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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Powers-that-be don’t have qualms about thought of another ‘Mayor Daley,’ but what about the voters?

Lori Lightfoot, the former Chicago Police Board president, is the mayoral candidate who let it be known she thinks none of the political dreamer who are only now jumping into the mayoral field for 2019 should be taken seriously.

DALEY: Is he raising sufficient funds?

Yet it would see that the political establishment – those people with money who are willing to use it to prop up that candidates they think are worth taking seriously – doesn’t agree.

FOR IT SEEMS that the candidacies of William Daley and Gery Chico are taking in large amounts of campaign cash in recent weeks to give them just as much money as those candidates who have been in the running for months to become mayor in next year’s elections.

Seriously, Daley (the brother and son of former Chicago mayors) filed reports with state Elections Board officials indicating he has raised $885,100.

By comparison, Lightfoot’s campaign reported having raised $827,794 – but she has been at it for months. During the same time period during which Daley came up with his total, Lightfoot raised some $313,073.

There’s also the campaign of the one-time Chicago schools superintendent Chico, who once was a Daley family ally. But isn’t about to get the Daleys to go against their own family tie to reclaiming hold on City Hall.

CHICO: Is he capturing enough voters?

BUT CHICO HAS managed to come up with $519,500 since throwing himself into the campaign a few weeks ago. What makes his tally intriguing is that it is a combination of money from 87 individuals or entities.

While I’m sure some will try to dis Daley’s campaign total because some $500,000 of it came from a donation the one-time presidential cabinet member (Commerce secretary) and chief of staff made to himself.

Although another $200,000 came from a Madison Dearborn Partners official who in past quarters had been a significant donor to Rahm Emanuel’s mayoral aspirations.

Could all those people who would have given their campaign contributions to Emanuel’s desires for a third term as mayor now shift to giving Chicago its third version of “Mayor Daley?”

PRECKWINKLE: Can she gain supporter

THIS REALLY IS becoming an election cycle where none of the long-running candidates mean a thing! It seems to be all about the newcomers who waited until Emanuel decided running for a third term in office would be too risky to his political legacy to chance.

After all, he might have won, or maybe he wouldn’t have. A notion that gained some credence in recent days following the “guilty” verdict handed down against the Chicago police officer who repeatedly shot a teenage boy to death some four years ago.

Some people are forevermore going to want to claim Emanuel’s departure from City Hall was because of that act – although I wonder if it will wind up turning out to be irrelevant, since it could be argued that the new mayor will be just more of the same.

That’s why we watch for tidbits of evidence to see whose campaign might turn out to have enough strength to prevail come Election Day Feb. 26. Or on April 2 – the date set aside for a run-off election; should there be a need to hold one.

LIGHTFOOT: Surpassed in cash

WHICH IS WHY some are speculating that the mayoral hopes of Toni Preckwinkle may wind up fizzling. All she reported raising during the current fundraising period was $245,000 – although $100,000 from the Service Employees International Union local 1.

That donation is considered significant enough by some to have chased Jesus Garcia away from running for mayor and settling for the seat in Congress he’s running for come the Nov. 6 elections. Since it was expected that union would have been a significant Chuy financial backer, but chose Toni instead.

WILSON: Can he afford mayoral price tag?

Admittedly, it’s still early. We haven’t even begun to cast ballots yet for Illinois governor. Things could change between now and next year’s Election Day. Yet that could make the mayoral aspirations of Willie Wilson the most intriguing. He has some $660,000 on hand, with $100,000 coming during the most recent filing period. Yet almost all of it is from checks he has written to himself.

Is Wilson (the man whose fortune began with McDonald’s franchises on the South Side) really wealthy enough to buy control of the mayor’s office for himself next year – similar to how Bruce Rauner and J.B. Pritzker are trying to buy the governor’s mansion this autumn?

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Does anybody really feel compelled to give political millionaire Rauner their own money to help get him re-elected?

