people seem to want to believe that political organizations can still deliver significant numbers of voters to their campaigns WITHOUT having to go out and deal with those voters on a one-on-one basis. It just sounds so nice to say that an impressive-sounding (to some) organization offering their support means anything.

FIELD: She played a 'first lady,' would she beat a pol?

Which is about the only reason I can think of that the campaign of Mike Frerichs for Illinois treasurer felt compelled to tell us this past weekend that the Illinois Democratic County Chairmen’s Association (the organization that makes the rural Dems feel like they have a say) endorsed his bid in the Democratic primary.

Considering that he’s the only candidate (as of now) in the running for the nomination, the state senator from Champaign who wants to be a statewide name just seemed a little too eager to brag that somebody likes him right now. As in really likes him.

Somehow, I’d vote for Sally Field over Frerichs for just about anything, if I had the opportunity.

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Whodathunk we’d see day when Cook Dems wouldn’t blindly back a Daley

I’m sure there are some people scratching their heads and wondering why the Cook County Democratic Organization would give its official backing for Illinois governor to a candidate with approval ratings in the mid-20s.

QUINN: The officially preferred Dem

Because that is what happened Friday. The Democratic Party’s 50 ward committeemen and 30 township committeemen officially slated Gov. Pat Quinn for re-election.

PARTY OFFICIALS WILL be required to tout the campaign of Quinn, even though William Daley (the son and brother of former Chicago mayors) is also in the running – and there is speculation that Kwame Raoul (a state legislator from the Hyde Park neighborhood) may get into the primary race.

This is the same Pat Quinn who has had approval ratings of about 25 percent. There are those who are determined to believe that Quinn is beatable by anybody who challenges him.

Yet most of those people have their own partisan interests. They WANT to believe Quinn is a loser.

When one erases those people from the equation, the fact that the strongest Democratic Party organization in Illinois would decide to throw its lot in with the incumbent is such an obvious decision.

IT IS THE reason that Bill Daley (the former Commerce secretary and White House chief of staff) didn’t even bother showing up for the slating session held Friday morning.

He can save face by saying he wasn’t even interested in getting the support of the organization that was the reason his father, Richard J., was “the Boss!!!” of local politics. It allowed him to decide just who even got to run for office – knowing full-well that the committeemen of his era would rubber-stamp his choice.

Things are different today. The party slating doesn’t mean what it used to. And I’m  sure the people who are eager to dump Pat Quinn are going to ignore what happened on Friday.

DALEY: Not about to give up campaign

But the reality is that political parties always prefer to endorse an incumbent. The idea being that picking somebody else is an admission that somebody screwed up in voting for the incumbent to begin with.

AS FOR THE fact that Quinn has such low approval ratings, I don’t get as shaken up by those low levels the governor receives.

Because the fact is that most people these days don’t think highly of any government official. Anybody currently in office these days seems to draw these record-low levels of support.

Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, is the guy who has had approval ratings as low as 16 percent. The “Daley” name is in one of its lulls when it comes to support (although I won’t be surprised if the next generation produces a politician or two).

I suspect most people don’t have a clue who their state legislator or member of Congress is. Because if they did, those officials would have lower approval ratings.

SO THE IDEA that Cook County Democrats went for Pat Quinn? Not surprising. As one south suburban state legislator told me recently, “At least Pat Quinn listens to us and sort of has the right idea.”

Compared to Daley, who is developing a reputation amongst some people as being so business-oriented (he likes to boast that his stints as chairman of JPMorgan Chase and on the Fannie Mae board are more significant than his political posts) that people wonder if he wishes he could really be a Republican.

If there really was serious support for Daley and a split in the Cook County Democrats, what would have happened on Friday was a lengthy debate behind closed doors – with an eventual public announcement that the party was not going to slate either candidate.

It would have remained neutral – which would have allowed the committeemen to publicly support whomever they wanted come the March primary election.

INSTEAD, IT MEANS the official Daley support will be muted. Unofficial support will continue (people do, after all, have a right to express themselves). But for the official backing of party officials, Daley is going to have to turn to the other 101 counties.

Slating not the same as when HE was in charge

And the fact is that those Democratic Party organizations don’t have the numbers or the strength to turn out the vote the way the Cook Dems do.

Not that I’m convinced Quinn achieved a significant plus in his desires to serve another four years as Illinois governor. There may be a Republican field of candidates to offer an alternative, but I’m convinced this election cycle is really one where the winner will be the candidate whom the voters despise the least.

That may well be Pat Quinn. You never know.

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