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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Who’s to blame for Preckwinkle fizzling out at end – if that’s what it is!

This election cycle that was supposed to be of a historic nature is turning out to be absurdly anti-climactic. I’m ready for it to end – without really caring who will prevail.

PRECKWINKLE: Is it over for her?

There are those who sense that the momentum has swung to the mayoral campaign of Lori Lightfoot – even though on paper she’s clearly the inexperienced candidate. Or at least no one this time around is willing to reward Toni Preckwinkle for her superior (on paper) qualifications.

IT’S TO THE point where both Chicago major metro newspapers have reported that the Preckwinkle campaign has pulled back the funding they would have spent this week and next to flood the airwaves with a lot of advertising messages whose purpose would be to make us think Lightfoot is totally unfit for the office she seeks.

Is Preckwinkle broke? Does she privately realize she’s lost and doesn’t want to waste the money? After all, it would benefit her if she was the county board president/Cook County chairman who had something of a financial stash that she could then distribute to other political people.

Emphasizing her clout in future years when clout won’t be held against her.

Or it could be that we’re in line for some incredibly negative and nasty surprise gesture – something meant to show that Preckwinkle can play political hardball with the best of them.

SOME SORT OF last-minute surprise a week or so from now meant to create one incredibly nasty negative impression that could sway all the people who actually wait until Election Day April 2 before casting a ballot.

Of course, that idea is undermined by the fact that some people already have cast their ballots – the early voting center downtown opened during the weekend, and the neighborhood centers in each ward have been open since Monday.

Could it be that some have essentially given up – with the focus already shifting to placing blame. Just how could Preckwinkle – the one-time front-runner for the mayoral post – be the one who winds up trailing behind in the public eye.

LIGHTFOOT: Has she won already?

And no. We really can’t blame it all on the public sentiment being against incumbent political people. Because there’s always a little taste of that at work in any election cycle.

ACTUALLY, THERE ARE those who already are saying, “It’s Ed Burke’s fault.” As in voters are punishing Preckwinkle for the fact that she has been supportive all these years of Burke in his role as the most powerful alderman in the City Council.

Of course, Burke himself managed to get enough political support in the initial Feb. 26 election that he won re-election as alderman without having to face a run-off. And despite the fact that the ethnic demographics of his ward have changed so much throughout the years that Burke himself should have been a goner years ago.

Mostly because Burke knew how to turn out the vote in the precincts where his continued supporters live, and how to downplay turnout in the rest of the ward. He got his “people” to show up to vote in strength.

But in what most likely is the evidence that Preckwinkle isn’t a true hard-core old-school politico no matter how much the Lightfoot team tries to portray her as one, Toni likely won’t be able to do the same at the city-wide level.

THERE ARE POCKETS of people who will want to see Preckwinkle become mayor, and who will think it a travesty that it likely won’t happen. But Toni ain’t Eddie. If she really were the old political hack some want to say she is, she'd find ways to survive. While instead, the kind of people who wish they could vote Burke out of office (but can’t, they don’t live in his ward) will gladly use Preckwinkle as a surrogate.

BURKE: Did he cost Toni a mayoral victory?

Which will create the ultimate irony if, come May when newly-elected politicos are sworn in to office that Preckwinkle is vilified while Burke returns to office.

Admittedly, Burke has his legal travails to face. He may get a literal “day in court” at some point in the future.

But it will be annoying if, come this spring, Burke remains a part of the City Hall “scene” to face Lightfoot while Preckwinkle remains relegated to the County Building side of that massive concrete block downtown that has housed our local politicos for more than a century.

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EXTRA: Burke political impact harsher on others rather than on himself?

It would seem that long-time Alderman Edward M. Burke has his share of political backers who will kick in with the most significant kind of help – campaign cash!

BURKE: Hurt on others, not himself

But the possibility that Burke is headed for a criminal indictment by a federal grand jury? It seems that likelihood’s possibility is most likely to hurt other people – as in the ones who all these years thought having Burke on their side was their greatest strength.

