March 20 Dem primary getting closer

Tuesday was the day we, the electorate, could start signing nominating petitions to get any of the dreamers who wish to be Illinois governor an actual slot on the ballot for the March 20 primary elections.

STRATTON: Establishment Dem pick?

It will be intriguing to see who candidate Chris Kennedy comes up with to be a running mate, since as of now he's the only significant candidate who has yet to name a potential replacement candidate to serve as lieutenant governor in the event that he becomes incapacitated.

GUBERNATORIAL HOPEFUL J.B. Pritzker gave us Julianna Stratton -- a state representative. While candidate Ameya Pawar chose Cairo mayor Tyrone Coleman, and hopeful Daniel Biss just last week let it be known he's going with Chicago alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa.

He being the one who got elected in 2015 as the first openly gay Latino alderman and who since has made a name for himself politically by shifting from the Democratic Party to the Democratic Socialists -- meaning he wants to be aligned with the political element that thinks Bernie Sanders would make a fit president of this nation.

How will Kennedy counter those choices? Since his pick is going to be studied for clues as to what kind of public official he would be if actually elected by the voters.

Kennedy, who has never held public office but was most prominently president of the company that managed the Merchandise Mart in Chicago until the Kennedy family sold the property back in 2012.

WE'RE BEING ASKED during the next couple of weeks to sign petitions for gubernatorial candidates and also for their running mates.

ROSA: Enhancing rep for future electoral bids?

Who, strictly speaking, aren't paired with their partners. For in Illinois, the lieutenant governor candidates run separately on the primary ballot. You could technically vote for Kennedy to be the Democratic nominee for governor, and Ramirez-Rosa for lieutenant governor.

It's only in the general election that the Democratic gubernatorial and lieutenant governor candidates get paired up to run against the Republican team of Bruce Rauner and Evelyn Sanguinetti -- who both are going to have their own political baggage weighing them down.

Unless the Democrats create so much baggage for themselves during the primary that even Rauner/Sanguinetti comes off as more appealing to Illinoisans.

ONE THING TO keep in mind as we contemplate Kennedy's pick -- which he has hinted could come some time this week. He technically doesn't have to name anybody.

COLEMAN: Voter appeal in Illinois' Egypt?'

I still recall 1994 when Dawn Clark Netsch won the Democratic primary for governor and never did name anybody as her preferred running mate, saying she thought the voters should be able to choose her potential replacement in the event of an emergency situation.

She wound up being paired with Penny Severns, a state senator from Decatur, who had been the running mate choice of Richard Phelan, the Cook County Board president who had hoped that post would be a springboard to the Executive Mansion.

Only it wasn't for him, and Netsch in her gubernatorial campaign could never shake the perception that the Netsch/Severns ticket was a mismatch.

SO WE'LL BE curious to see who Kennedy tries to anoint with the family "aura" so he can have his own "top of the ticket." Particularly curious since there have been reports indicating that many political establishment types are rejecting the idea of a Kennedy pairing, fearing he'd go down to defeat and drag them along with.

KENNEDY: Who will he add to lt. gov. mix?

It is interesting in that we're now within the time cycle where it is no longer ridiculously early to be contemplating who will be the candidates in the 2018 election cycle.

But the reality is that Rauner has been campaigning unofficially for so long it seems like this election cycle is old news. How many of us wish we could just cast our vote today and be done with it?

For some of us, the March 20 primary election and the Nov. 6, 2018 general election can't come soon enough.

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Dem ‘top of the ticket’ that 99 percent of voters likely know nothing about

The jokes already are starting up about gubernatorial hopeful Ameya Pawar’s choice for a lieutenant governor running mate – he picked a mayor from the southernmost tip of Illinois.

 

PAWAR: Went far beyond Sout' Side for running mate

Which certainly gives a geographical sense of balance; an alderman from the 47^th Ward up on the Northwest Side of the city and a mayor from the town where both Kentucky and Missouri lie on the other side of the rivers that create Cairo’s location.

BUT JUST AS most people don’t have a clue who Pawar is (the first Indian-American individual to serve in the City Council), I suspect most are going to be equally clueless about Tyrone Coleman – who is in his second term as Cairo mayor and also cites that he used to be a full-time Baptist minister (he's now an interim minister of a different congregation) and is founder of a community organization that serves young people as being amongst his credentials.

Although the Internet already is buzzing with the snide remarks of some who point out that Coleman is one of those African-American individuals who cites his religious faith as justification for snubbing (to put it mildly) gay people.

Which could be a factor that tanks this particular ticket amongst the kinds of people who vote in Democratic primaries. Although I’m sure others will look at this non-white ticket and be skeptical of its chances for succeeding.

It will be interesting to see just how many people do wind up casting votes for Pawar/Coleman – since I’m not kidding when I say that many would-be voters are not aware of the pair, who had their first public appearance Tuesday night at the German/American Cultural Center near Pawar’s home neighborhood.

 

Will we get a Coleman/Stratton ...

IT SEEMS THAT many people are thinking of this as the J.B. Pritzker/Chris Kennedy campaign, with those aware enough to want to have a third option focusing their attention of Daniel Biss – the one-time math teacher from Evanston who serves in the General Assembly and is willing to openly criticize Dem leadership.

Which could be the reason that Pawar felt compelled to publicly name a running mate. It creates the impression that his campaign has something resembling a full structure and ought to be taken seriously.

Compared to everybody else except for Pritzker, who as of yet have not paired up with anyone for the second spot within Illinois government.

 

... debate for lieutenant governor?

Biss’ big move for Tuesday was to announce his “The Road Forward” tour that is meant to be a 2,000 mile trip across the state so he can meet with people everywhere.

A NICE GESTURE, to be sure. But there are those same snide Internet commenters who are saying that Pawar has just one-upped Biss and shown himself to be the guy whom voters ought to focus their attention upon if they absolutely can’t stomach the thought of voting for either Kennedy or Pritzker.

Could this be what gives Pawar’s campaign chances a jolt of attention – even if just for a few days?

He is the guy who has been going about this campaign continuously offering up what he calls his own “New Deal” of ways to improve the quality of life in Illinois. Although I really doubt anybody thinks he’s the Second Coming of FDR.

They’re probably not thinking of him much at all. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn if down in the land of Southern Illinois, Tuesday’s announcement by Pawar about Coleman was the first time they ever acknowledged his existence.

BUT THEN AGAIN, the fact that Pawar may be able to take the majority of votes in Cairo may not mean much. Because Cairo is a shrinking community – largely due to the historic racial hang-ups of area residents.

 

BISS: Is he now lagging behind Pawar?

The one-time city of some 20,000 people had, in 2016, an estimated population of 2,359 – with 69.62 percent of its population being African-American. Much of the white population of Southern Illinois fled the city long ago and is content to let it rot – similar to the attitudes felt by some Chicagoans toward select South and West side neighborhoods.

So maybe Coleman has a life experience (he was born-and-raised in Cairo, left for 10 years to serve in the military, and says he was shocked by how decrepit his home city had become during his absence) that some in Chicago can identify with.

For those of you not quite sure of Cairo's location

At the very least, Chicagoans may finally figure out the local pronunciation of the municipality named for the Egyptian city on the River Nile. Because it sure ain’t “KY-ro.”

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