Similar actions, differing outcomes, for former Congressmen Jackson, Schock

Both of them were once up-and-comers within the Illinois delegation of Congress who had the potential to rise to positions of great authority within our local political scene.

SCHOCK: Has a chance at life after politics

They both wound up being found using money donated to their campaign funds to do some redecoration of their official government offices in their own style.

BOTH WOUND UP facing the wrath of federal prosecutors who were inclined to believe that actions previously considered legitimate were actually criminal in nature.

But that is where the similarities end between Jesse Jackson, Jr., and Aaron Schock.

The former House of Representatives member from the South Shore neighborhood wound up facing the prosecutorial pressure and pleaded guilty – ultimately getting a 30-month prison term and doing his time, in part because prosecutors also went after his wife, Sandi, to tighten the screws even further.

Jackson is now free from prison, but will go through the rest of his life with a criminal record. Something that thoroughly satisfies those people who enjoy saying that the namesake son of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson is nothing but a convicted felon.

BUT AS FOR Schock, the former House member from Peoria will face a different fate.

JACKSON: Would he have liked a Schock deal?

For federal prosecutors this week reached an agreement by which they’ll drop the criminal charges that Schock faced for using the campaign funds to decorate his congressional office in the style of the British television series “Downton Abbey,” along with using money to pay for a flight back to Chicago so he could attend a Chicago Bears football game.

There might be some people, myself included, who’d say that Schock and Jackson were similar.

Remember that Jesse Jr. used the campaign funds to purchase items of memorabilia that he intended to use to give his congressional office a colorful touch. Such as a fedora once belonging to singer Michael Jackson, and boxing gloves once used by prize fighter Muhammad Ali.

BUT JESSE GOT the intense pressure that ultimately led to his guilty plea – in part to reduce the amount of time that prosecutors would seek to have his wife serve.

SANDI: Feds took her down too

For Sandi Jackson herself faced an indictment – mostly because as his spouse, she co-signed the tax returns that the congressman used to try to claim that his use of the money for the purchases was legal.

Of course, the fact that Sandi Jackson was an alderman from the South Shore neighborhood at the time meant prosecutors got a “double” out of that case. A corrupt congressman AND Chicago alderman. Somebody got two notches on their career belt out of the Jacksons.

Could it be the fact that Schock gave up his own congressional seat from central Illinois so willingly meant he was no longer a prosecutorial prize for some attorney trying to build up his career record?

Would Mayor Emanuel and Gov. Rauner have occurred … 

AS THINGS TURNED out, a “guilty” plea was entered this week against Schock’s campaign committee – a misdemeanor offense that he didn’t properly report his expenses.

But if Schock is not running for future office, that isn’t much of a penalty. Schock himself had all the criminal charges dropped against him – provided he repays $68,000 to the campaign fund and $42,000 to the Internal Revenue Service.

… if Jackson, Schock had been politically viable?

Schock won’t be doing prison time. He won’t have a criminal record. A deal that I’m sure Jesse, Jr., would love to have been offered all those years ago. But wasn’t, because there was no way anyone bearing the moniker “Jesse Jackson, Jr.” could be offered anything resembling a prosecutorial deal that would have been sensible.

And there’s one other thing the two have in common – they both are stories of what “might have been” in Illinois politics; with Jackson as the mayor Chicago never got and Schock being the governor who might have spared our state the levels of partisan political nonsense it endured during the Bruce Rauner years.

  -30-

What did Rauner do right?

Come the noon hour, Bruce Rauner won’t be our governor any longer.

RAUNER: At 12:01 p.m., he's a political nobody

Those heavy old doors of the Illinois Statehouse, with their ornate door handles bearing the state seal will give Rauner the “swat” on his behind as he walks out for the last time, and there will be many people cheering their “huzzahs!”

YET AS RAUNER departs and new Gov. J.B. Pritzker takes the oath of office to serve for the next four years, I have to admit there are some things the old governor deserves praise for.

There was the Executive Mansion renovation in Springfield. The structure dating back to the days when Abraham Lincoln was a resident of the capital city was in need of serious renovation and repair – made worse by the fact that more recent governors such as Blagojevich and Quinn couldn’t be bothered with the project.