ADMITTEDLY, THE SOURCE of this perspective is one with a bias. It seems that mayoral hopeful Toni Preckwinkle (who once was considered to be the mayoral frontrunner for the upcoming elections in February and April) is losing support because it is known that she was Burke’s preference to become the city’s next mayor.

It seems that the pollster working on behalf of mayoral opponent Susana Mendoza (and also worked for new Gov. J.B. Pritzker) says that Preckwinkle’s “favorable” rating dropped from 47 percent in December to 36 percent now.

Meanwhile, her “unfavorable” rating went up 15 percentage points – to 46 percent.

By comparison, the Gallup Organization gives President Donald Trump a 39 percent approval rating these days. Do fewer people like Toni than do The Donald?

PRECKWINKLE: Favorable worse than Trump

COULD IT BE that the one-time front-runner has developed about as much distaste amongst the Chicago public as Trump has amongst the national electorate?

This drop is largely due to the perception that Preckwinkle is too aligned with Burke, and even had to go to the trouble of returning campaign contributions she had received from people who were doing Burke a favor by giving her money.

The same poll that now shows Preckwinkle’s favorability rating on the decline shows her now tied (at 11 percent support each) with Mendoza in the 14-candidate mayoral race. With William Daley close behind at 9 percent, rising slightly.

MENDOZA: Thinks she'll benefit

I find it humorous that Preckwinkle had to return campaign donations that carried the taint of Ed Burke, while Burke himself has a campaign fund so far ahead of his own opponents that he’s going to be able to bury his opposition financially – particularly since it is likely that any indictment won’t be handed down until AFTER the elections are past.

BURKE COULD EASILY be re-elected to the beginning of his second half-century in the City Council by the time we know if he’s actually going to be charged with anything – which will make it easier for him to disregard the issue during the actual election cycle.

How much better off financially is Burke?

Burke went into this month with some $9.7 million on hand and having spent some $3 million already. By comparison, the Latino ethnic challengers to Burke are poverty-stricken. One opponent, Irene Corral, literally has $0.

While Tanya Patino, who’d like to call herself the front-runner of the Latino Burke challengers because she has Rep. Jesus Garcia’s endorsement, only has $16,274 to spend.

I HAVE NO doubt there will be some people living in the Southwest Side neighborhoods of the 14^th Ward that have developed a significant Mexican-American population who will be eager to vote for “one of their own” for alderman.

PATINO: A pauper, next to Burke

But Burke isn’t going to be buried politically because he’s lacking in finances.

There will be those eager to see him maintained as a City Council presence – even though he technically no longer holds the Finance Committee chairman position that was the source of his political influence.

The sad reality could be that Burke gets himself re-elected to the City Council, with people choosing to take out their contempt with Eddie when they cast their vote for mayor.

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Just what constitutes Justice?

VAN DYKE: What will be left of life?

I can already hear the rants from people who fear that justice (or is that Justice! with a capital “J”) won’t be served in coming weeks.

The would-be defendants whom some are eager to see prosecuted to the maximum extent of the law (if not beyond the extend, with the mythical “book” being thrown at them) are none other than Alderman Edward M. Burke and former police officer Jason Van Dyke.

BURKE: Does he still have a political life?

VAN DYKE, OF course, is the white police officer who was found guilty last year of criminal offenses in the 2014 shooting death of a teenager who happens to be black.

While Burke is the long-time alderman named in a criminal complaint suggesting that he went too far in terms of shaking down a business that wants to remodel a Gage Park neighborhood Burger King franchise.

The very franchise, in fact, where Laquan McDonald, the black teenager, was shot nearby on that night in ’14 when he didn’t stop fast enough to satisfy Van Dyke’s concerns.

It seems that federal prosecutors would like to strengthen their criminal case against Burke by getting a grand jury to indict him on some sort of charge – perhaps something far more significant than he currently faces.

WHICH IS WHY attorneys were in court this week. In theory, prosecutors had until Friday – the next scheduled court date – before they would have to put up or shut up, so to say. Instead, an extension was granted. May 3 is now the significant date.