My guess is that Illinois’ governor is disappointed with me, and everybody just like me, who ignored his plea on Monday for cash to supplement the personal wealth he plans to commit to the 2018 electoral efforts to keep himself in office, and also to get a more sympathetic state Legislature to rubber-stamp his efforts.

RAUNER: Wants your President Grants

While many people were paying attention to the Statehouse to see if Bruce Rauner really would instantly amendatorily veto any Education Funding bill sent to him Monday by the General Assembly (the bill was sent to him so late in the day that he wound up not being able to act on it -- maybe Tuesday?), my attention was caught by his fund-raising plea.

AS IN RAUNER insisting that Monday night was a deadline by which people had to send their contributions to him if they want to support his desire to stay in office for another four-year term.

“This month’s contributions go directly to sending the Madigan Machine a clear message; Illinois is not going back to the old way of doing things,” he wrote, while suggesting that $50 was the recommended donation.

In fact, Rauner was hoping to get 32 people to donate $50 each – with the 32 being symbolic of the figure he’s repeatedly using to describe the income tax adjustment that was made over his objections when the General Assembly in early July finally settled on a budget for state government.

Of course, one could argue that the “old way of doing things” within state government entailed actually approving budgets and keeping the mechanics of state government operating.

THE OLD WAY didn’t involve being willing to put things at risk just for the sake of partisan politics – just as the governor’s desire to mess with approving an Education Funding bill is also a willingness to put partisan politics ahead of ensuring that the schools get their initial state aid payments as scheduled on Aug. 10.

If that deadline is missed, we could have some sort of delay with the public schools being able to open, since so many districts rely upon their state portion of funding in order to operate.

I’ll admit that the delay in getting an Education Funding bill to Rauner for his consideration was a political maneuver by Democrats – who knew that Rauner intended to play politics with the issue so as to take pot shots at the Chicago Public Schools while hopefully appeasing the rest of the state.

Our state, at times, feels all topsy-turvy

This is the new way, it seems, that Rauner wants us to support with our campaign contributions. Although I suspect the reason he asked for only 32 donations is probably because he suspects there aren’t many more than 32 people in all of Illinois willing to give their money to his campaign.

A RAUNER ELECTORAL effort truly is going to be a self-funded campaign, as we’re going to see just how far people will go in order to buy themselves a government post with which to assuage their egos.

One other part of Rauner’s campaign appeal caught my attention. Many modern-day e-mail appeals for contributions by Democrats go out of their way to imply that tiny amounts of money can build into the large sums needed to operate a credible campaign.

Appeals for as little as $3 are not uncommon.

Yet Rauner wants for his efforts to build a Republican Party in his image some $50. It certainly wasn’t inspiring enough to make me rush out to find a debit card so as to type in my personal information so that they could get my money instantly – in time to beat their July 31 Midnight fundraising deadline.

WE’RE IN A political mindset. Just about everything is going to be given a spin. Such as the announcement last week that the Illinois State Fair this year won’t include an official “Democrat Day” political rally at the fairgrounds.

MADIGAN: Giving the fair back to fans

There are those who are trying to claim that this is Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, being afraid to publicly face people at a time when the school funding is uncertain.

Although considering how few Chicago people attend the state fair, it makes some sense that the urban types who do come probably want to see the rest of the fair attractions and don't want to hear more campaign blather.

Give ‘em a lemon shakeup and maybe a ticket to a Foghat or Alabama concert (even though the latter is technically on the fair's "Republican Day"), and they’ll enjoy a little less political rhetoric being spewed about.

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Rauner political influence, skill comes from friendly rich peoples’ wallets

What was that old line used to describe George W. Bush’s political and business acumen – he was born on Third Base, and thinks he hit a triple?!?

I’m starting to wonder if we need a similar line with regards to Gov. Bruce Rauner, who might not literally have been born to big money (I suspect real ‘old money’ thinks our governor is a garish rube), but certainly thinks the fortune he has accumulated and has access to entitles him to behave politically like a boor.

