Chicago mayoral pack to whittle its way down to more manageable pack

The days of having 30 to 40 people claiming they’re candidates for the post of Mayor of the city of Chicago are soon to be through.

Chicago's next mayor will be, … who knows?

Next Monday is the deadline for candidates for the Feb. 26 municipal elections to file their nominating petitions to even get on the ballot, and we’re going to learn how many of those people were politically incompetent enough that they couldn’t get the 12,500 signatures of support needed to qualify.

WE’RE GOING TO see how many of the so-called candidates of earlier this year will not even be a factor in the final discussion over who should replace Rahm Emanuel in the mayor’s office.

If anything, I gained some respect earlier this week when I learned that Troy LaRaviere, head of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, was giving up his campaign before it even began.

He was honest enough to admit he couldn’t get a sufficient number of signatures of support, thereby making any effort to run for mayor an exercise in futility.

Of course, he’ll probably be remembered in this election cycle as the guy whose farewell to the campaign season was to take a pot shot at entertainer Kanye West – who apparently reached out early on to the LaRaviere camp with thoughts of publicly supporting him.

LaRAVIERE: First to see jolt of reality

WEST, OF COURSE, is one of several entertainers who are now backing the mayoral dreams of Amara Enyia, an experienced public policy professional who has never actually run for office herself.

LaRaviere let it be known he couldn’t accept West’s support because the man’s too friendly with President Donald Trump (remember that goofy Oval Office meeting between the two of a few weeks ago?).

The trick of anticipating the upcoming week is to figure out how many of the mayoral dreamers will come to their senses before the Nov. 26 deadline. Of course, people with political aspirations usually are delusional enough to think so highly of themselves they can’t see their own flaws.

So we may get a lot of them fighting for a ballot space, just so they can take 1 percent or so of the vote come the end of February.

FIORETTI: Latest with mayoral dreams

TAKE ROBERT FIORETTI – the one-time outspoken alderman who has since run for mayor and Cook County Board president. He let it be known this week he’s getting into the mayoral mix again.

I understand that having a political post is more interesting for a legal-minded person than having a mere law practice. Yet Fioretti comes across these days as somebody who runs for office because he needs a job! Not necessarily because he has ideas beneficial to our society at-large.

So Fioretti is working these days, as are other candidates, in gathering the necessary petition signatures to qualify. By Fioretti’s admission, he’s trying to gain some 30,000 signatures, because he knows the political powers-that-be are capable of having their people come up with ways to disqualify signatures so as to void them out.

Time for a new 'Mayor' Daley, … 

It may even turn out that some of those who do file their petitions next week will be unable to actually appear on the ballot.

PERSONALLY, I’M GOING to find it interesting how many of the candidates who have been talking up the mayor’s race for months on end will be amongst those who qualify. Will Rahm Emanuel turn out to be correct when he said upon his own announcement he would not seek re-election that Chicago’s next mayor wasn’t even in the race yet?

Implying that people like former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas were kidding themselves, and that the rest of the dozens of mayoral dreamers were truly delusional.

… or is Chicago ready for Mendoza's youth

Will this really become a campaign dominated by the big-time political names of Daley (as in William), Chico (as in Gery) and Preckwinkle (as in Toni)? With the real question becoming whether the kid (as in 46-year-old Susana Mendoza) can do enough to get herself taken seriously. Or whether Willie Wilson attracts any political support outside of a few select political precincts on the South and West sides?

There’s a lot of uncertainty be settled between now and April 2 – the date of the run-off election likely to be needed. I wonder if the only certainty now is the appropriateness of the election so close to April Fool’s Day. We may wind up feeling like the election results are a practical joke on all of us.

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Who needs to win? Finishing second is all these mayoral dreamers want to do

We’re not even through this year’s election cycle for Illinois governor, yet there are those to whom the “big” election is next year’s brawl for Chicago mayor.

EMANUEL: No. 1, but is that good enough?

In that cycle, it seems obvious incumbent Rahm Emanuel will get more votes than anybody else. Which is why the many other officials who either have declared their candidacy or are still contemplating their desire are more concerned with finishing second.

IT’S ALL BASED in the non-partisan nature of our municipal government in Chicago. Whether Democrat or Republican or whatever other political party one wants to identify with, everybody will get lumped into one election come Feb. 26.

Should it turn out Emanuel does not get a 50 percent-plus-one majority, he and the second-place finisher will compete against each other in a run-off to be held exactly one year from Monday.

Which means that none of the people wishing to challenge Emanuel are thinking about beating him. They merely wish to be “first runner-up,” so to speak.

One such candidate, the former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, says openly his desire is to get Emanuel into a run-off, where he figures that all of Chicago will unite behind his candidacy.

McCARTHY: Wants revenge for dismissal

HE WINS, BECAUSE he thinks a majority of Chicagoans will vote for Anybody But Rahm, and he wants to be the guy they’re forced to vote for.

Which is the line of logic that also goes behind the strategy of former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, former school principal Troy LaRaviere, self-made millionaire Willie Wilson and possible candidates Ra Joy (he was paired with Chris Kennedy’s recently-unsuccessful governor campaign), Lori Lightfoot (Chicago Police Board president), Bridget Gainer (a Cook County Board commissioner) and Amaya Enyia (a community organizer).

VALLAS: Thinks 2nd is enough to win

None of them can beat Rahm Emanuel in a one-on-one fight. But they really think enough people in Chicago are eager to dump Rahm from office that they’ll begrudgingly vote for whichever of them survives the first portion of the municipal election process.

It probably would serve them right if Emanuel were somehow able to get a majority vote in February – thereby making the need for a run-off unnecessary.

WILSON: Willing to be fringe candidate again

NOT THAT I’M saying I’m eager to see Emanuel re-elected. Or that I have ill will towards any of the individual challengers.

It’s just that we’re not going to have an election cycle in Chicago where anybody is trying to unite the various segments of our city’s electorate. It’s going to be about everybody trying to find their particular segment of supporters – with the ultimate hope being that the REST of Chicago will have to “suck eggs,” so to speak, and put up with them.

I don’t know that a majority of Chicagoans hate the idea of “Mayor Emanuel” all THAT much. Or that we're prepared to love any of them as an alternative.

Could Gainer become the second woman ...

I also don’t know there’s anyone amongst the various Rahm challengers who’d be capable of uniting everybody in Chicago to vote against Rahm.

I COULD SEE where certain people with political dreams (such as McCarthy) will appeal solely to small segments of Chicagoans, many of them who would then feel compelled NOT to vote come an April 2 run-off.

The idea of a Bridget Gainer bid for office might appeal to those who’d like to see another woman beyond the late Jane Byrne rise to the ranks of being the so-called “Man on Five” at City Hall. But I could also see where the people inclined to vote for her might also be the types who could wind up voting for Emanuel.

... since Byrne to be mayor?

I already have heard enough people dredging up Vallas’ mid-1990s performance with the Chicago school system and using it as reasons they could NEVER vote for him. As for the rest, they could wind up being the candidates who struggle to get 1 percent voter support.

Which means we have 365 days and counting until we can put this mayoral quarrel behind us; then shift our attention to the desire to dump Donald Trump from his office come 2020.

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