A fact that will anger those people so eager for a Burke criminal conviction that they dream of it being the factor that knocks him out of the running for the Feb. 26 municipal elections.

Legal notoriety? Or is all publicity good?

Even if the 14^th Ward aldermanic race stretches to an April 2 run-off (which is very likely), it means the elections will be over before we know exactly what will become of Burke on the criminal justice front. He could easily wind up being re-elected before actual charges are known.

It will complicate the desires of those who just want Ed Burke out of office – and really don’t care much about the specific details. It sort of makes it easier for Burke to focus on campaigning for re-election if actual criminal charges are theoretical.

AS FOR FRIDAY in court, it now means nothing for Burke. But for those eager to see criminal justice action that day, the focus will be solely on Van Dyke.

For he’s the one found guilty of second degree murder and multiple counts of aggravated battery with a firearm. Theoretically, he could get multiple sentences for each charge that could have a minimum of 96 years in prison.

A sentence that would appease those people eager to see a cop go to prison for what they will forevermore see as a racially-motivated slaying. But prosecutors admitted this week there is a way to interpret the sentencing guidelines so that Van Dyke could theoretically get 15 years of actual prison time.

At age 40 now, he’d be 55 upon release. Which would still allow him a chance to have some life left in freedom – even though it will be his aging years, as the rest of what’s left of his youth would be spent in prison somewhere.

IT WILL BE interesting to see how Judge Vincent Gaughan interprets the law in this case. I have no doubt everybody’s going to be outraged – from those who want Van Dyke to get some form of probation up to those who want him to get a lengthy, demoralizing prison term then want him to die at the hands of his fellow inmates.

GAUGHAN: Expected to impose sentence Friday

Which is a sick attitude to have, but it is one that becomes all too common amongst the general public. The very reason why we don’t let public sentiment play too much of a role in criminal cases.

Similar to those who would like to see Ed Burke get hauled off to the pokey, so to speak, as punishment for all the ideologically-motivated acts he committed throughout his 50 years in the City Council.

Public sentiment all too often leads to rash acts that, in and of themselves, are an injustice.

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Re-elect Burke? Tough, but the Chicago ‘Rules’ won’t rule out possibility

Call them, if you will, the “rules” by which the Chicago electorate tends to operate when it comes to Election Day behavior.

BURKE: Could he still win Feb. 26?

It’s not wrong to cast a ballot for someone who faces some sort of indictment or other criminal charge. We literally take that “innocent until proven guilty” staple and want to see a criminal conviction before we’ll believe the worst in political people.

TO THE POINT where some people even try arguing that a public official ought to be able to remain in office right up to the day they’re carted off and sent to ‘da slammer.’

The other rule might not be a Chicago rule as just a good rule of thumb for understanding the concept of Latino political empowerment and why the number of Latino elected officials doesn’t equal their share of the population. It’s that the Latino Election Day turnout often stinks to the point of embarrassment.

It also helps to understand that despite what conservative ideologues want to believe, Chicago is NOT some politically radical place. Our Democratic majorities often consist of people who are fairly neutral minded – except to those ideologues whose idea of “moderate” is somewhere to the right of Atilla, the Hun.

It is so unlikely that our city would ever produce a pseudo-radical such as New York City’s new member of Congress, Alejandra Ocasio-Cortez. The woman whose very presence offends the right likely would have been too offensive to Chicago voters, IF she lived here rather than in the Bronx.

THIS LITTLE COLLECTION of pithy comments is the basis of why I’m not prepared to write off the chance of Edward M. Burke getting himself re-elected to another term in the City Council that would give him the beginning of a second half-century as a Chicago alderman.

GARCIA: Can his influence beat Burke?

Now as to whether he can survive long enough to finish out another four-year term running through 2023, I don’t know!

Burke may well be in a deep-enough legal predicament that he won’t be around come that year. He may have to resign himself in ways more significant than giving up the Finance committee chairmanship – the title that allowed him to bop about City Hall like a Lord and treat the rest of the aldermen as his minions.