WE ALL REALIZE he got himself elected governor with absolutely no political qualifications because he was able to tap into millions of dollars more than anybody else could.

An amount that if you think about it too much becomes almost obscene – how many worthy goals could have been accomplished for the betterment of our society instead of spending it on rounds of campaign advertising meant to distort reality?

Now, it would seem that Rauner’s approach to governing is going to be the same – tap into so much money that regular people couldn’t even fathom having access to and use it to mold a public opinion that will be gullible enough to buy whatever he says.

All of this is to say that I was appalled by learning that Rauner’s “Turnaround Illinois” political action committee has come up with its first donor.

BOTH THE CHICAGO Tribune and Sun-Times reported Monday of the State Board of Elections filing showing that billionaire Sam Zell (who once tried to mold the Chicago Tribune in his own image) came up with a $4 million contribution.

I’m not saying I find it particularly noble when a political person says their campaign fund was constituted by people donating $5-10 each – as though the tiny amounts are somehow honorable.

But the reverse is also true – there’s nothing noble about someone who thinks that by coming up with some sort of private fund that will enable him to buy airtime and other communications tools he can somehow “buy” our political love.

I really think that this fund likely to receive donations from the many wealthy people who funded Rauner’s electoral campaign (along with the many millions of his own money he loaned himself) is meant to come up with all kinds of negative ads meant to make our legislators sound vapid, stupid and downright mean-spirited when they refuse to go along with his anti-organized labor rhetoric.

THIS IS THE governor who complains about the fact that labor unions have too much influence over political people because of the fact that they can help certain types of candidates raise the kind of money they need to hold their own against politicos who have the backing of big business-type interests.

Maybe it isn’t some ideological belief against unions as much as Rauner wants to be all-dominant over who has a say about what government does?

Which makes this particular political action committee sound downright venal.

This coming at a time when Rauner types are trying to get local government officials to pass symbolic resolutions meant to show how much they agree with his anti-union desires – his fantasies that would (in his own mind, I’m sure) culminate with “right to work” status coming to Illinois.

WHICH BASICALLY AMOUNTS to making it legal for companies to harass those interests that want to have union representation on their jobs!

I find it interesting that both the City Council and Cook County Board this week are contemplating resolutions expressing opposition to Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda,” which probably has Rauner thinking in terms of what tactics he must use to counter the significant negative blow his political dream will take.

In the world of partisan politics, making dreams become reality costs money. If Rauner can’t find more millions of dollars from business interests concerned with their selves, then the desires of the people might actually prevail.

That might be the most appalling thought of all to the business interests – and one we should all keep in mind in coming months when we hear all the nasty rhetoric about how Rauner is being prevented from doing what he thinks is right.

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EXTRA: No wonder Rahm wants Willie off the mayoral ballot

There’s a Catholic school affiliated with St. Florian parish in the Hegewisch neighborhood that has been struggling with its finances to avoid being closed.

Now, it seems one of the mayoral hopefuls has a desire to be the person who ensures the school stays open.

THE CANDIDATE IS Willie Wilson, an African-American man who has managed to work his way to a fortune and likes to make charitable contributions to causes he deems worthy. Which is totally within his right to do so.

So, according to the Times of Northwest Indiana newspaper, Wilson planned to visit St. Florian Tuesday night with a $5,000 check – the amount that their fundraising drive fell short of the desired goal.

The school was among those slated by the Archdiocese last year to be closed, with church officials citing declining enrollment causing shortfalls in funding. The school remains open because local residents have worked aggressively to raise money to cover the budgetary shortfall.

This year, the goal was to raise $60,000, with the Big Shoulders Fund kicking in $25,000 and local efforts coming up with about $30,000.

WILSON WAS TO show up at the school Tuesday night with a personal check to make up the difference.

But Wilson also is one of the nine people who are trying to run for mayor in the Feb. 24 elections. Is this the kind of move meant to build goodwill that might actually persuade some of those Hegewisch residents to get off their duffs come Election Day and cast ballots for Willie?