It was Rauner who led the effort that raised some $15 million necessary to ensure the structure continues to have a long life. While also ensuring that he had to spend much of his own term as governor living in a house on the Illinois State Fairgrounds.

Just envision the aromas he had to endure – particularly during the state fair when all the livestock shows were at their peaks. That was bound to be the source of many a gag from people who thought they were hilarious.

QUINN: Didn't fix the mansion

ACTUALLY, I KIND of comprehend why the project wasn’t a priority in the days of Pat Quinn as governor. It was during that time that state government spent the millions necessary to do a renovation of the Capitol building.

A project that became very costly and caused many people to whine that Quinn was wasting government funds that could have been put to better use. I don’t doubt that a lot of people would have been lambasting him even more if he had also taken on a governor’s mansion renovation – no matter how necessary.

So it was left to Rauner to take on the project, and he got the work done prior to the official Illinois bicentennial celebration that took place last year. Although it amused me to learn that then-candidate Pritzker actually made a private donation to the fund to help advance the project along.

BLAGOJEVICH: Pardon backlog a mess

The bottom line is that Rauner gets credit for ensuring the official mansion and so-called showplace of Illinois government didn’t become too decrepit. That truly would have become an embarrassment.

RAUNER ALSO MANAGED to take care of something else the had become an embarrassment for Illinois. He issued a statement Friday pointing out there is no backlog of convicted individuals asking for some form of gubernatorial clemency.

There are no cases held over from past years for someone else to take care of.

Why is this an issue?

Actually, it’s because when Rod Blagojevich was removed from office by impeachment, one of the problems was we learned that the governor was ignoring the many requests for pardons or commutations that he had the authority to grant – if he so chose.

THERE LITERALLY WERE thousands of individuals whose pleas were made to Blagojevich that he never bothered to address. He was more than willing to play games with those individuals because he didn’t want to be bothered.

PRITZKER: What will he be noted for?

Now it’s one thing if you have a governor who seriously does not want to grant a lot of pardons or commutations. But the way Rod just chose to ignore the issue was a disgrace. Which is why many people find it ironic that Blagojevich is seeking clemency from President Donald Trump to get his own prison term (scheduled to end in 2024) reduced to time served.

It would serve him right if Trump just let him linger the way Blagojevich did to many others. But Blagojevich’s fate apparently benefits Trump politically – in that he can P-O many political people who want to see Rod suffer as much as is possible.

Rauner actually managed to work his way through the backlog dating to the Blagojevich years; creating a situation where future governors will just have to clean up their own mess. Although I'm sure the masses amongst us Illinoisans will be more than willing to be outraged at the many issues where our former governor caused problems to develop -- if not escalate to conditions that will take us years to recover from.

  -30-

Millionaire Rauner thinks it wrong his political opponent is outspending him

Listening to Gov. Bruce Rauner complain about how he’s being outspent by Democratic challenger J.B. Pritzker’s desires to replace him come Tuesday’s elections strikes me as being the whines of a political crybaby.

RAUNER: Being beaten at own game?

Rauner is seriously trying to get people – at least those of us who live in Illinois outside the Chicago metro area – all worked up over the notion that Pritzker is trying to use his personal wealth to buy the governor’s post for himself.

AS THOUGH RAUNER is the pauper who just can’t compete in such a political environment.

Even though I personally find it appalling to have to pick from so many excessively-wealthy people amongst our candidates, I can’t find any sympathy for our incumbent governor – and not just because I think Illinois will be much better off the moment we send Bruce packing.

For Rauner is very much the reason this trend of needing millionaire candidates with little interest in traditional campaign fundraising has come to Illinois.

Let’s not forget the 2014 election for governor; the one in which a record was set -- $127.3 million was raised and spent by the two major party candidates.

WITH RAUNER ACCOUNTING for some 70 percent of that spending. Rauner IS the ultimate rich guy who bought himself a political office to appease his ego and make him feel like his life is contributing to our society.