Personally, I wonder about the legitimacy of the charges, but I also know many people will be swayed by the very fact that the federal government is proceeding with the process that eventually will put Burke on trial – OR pressure him into pleading guilty to something ominous sounding.

WHILE OTHERS ALSO are so eager to see Burke “taken down” for something sounding criminal that they’ll believe it just has to be – even if they really can’t explain it or comprehend why it ought to be illegal.

But whether Burke is guilty of a federal offense or not is really a completely different question from whether he can win re-election.

I can’t help but notice the significant amounts of campaign cash he already has, combined with the fact he had a fundraising event recently to add to the $12 million total he already had. There are many people in the legal community who are now on the record as being willing to offer the greatest act of support they can give a politician – a campaign contribution.

There will be those who will view the growing number of Latinos who live in that particular ward (nearly four of every five residents) as some sort of threat, and Burke’s re-election as maintaining of tradition.

AS TO HOW he tries to appeal to Latinos to not view him as the enemy, it literally has me wondering if he’s out to position himself as a modern-day descendant of the San Patricios. That being the 1840s unit of Irish immigrants who came to this country, enlisted in the U.S. military, then responded to intense anti-Catholic/immigrant prejudice by switching sides during the Mexican/American War.

OCASIO-CORTEZ: Too radical to win Chicago?

Traitors to the ideologues, they are heroes to the Mexican people – viewed as Irish allies to the idea of their independence. Which is how I’m sure Burke would like the Mexican/American populace of his ward to think of himself.

Even before the indictment, Burke was going about as making himself a backer of people offended by use of the Gary/Chicago International Airport (funded partially by the city Department of Aviation) as part of the process of deporting people from this country.

Will it work? I don’t know. Just another of the many questions that will make this particular aldermanic race a battle – rather than the usual shoo-in – for Burke. But not, so sayeth the Chicago Rules, an improbability.

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Survival of Ed Burke? Or the creation of a new Latino political power couple?

So what’s going to be the outcome of this year’s aldermanic elections for Chicago’s 14^th Ward – one of those Southwest Side bastions that likes to think its all politically powerful because its alderman for the past 50 years has been Ed Burke.

BURKE: Latinos to decide if he stays, or goes

Because he’s the council Finance chairman and has been around so long, he has developed a certain undue influence as the aldermen other aldermen seek out for support, and whom mayors themselves think twice about before double-crossing.

BUT BURKE HAS the rumor mill running overtime in thinking he’s under the microscope of the FBI. Nobody knew for what until Thursday, when federal prosecutors filed extortion charges against the long-time alderman for allegedly trying to get the owners of a Burger King franchise to throw legal business to his law firm.

Even before the charges were known, Latino activists who have long noted the area’s growing population shifting from the white Irish of old to a growing mix of Mexican-Americans were thinking this is now the time to dump Eddie and replace him with “one of our own,” so to speak.

But the one thing Burke has going in his favor is that the ethnic vote could wind up being split. It seems that five candidates of Latino ethnic backgrounds have declared their candidacies to challenge Burke come the Feb. 26 election – and April 2 runoff, if necessary.

The last official population count of the city showed the ward with a 79.89 percent total of Latinos. This is NO longer a part of the white ethnic class that three decades ago rewarded Burke for his vocal opposition to Harold Washington’s time as mayor.

Patino and Ortiz (below), … 

WITH SOME 54,000 residents roughly, only 16.87 percent are white. Although many of them are the ones who have lived in the area for decades – if not all their lives. They may also be the ones who most strongly identify with the ward’s old identity – and could easily be swayed into thinking this is an election to keep things the way they were.

Theoretically, a 78.89 percent group ought to be able to mop up the floor with the 16.87 percent group. Particularly if one thing they have in common is that it’s not a black-friendly environment (only 1.5 percent African-American population).

But then we get back to the idea of there being five candidates who will be making the political appeal that it’s “time for change.” Split that majority up five ways, and the white minority becomes large enough to win. Especially if many of the Latino voters can be swayed into thinking that casting a ballot is not worth their time.