It certainly can’t hurt!

Anyone who has been paying attention knows the Wilson name because he is one of the candidates who is having his ballot slot challenged. Most of those candidates are truly fringe who have next to no shot of getting more than 1 percent of the vote.

BUT WILSON, WHO began his business ventures by running McDonald’s franchises on the South Side and expanding into more substantial efforts throughout the years, differs because he has the kind of money to self-fund a serious campaign – if he so wishes.

If you want to believe that Wilson is too much of a no-name to take seriously, consider that Bruce Rauner was equally a political nobody before he started kicking in the dozens of millions of dollars to buy himself just the right image that enabled him to win the governor’s elections held last month.

Could Wilson become the African-American equivalent of Rauner? Not if Emanuel’s political loyalists are capable of kicking him off the ballot.

Now I’m not implying there’s anything illegal about Wilson’s contribution. It’s his money, and I’m sure there’s no specific agreement that people will be required to vote for him in exchange for the contribution.

BUT YOU HAVE to admit, that’s a lot of goodwill that will be stirred up from Hegewisch residents to whom the thought of sending their kids to Washington School (in the Chicago Public School system) is absolutely abhorrent!

Which could also make it some of the most practically-spent money of this campaign cycle.

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Rauner’s trying to buy the office; It only makes sense to buy allies too!

Much is being made of the many millions of dollars being spent by Bruce Rauner toward his own campaign for governor (some $9.6 million, with more likely to come in the next three months).

Yet I couldn’t help but notice the latest study from the Better Government Association, which focused on the amount of money Rauner is donating to other Republican candidates.

AFTER ALL, WHAT good does it do him to be governor if it turns out he has a hostile General Assembly and other high-ranking statewide government officials.

Rauner could easily find himself outnumbered by Democrats within state government. Unless you think that he and Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka can be a new GOP dynamic duo and take on the mass of state government all by themselves!

Hence, he’s kicking in significant amounts of money to Republican organizations across the state. Which probably makes more sense than backing individual candidates.

Those organizations are the groups that know the local lay of the land and are capable of getting local GOP candidates in higher office, where they would become allies to a “Gov. Rauner,” should we wind up with that concept come next January.

THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES published a new Better Government Association study that reviewed the Illinois State Board of Elections records of Rauner’s campaign contributions.

This year alone, he has donated 119 contributions to 75 groups across the state.

Since 2012, he and his wife have donated about $1.5 million – compared to the period from 1998 to 2011 when the couple’s campaign contributions totaled only about $1.1 million.

Interestingly enough, some of that money wound up boosting the various re-election bids of now-former Mayor Richard M. Daley and also to Forrest Claypool – remember his bids to dump Joe Berrios as county assessor?

HE’S GIVING MONEY to the various rural county organizations, along with various suburban township groups. Even the Chicago Young Republicans got a bit of cash – according to the study.

Although the one that amazes me is a series of contributions coming from the “Citizens for Rauner” organization that is giving money to the Illinois Republican Party proper.

That organization has become so weak and ineffectual in recent years that somebody has to do something, unless the one-time “Party of Lincoln” is willing to abandon “Honest Abe’s” home state for good.

It seems Rauner’s campaign fund gave the state party some $750,000 each during both August and July, along with $525,000 during June.

TWO MILLION BUCKS during the summertime leading up to the serious campaign activity that usually kicks off with the coming of Labor Day.

Not that Rauner’s and Quinn’s efforts thus far haven’t been serious. It’s just that so many people don’t really pay any attention until next month – which is why it is possible to legitimately question all those polls showing Rauner administering a serious butt-whuppin’ to Quinn.

They also contain so many undecideds that we really don’t know what is going to result come the evening of Nov. 4.

Although I couldn’t help but notice the latest fund-raising pitch I received – an e-mail message Monday from the Quinn campaign’s manager.

