“Mayor” Mendoza?

Susana Mendoza got political people all stirred up recently what with the word that she’s already starting up work on campaign advertising spots promoting a spring 2019 campaign for Chicago mayor.

MENDOZA: A political realist

Even though she’s, strictly speaking, a candidate for Illinois comptroller come Tuesday.

THE PARTISANS WHO hate the idea of Mendoza winning anything are trying to claim her behavior is that of a political hypocrite. A selfish person who’s trying to put her grubby little paws all over everything in sight.

Why doesn’t she just make up her mind? The latter thought literally was expressed by my father, who admits he’s inclined to hold the whole affair against her.

Although I can’t help but think the people who are turning this whole situation into an issue are the ones who realize, deep-down, that they got nothin’ on Mendoza, and aren’t about to beat her any other way.

This issue is the work of political desperation. Darlene Senger likely isn’t going to go anywhere following Tuesday’s elections. As for Claire Ball, she’s likely to be as insignificant as every other person who has run under the Libertarian Party political banner.

SO WHAT SHOULD we think of Mendoza? Personally, I’m swayed by the notion there have been many political people throughout the years who have decided to move up to a higher-ranking political post – even though they already have a post in which to serve.

Who's Susana's real opponent -- Senger … 

Mendoza wouldn’t be a “first” if she were to try to run for mayor come the Feb. 26 election cycle (and again in an April run-off election, if one turns out to be necessary).

I also get that circumstances such as having the mayoral post open with no incumbent seeking it does not come up every election cycle. This could be a matter of a politically ambitious person deciding the circumstances are proper right now for a move up.

So it likely will wind up that Senger will complain all she wants about Mendoza, but a majority of the electorate won’t be swayed. That GOP label could become so tarnished by Trump that it drags her down to defeat with a lot of others.

… or Preckwinkle?

ALTHOUGH IN ALL honesty, the Republican label in Illinois is so weak that there are many political posts up for grabs come Tuesday that there are NO Republican challengers.

That’s why it’s hard to get a grasp locally on how strong the support is for President Donald Trump. He’s irrelevant locally.

If it turns out there is a “red tsunami” of voters that benefits backers of the Trumpster, it’s going to mean creation of a governmental structure that will go out of its way to snub Chicago interests.

Of course, Mendoza could turn out to be right about the “bluenami” that will benefit the political interests of those people wishing to undermine Trump for the next two years.

TO THAT END, Mendoza appears to have interests in becoming mayor (which is a more prominent post than that of Illinois comptroller, which many people stumble over when trying to pronounce).

TRUMP: How much of a factor is he, really?

I’m inclined to believe her when she says her political operatives shot some stray rough footage touting her for mayor, while also doing the work on comptroller campaign ads. She’s being real in admitting that she’d have to make a sudden shift in focus, IF she decides to make the move up.

So anybody who expects her to make a solid decision now and commit to one post is not being realistic. If anything, they’re showing their support for a political opponent who isn’t capable of running a credible opposition campaign.

And as for the idea of “Mayor” Mendoza, the real issue is whether voters think she’s too young (she’s 46) now, or whether they think other candidates (including Toni Preckwinkle, who’s 71) are a batch of old fuddy-duddies?

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Moving up politically? Or not enough Latinos to run for political office?

It seems the people who were trying to get Jesus Garcia to give up the seat in Congress he’s likely to win a few weeks from now to run for mayor have a new focal point for their ethnically-oriented political efforts.

Should Mendoza be eager to return to City Hall in '19?

They’re now trying to get Susana Mendoza, the Illinois comptroller who’s trying to win re-election to a full term of her own come Nov. 6, to seek the mayor’s post come the municipal elections to be held Feb. 26.

IT LITERALLY IS the same Latino activists who were trying to persuade Garcia to move up(?) to Chicago mayor who are now behind the effort to get Mendoza – who once used to be Chicago city clerk before becoming the woman in charge of Illinois state finances – to want to give up all this Springfield nonsense and return to City Hall.

Which I know some people regard as the focal point for all politics that matters!

Or could just be the point that some people with lesser ambitions think is the place where government has an impact on the daily lives of people. Either that, or they think the idea of having to live in Springfield (state constitutional officers such as comptroller are required to maintain a mailing address in the state’s capital city) is so dreadful.

Anyway, we literally now have people out in the streets of Chicago circulating the nominating petitions gathering signatures of support so that Mendoza could run for mayor in next year’s election cycle – should she decide to do so.

GARCIA: Headed for D.C. -- NOT City Hall

FOR THE RECORD, Mendoza has been consistent in saying she’s focusing her attention on winning election to the post she has held for the past couple of years. The one she won originally in a special election against Leslie Munger – the Republican woman whom Bruce Rauner appointed to the state post when the elected official, Judy Baar Topinka, died just after being elected in 2016.

There are those Republican-type who feel the comptroller’s post was “stolen” from them, and they’d love to be able to claim that Mendoza is more interested in running for another government office, rather than focus on the post she now has.

Which is why Mendoza won’t say publicly she’s interested in running for mayor – she’d be giving her GOP opponent, Darlene Senger, a campaign issue.

SENGER: Can she stand in Mendoza's way?

Although there’s a part of me that really would want to see Mendoza finish out this four-year term for the office she’s now seeking.