… the couple who topple the Burkes?

It was to that end that new Rep. Jesus Garcia, D-Ill., who wants to be viewed as the most-powerful Latino in Chicago politics, felt compelled to intervene in this particular election – making an endorsement of a 28-year-old neophyte to beat Burke.

TANYA PATINO HAS never held elective office before. Her education was in engineering, and Garcia said she could bring an interesting perspective to the City Council – where most aldermen merely think of construction projects as something that brings jobs to their district and puts sizable contributions into their campaign funds.

Patino also is, according to the Chicago Tribune, the woman who is dating Aaron Ortiz, the man who next week takes over the Illinois House seat that was held for many decades by Burke’s brother, Dan. The same elements that took down Dan’s re-election last year are now being turned on Ed.

So is the Ortiz/Patino pairing going to go into the books as the one that knocked the Burkes out of the local political scene altogether? Or will Ed Burke figure out a way to stretch what likely will be his backers’ enthusiasm into a large-enough group to win?

Don’t think this can’t happen. I still recall the 1990s when Republicans got control of the redistricting process and took the Illinois House map for the southwest side and tried to create a whole series of districts meant to bolster the number of African-American legislators.

Some things haven't changed since days of Harold

IN THEORY, THEY did. But in reality, a then little-known lawyer named Tom Dart (I first met him years ago when he was with the state’s attorney’s office at the courthouse in suburban Markham) decided to use his white ethnic Mount Greenwood neighborhood base up against the black majorities that comprised the surrounding neighborhoods within the legislative district.

That 1992 election saw Dart defeat a half-dozen African-American candidates and serve in the Legislature for a decade – eventually building up the greater kind of support that has enabled him to rise to his current post as Cook County Sheriff.

I’m also aware of many suburban communities where majority African-American populations have developed, but that the local governments are run by white people who’ve been around for decades and keep getting re-elected because the long-time residents care enough to turn out to vote on Election Day – while others don’t bother.

So I’d say it’s uncertain as to what the ultimate outcome of the aldermanic election will be – Burke’s continued political survival? Or Ortiz having to accept that his girlfriend could get elected to a position that (within the local political pecking order) outranks his?

  -30-

Burke busted? Or just ammunition to be used by Election Day challengers?

Just what should we think of the fact that FBI agents showed up Thursday morning at the City Hall and neighborhood offices of 14^th Ward Alderman Edward Burke, kicked everybody out without explanation, and began rummaging through the alderman’s files. 

Ald. Burke got himself involved earlier this year in an immigration-related dispute. Will he gain political points as a result? Photo by Gregory Tejeda

Federal investigators aren’t saying anything right away about what they’re looking for. In fact, the only visual image available early on was the sight of the windows and glass doors to the office being covered over with paper – so as to keep people from peeking in and watching just what the FBI is up to!

NOT THAT IT matters much at this point, or probably not at all, what the purpose of Thursday’s raids actually is.

Jesus Garcia thinks it offensive that Burke … 

For the people interested in deposing Burke from office will eagerly use the very presence of FBI at his offices and their suspicion as ample cause for voters to get all worked up and dump him from office come Feb. 26.

The fact is that Burke, who actually will hit the 50-year mark as a member of the City Council come March 12, is going to have serious challengers for his governmental post.

The other fact is that campaigns rarely delve into the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

THAT WOULD COME at a later date if federal investigators actually think they’ve found something that would warrant a criminal investigation. For campaign purposes in Election ’19, any rumor or trivial tidbit that can be made to sound offensive to the public will do.

… has worked as an attorney for Donald Trump

My point is that Thursday’s actions, in and of themselves, don’t constitute much. Particularly since federal investigators have probed Burke’s activity in the City Council in the past. Which Burke himself admitted to Thursday. "Once again, we will be cooperating fully and I am completely confident that at the end of the day, nothing will be found amiss in this instance either."

If Burke truly has any sense, he knows how to conduct himself in ways that prevent him from getting nailed with a criminal indictment.