IT TELLS US how Democratic campaign intelligence, so to speak, has learned of incidents where Rauner thought he was privately telling Republican partisans that he’s prepared to push for government shut-downs if he winds up having to govern as a Republican with a whole lot of Democratic Party colleagues.

Reformer my butt!!! That kind of talk is nothing more than trying to return to the past of Newt Gingrich (remember when they were amazed they got blamed rather than Bill Clinton because of a shutdown?). Or as Quinn people remind us, of the nonsense we saw in Wisconsin a few years back when Gov. Scott Walker decided to get all hostile with organized labor – regardless of the problems his actions caused for people.

Of course, the Quinn people want us to kick in our own campaign cash to back him, “… to make sure Rauner doesn’t get the chance to make good on his threats.”

Which is why Rauner would like to have a few more friends in politically prominent places. That might be the ultimate reason to think about voting against him come Election Day.

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Will we get the finest governments our wealthiest choose to buy for us?

Leave it to the Supreme Court of the United States to give us a ruling that will make our electoral process even more intriguing.



Conservatives 'making' their mark?

And by intriguing, I mean annoying, chaotic and a total pain in the tushie!

HOW ELSE CAN anybody of sense interpret a ruling that lets the wealthiest amongst us use their money to give themselves an even bigger voice?

I know there are those who will claim this is a matter of “freedom of expression.” Which I just don’t buy. Writing out a check isn’t expression, it’s an action. There are many actions we can take that get regulated. This shouldn’t be any different.

There also are those who claim that this merely equals out the political playing field in that organized labor has assorted committees that produce significant funding for the Democratic Party interests they favor.

Why not let the Republicans have a good-sized wallet as well? It’s just that I’ve never really seen a starving GOP candidate’s campaign – unless it’s someone who’s such an ideological nitwit that he embarrasses the party operatives to the point where they are deliberately squeezing him dry.

THERE ARE ALREADY many business-oriented organizations that are more than capable of coming up with funds for the candidates of their preference. And we already have elections that skyrocket to record levels every election cycle.

Which funds the continued acts of trivial and hostile nonsense that takes over any serious comprehension of issues or what a candidate stands for.

Why would anyone think that throwing more gasoline/cash on the fire/campaign is an improvement?

Or are they bolstering 'free speech?'

 

But that is what the nation’s high court decided earlier this week when it eliminated the overall limit of money an individual can give in any particular cycle.

THE LIMITS ON donations to individual candidates remain. But now, people can give to as many candidates as they can afford. Before, they would hit the limit, and would have to pick and choose which people were worthy of their money.

It can be argued that the court decision came to us by a 5-4 vote, based on the ideological lines that divide the court. Which will have some arguing that it loses any legitimacy it might otherwise have.

Personally, I’m just dismayed that somebody wants to put more money into mindless campaign spending. Some people must think the most extremely wealthy deserve an even bigger voice because they most likely had an ancestor who was successful in business so they could get the inheritance.

And yes, this is a tiny group of people we’re talking about. The Center for Responsive Politics says that last year, only 591 people (out of the more than 300 million who live in the United States) made so many donations that they reached the now-defunct limit.

ANYBODY WHO THINKS I’m over-reacting ought merely to look at the election cycle we have now. It’s only early April, and we’ve already got an entire campaign’s worth of nonsense in the fight for governor.

We got a Republican primary where Bruce Rauner used his own significant wealth to fund his efforts, while also choking off any funding sources that his opponents might have tapped into.

Is this what more campaign cash gets us?

With seven months to go until the Nov. 4 elections, Rauner already is using financial resources to try to create the concept of Gov. Pat Quinn as an incumbent liar.

The only difference between the primary and now is that Quinn has his own ample funding to spew Rauner with months of dirt during the upcoming months.

ANYBODY WHO THINKS that the Supreme Court’s ruling will somehow give us more enlightened campaign rhetoric is seriously misguided.

For we in Illinois have seen how our governor’s campaign has devolved into the election between “Quinnochio” and “Mr. Burns.” Do we really need that, nationwide?

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