YES, I HAVE an interest in Latino political empowerment. I’d enjoy seeing more Latino persons running for government office, and winning. Having the Chicago mayoral seat on a list of positions held by Latinos would be significant.

Particularly since it would offend the sensibilities of those kinds of people inclined to want to take Donald Trump seriously every time the president uses his Twitter account to engage in another one of his nit-wit rants.

But it almost seems like we’re inclined to keep re-using the same couple of names over and over again to have Latino officials run for political posts. When the goal for people interested in Latino political empowerment ought to be to have MORE Latinos in government offices.

It shouldn’t be about getting a couple of people already elected into as high-ranking of posts as possible! That seems rather limiting, and would play into the hands nativists who are determined to think Latinos “don’t belong.”

YES, I’D RATHER see Jesus Garcia, a Mexican-born naturalized U.S, citizen work the Halls of Capitol Hill and have an influence on our federal government.

While Mendoza, a Chicago-born and suburban Bolingbrook-raised daughter of Mexican immigrants, perhaps could someday be Illinois’ first female governor (she’s only 46), and perhaps be the one who frustrates the Republican desires to have an Illinois predominated by the 96 counties that, at best, comprise one-third of the state’s population.

Activists ought to try to grow the ranks of Latino government officials – or else they could wind up with a Chicago run by Latinos that has its every desire overruled by hostile federal and state political interests.

Besides, Mendoza has youth in her favor and could still get that future run for mayor – where (based on the video from her latest campaign ad) she could be the mayor who can handle a “real” football better than anybody playing professionally for the Chicago Fire.

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Will we get equivalent of Trump's “lock her up” from Rauner about Madigan?

Is Gov. Rauner's re-election bid … 

Anybody with any degree of sense realizes that Gov. Bruce Rauner is full of it, so to speak, when he implies that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, is engaged in criminal activities.

For if the governor really had the goods on Madigan, he’d be contacting the proper authorities in a position to do something; rather than wasting his venom on campaign tactics. He’d be pushing for something to happen prior to the Nov. 6 Election Day!

… going to try to treat Madigan … 

INSTEAD, WE’RE GETTING the rancid rhetoric as the campaign cycle heats up. We’re already getting tastes of it now, and it will continue to ramp up once we get past the Labor Day holiday.

For Rauner, who last week went on the attack during an interview with a radio station in Southern Illinois, engaged in similar trash talk during an appearance in the Chicago suburbs on Monday.

The “line” that gets all the attention?

“Clearly, he’s been doing unethical things. I hope he’s been doing something illegal, and I hope he gets prosecuted.” With Rauner speaking of the man who is approaching the half-century mark of service in the Illinois General Assembly.

… similar to all the 'lock her up' trash talk … 

THIS IS GOING to be the theme from here on through Election Day. Almost as though Rauner is trying to give us the political sequel to all the “Lock Her Up” trash talk and chants that the Donald Trump presidential campaign gave us in 2016.

To the point where, even though Trump quickly backed away from such talk following his election, there are still many of his backers whose only complaint about The Donald is that Hillary Clinton didn’t immediately face criminal indictment upon his election.

Rauner seems to want to get voters all riled up at the prospect of Madigan getting the traditional “Oxford education” (a stint at the federal correctional center in Oxford, Wis.) as a tactic to spur on voters and boost the turnout.

… Trump dished out to Hillary?

Perhaps it’s because Rauner has little to nothing in the way of accomplishments for himself that he thinks this is the only way he can win – particularly since Rauner’s record as governor includes several acts that have offended the ideologues he’d normally be counting on for support.

“PROSECUTE MADIGAN!” IS a phrase we’re likely to hear over and over again. And not just from Rauner himself about the House Speaker, who also doubles as the Illinois Democratic chairman.

For it is on Tuesday that Illinois attorney general candidate Erika Harold is coming out with her first statewide television campaign spot – one that highlights the notion of Madigan’s “corruption” (and even shows her standing out front of the offices used by Madigan’s law firm – the one that makes its money off tax law and allegedly getting its clients tax breaks that wind up costing the rest of the state more money).

Harold is running against Kwame Raoul, the state senator from the Hyde Park neighborhood whom Harold labeled in her ad as a man whose top financial donor is Madigan himself. Of course, Madigan is a top donor for many legislative candidates – since Madigan is a legislative leader.

I also find it ironic that Harold would have the nerve to complain about Raoul’s “top donor” since her top donor is the governor himself. This very spot we’re going to be inundated with in coming days is likely only available because of that $1 million contribution to Harold that Rauner made mention of last week.

THE ONE HE’S making because he wants a state attorney general who will “prosecute” Madigan – even though Harold would not really have any such authority to do IF she actually wins.

MENDOZA: Had the nerve to win in '16

It’s probably just a matter of time before Illinois comptroller candidate Darlene Senger comes up with her own spots tying incumbent Comptroller Susana Mendoza to “corruption and “Madigan!!!”

Mendoza did, after all, have the nerve to defeat Leslie Munger for the position back when it was up for grabs in a 2016 special election, thereby knocking off Rauner's lone GOP ally. How dare she!?!

Which is why Rauner is all by his lonesome these days within the state government structure – surrounded by Democrats eager to Dump Bruce! and put an end to the notion that being a Democratic partisan is, in and of itself, a criminal act!

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