It almost makes him a political equivalent of Tony Accardo, the long-time boss of organized crime in Chicago who back when he died nearly three decades ago had it said of him he was too smart to ever get busted, which is why he never spent a day of his life in jail.

BURKE’S REAL OFFENSE is the fact that his ward, consisting of neighborhoods on Chicago’s Southwest Side, has changed, just like many other neighborhoods, when it comes to ethnic composition.

In Burke’s case, the ultimate white Irish politico is now representing an area that is overwhelmingly Latino – Mexican-American, to be more specific.

Which is why it shouldn’t be a shock that the other four candidates who filed nominating petitions for the right to run against Burke come Feb. 26 are people of Latin ethnic backgrounds.

While Jesus Garcia, the newly-elected member of Congress from Chicago, is publicly saying that Burke is too tied into the political and business establishment of the city to actually represent the interests of his significant Latino population. Which may be why earlier this year, Burke was eager to publicly get involved in a political dispute over the use of the airport in Gary, Ind. (to which Chicago city government provides some funding) as part of the process of deporting people from the United States.

Burke envisions himself quite the Chicago historian

GARCIA INCLUDES AMONGST those acts the fact that back when Donald Trump was merely a businessman wanting to build that ugly towering structure of his along the Chicago River, he hired Burke to be his attorney and work the deal through the political process.

Burke may not be working for Trump any longer (and I’m sure Trump would be the first to denounce Democrat Burke these days). But it’s guilt by association. When combined with his past as being an outspoken critic of Mayor Harold Washington (which he has offered mea culpas for throughout the years), there are those who’d love to see Ed go down to defeat – just as they beat up on his brother, Dan, who served in the Illinois House of Representatives for many years.

Which means this campaign will get uglier for the man who likes to think he’s the historic voice of Chicago (he often likes to give lengthy speeches filled with historic tidbits). It will be far more than the upcoming ballot lottery to determine whether Burke or Jose Torrez gets the top spot come Feb. 26.

Because I have no doubt the political fantasies will arise about people being able to keep Burke himself from being able to run a credible campaign for re-election.

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EXTRA: Madigan spouse, Burke, Sox & Cubs chairs (but no Bears) on state Bicentennial celebration commission

I always manage to get a few kicks whenever government officials make rounds of appointments to otherwise obscure commissions – a chance for them to repay favors or make political statements that we might not otherwise note.

MADIGAN: No partisan grudge

Take the state’s Bicentennial Commission, which on Friday appointed a few dozen members to oversee the efforts to celebrate Illinois’ 200^th anniversary of statehood come 2018.

AT A TIME when Gov. Bruce Rauner and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, are feuding over the state’s budget, it seems that one of the voting members of the commission will be Madigan’s spouse.

 

BURKE: Can play historian at state level?

Then again, Shirley Madigan has been involved with the Illinois Arts Council for years and has long been one of the kinds of people who get appointed to these government-overseen panels that take on special projects.

I also got my chuckle from seeing that former Mayor Richard M. Daley and current 14^th Ward Alderman Ed Burke both were picked. Particularly with Burke – who likes to view himself as Chicago’s unofficial historian and always tries to liven up his government rhetoric with references to obscure events in Chicago history.

There will be municipal officials from outside of Chicago – the mayors or village presidents of Barrington, Dixon and Springfield were picked for posts, while corporate heads of Ameren, Pepsi and United Airlines also will be included.

SOME OFFICIALS OTHER than Rauner got to make appointments, and Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White picked the head of the Illinois State Archives – a logical position to include since it would be nice to have someone who has access to the state’s records when putting together a historic celebration.

 

McCASKEY: Would better record gain post?

There are many other people who got picked for positions, although I still get a chuckle from seeing the names of Jerry Reinsdorf and Tom Ricketts – the chairmen respectively of the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs (Reinsdorf does double-duty by also representing the Chicago Bulls), along with Rocky Wirtz, chairman of the Chicago Blackhawks.

What gives – no George McCaskey, or anybody connected to the Chicago Bears?

Maybe that’s the price one pays for reflecting badly on the city’s public image by operating a team with a 2-9 record this season, with five more games to play?

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No chewing tobacco at the ballparks? Or more public attention for the pols?

Endorsements baseball would just as soon see wither away

There’s something about the sight of political people getting involved with sports in any means that always seems to be self-aggrandizing.

It’s almost like they want some public attention, and figure that being seen in the presence of a professional athlete or talking about sports somehow will get them more publicity than they ever could get by addressing an issue such as the zoning laws.

WHICH MAKES ME think that 14^th Ward Alderman Ed Burke feels the need to get himself some newspaper ink – and all the television and Internet attention that naturally follows newspaper coverage. He is doing so with his latest amendment concerning chewing tobacco.

Supposedly next week, the City Council will consider a long-proposed measure by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to raise the smoking age, so to speak, in Chicago to 21.

Burke is playing off this by coming up with an amendment that would add on a provision making it illegal for chewing tobacco to be used at any baseball stadium within the city limits.

Not for any Chicago White Sox or Chicago Cubs ballplayer, or any other major league ballplayer when their teams visit Chicago.

Will baseball fans someday wonder ...

THIS WOULD BE Burke’s contribution to the baseball season, since he admits in news reports that he wants this measure implemented into law in time for the early April opening of the baseball season.

No more sights of ballplayers with a traditional chaw in their cheek, or spitting into a cup when they think no one’s watching. And no more exposure to the tobacco that can cause various forms of oral cancer.

Or more likely, Burke getting his name in news reports that will spread across the country – as he becomes the politico who wants to do away with chewing tobacco at the ballpark.

Now personally, I don’t smoke. I also have thought that chaws and the sight of tobacco “juice” (actually, it's spit) is kind of disgusting. It is a ballplayer habit that they’re better off without.

... why old-time ballplayers all had the bulging cheeks?

ALTHOUGH I SUSPECT Chicago Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta is correct when he tells the Sun-Times that many ballplayers use chewing tobacco out of habit, and that many ballplayers will take this ban as an interference with their daily ballpark routines that get them through the 162-game season.

But it’s not like this proposed change is something radical for professional baseball. In recent years, baseball officials themselves have been trying to reduce the use of chewing tobacco at the ballpark.

Minor League ballplayers already are prohibited from using the substance and can face fines if they use. Major League Baseball officials likely would have imposed a similar ban already if they could have gotten away with it without facing a  challenge from the ballplayers’ union – which contends it interferes with a ballplayer’s personal choice.

Now, the Chicago City Council is giving the major leagues what they’d like to see in at least two of the 30 stadiums in which ballgames will be staged this season.

YET WHILE I’LL concede there’s a benefit to Burke’s amendment, I also don’t doubt that he’ll enjoy the public attention he’ll get by taking on a “baseball”-related issue. At the very least, it will be a distraction from the many serious problems our politicos face, but have shown an inability to address.

BURKE: Taking on tobacco at the ballpark

Besides, a part of me finds it ironic that a life-long Sout’ Sider and White Sox fan would be eager to take on this issue – since he would have been a teenager back in the days when Nellie Fox was the Sox’ star player.

Who can envision the White Sox’ ol’ Number 2 without that big chaw in his cheek – and the many endorsements he did for chewing tobacco products. And which were also a significant factor in the lymphatic cancer that caused his death at age 47.

Which may, actually, be the best reason for officials to discourage tobacco use anywhere – and not just at the ballpark!

  -30-

Is Emanuel going anywhere? Do we really want him to? Who are our choices? Do they have a 'clue'?

Let’s presume for a few seconds that there’s actually the remotest of chances that we, the people of Chicago, can get Rahm Emanuel out of office as mayor prior to the 2019 Election Day.

EMANUEL: Stubborn enough to resist?

Excuse me for thinking that might be the worst possible calamity that could befall the Second City.

I’M NOT AMONG the people who think that removing Emanuel from office will somehow fix anything – particularly since we’re talking about a problem concerning police relations with the community (particularly those members who aren’t quite Anglo enough to satisfy the cop mentality) that goes back so many generations and isn’t limited to Chicago anyway!

Or have we already forgotten about Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo., just to name a couple of places where police brutality turned into public violence?

Now I have written before under other circumstances that I oppose the idea of recall elections. I think it undermines the election process, and I believe that if the people are stupid enough to pick someone for office, they should have to live with their results until the next Election Day.

Those people, including if I recall correctly a large segment of the African-American electorate, who wanted Rahm Emanuel back as mayor for a second term should now have to live with the shame of what is befalling our city.

YES, I THINK those members of the Illinois General Assembly who now are sponsoring measures meant to create a recall election procedure for the Chicago mayoral post are merely engaging in political grandstanding.

It won’t be the least bit inappropriate if their measure winds up getting tangled up in political bureaucratese. Unless people like Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan or Gov. Bruce Rauner decide to let it advance as a way of playing out any grudges they may have against Emanuel these days.

Would either of these men have nerve ...

Which isn’t the best of reasons for new state law to be created under any circumstance.

“Three more years” of Emanuel, then let’s hope our city’s electorate can get its head out of its collective derriere and come up with someone more suited for the post. Let’s be honest – someone whose approach to politics is to twist arms when a pat on the back would have been just as effective probably wasn’t the person to be in charge when the police get caught strong-arming a young black male – and killing him when he wasn’t complacent enough for their satisfaction.

I DON’T ENJOY the thought of the public shame that would befall Chicago. But removing people from office in mid-term always strikes me as something akin to a coup d’ tat. That strikes me as un-American!

... to push Emanuel out?

Besides, there’s always the chance that removing Emanuel because of police brutality could give us someone ever so more incompetent.

Because the procedure is that if Emanuel were to leave prior to the end of his term in April 2019, it would be a member of the City Council who takes over on the Fifth floor.

Do we really trust any of the 50 nincompoops who comprise our city’s aldermen to be capable of resolving things?

NOW AS THINGS turn out, the alderman who carries the designation of “vice mayor” is Brendan O’Reilly of the 42^nd Ward. But he would wind up being the equivalent of David Orr – who back in 1987 was mayor for one week until the full City Council came together and picked Eugene Sawyer of the sixth ward largely because the white aldermen felt he was controllable – compared to challenger Timothy Evans of the fourth ward who would have tried carrying on Harold Washington’s memory.

Does Dick Mell wish he were still alderman?

You just know this legislative body would take the same approach in picking a controllable sort who will do what they want, rather than what the public wants.

And the answer is “yes,” the person they pick must be among their own ranks. Only the incumbent aldermen would be eligible for consideration – which makes me wonder if Dick Mell wishes he hadn’t have retired when he did.

It wouldn’t be previous mayoral challenger Jesus Garcia, because he’s a Cook County Board member. Unless you want to go for some political contortion in which Danny Solis, the alderman from his ward in the Pilsen/Little Village area resigns, Garcia fills the aldermanic vacancy, then reappoints Solis once Garcia becomes mayor.

GARCIA: Would be on sidelines if Rahm leaves

THAT’S A LOT of political maneuvering that would have to go just right for a guy who couldn’t even win the general election held last April. It would be easier for Solis just to run himself for mayor.

I look at the current aldermen and can’t really say I see “mayor” in any of them. Particularly since they’re the same people who approved the $5 million settlement (of which I’ve heard from some that the McDonald family only got $500,000, with the rest going to attorney fees) to try to make the death of Laquan McDonald fade quietly into history.

BURKE: "Mayor?" Why demote himself?

For those who’d suggest senior Alderman Ed Burke of the 14^th Ward, I suspect he enjoys being Finance Chairman so much because it gives him the authority to tell the mayor, at times, what he must do. Being the boss's boss, so to speak!

Would Burke, himself an ex-cop, really want to give up such power just to get a bigger office at City Hall? I doubt it, particularly since neither he nor anyone else on the council has a clue how to resolve the situation our city is now confronted with.

  -30-