PRITZKER: Makes Rauner look like pauper

Of course, Rauner’s personal background (a venture capitalist who buys struggling businesses and bleeds them dry of any assets they have) mean he’s inclined to be sympathetic towards interests that the bulk of us living here are not.

If anything, this election cycle was expected to be more of the same. Remember back over a year ago when it was reported Rauner had already come up with some $50 million for his re-election campaign.

Along with money to support Republican allies in the General Assembly and other state government posts? This was supposed to be yet another year in which a Rauner version of the Republican Party would buy dominance over us all.

QUINN: Treated in '14 like Rauner is now

EXCEPT THAT DEMOCRATS managed to come up with a candidate in Pritzker who could produce his own funds to be competitive with Rauner.

Heck, Pritzker has already spent enough money on his campaign that he alone crushes the 2014 record. When you add in the Rauner bucks, we may wind up at just over $200 million for this election cycle in Illinois.

Is what really bothers Rauner is that his record of ’14 is already crushed into oblivion? Is Illinois Democratic Chairman Michael Madigan’s real political “sin” that he took the Rauner game plan and played it better than Rauner did himself?

It’s why I honestly hear nothing more than “Wah, wah, wah!!!” when Rauner tells a campaign rally in Quincy that Pritzker, “is outspending us by $100 million. Good grief, he’s trying to buy the election.”

HAROLD: Will she be Rauner legacy?

IT TRANSLATES INTO blunt-speak English as, “he’s trying to buy my election away from me!” Or perhaps more like a line from the 1980 film "Cheech &Chong's Next Movie" in which Cheech Marin’s character is upset that someone stole from him the thing he stole earlier that day.

“Somebody just ripped off the thing I ripped off,” Marin said. A sentiment that Rauner may very well sympathize with these days.

Does Rauner identify these days with Cheech?

Because as things now stand, all the money Rauner has pumped into himself and other Republicans to try to rebuild the one-time Party of Lincoln in his own image may have all been for naught. It may wind up that the only Republican who prevails Tuesday is Erika Harold’s state attorney general bid (it’s possible that some voters will be backward enough to reject Democrat Kwame Raoul’s campaign just because of a funny name).

Then again, carrying the taint of taking Rauner’s campaign money may be enough to drag her down, and make this Rauner era of Illinois government a complete and utter failure.

  -30-

Racial lawsuit against Pritzker a lame attempt at political misdirection

What kind of world is it where a political aspirant can put $88 million of his own money into his electoral campaign, and be grossly outspent?

PRITZKER: Under fire from own staff

That’s the case these days for Bruce Rauner. The Illinois governor tried the same tactic that worked in 2014 when he first ran for office – he invested his own money into winning.

BUT NOW THAT he’s seeking re-election, it doesn’t seem to be enough. It’s now plainly obvious why Democratic establishment types were eager to have J.B. Pritzker as their gubernatorial nominee. He has put $146.5 million of his own money into an opposition campaign – which is a record for political spending.

So the Republicans who want to avoid becoming politically irrelevant in Illinois following the Nov. 6 elections are now behaving like magicians – to whom the secret of their acts isn’t any real magical powers, but a strong ability to misdirect.

Get people to focus their attention on one issue or aspect – and not notice some action that really explains their trick.

In this election cycle, it seems that “discrimination” will be the issue that Rauner-backers will want us all to pay attention to.

A LAWSUIT FILED late Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago tries to make it claim that the Pritzker gubernatorial campaign is discriminating against its workers who happen to be black, or of Latino ethnic origins.

RAUNER: Can this lawsuit help him?

“J.B. Pritzker for governor has a serious race problem,” the lawsuit states. As though we’re supposed to believe that all non-white voters ought to cast ballots for Bruce in order to look out for our interests.

It seems that the bulk of non-white campaign workers are used by the Pritzker campaign in non-white neighborhoods. The campaign supposedly has but one actual field office based in such a neighborhood, and it supposedly is so unsafe that Pritzker himself has yet to visit.

All of this may actually be true. But it strikes me as being a batch of hooey, rather than any kind of legitimate campaign issue.

IF ANYTHING, I’D be surprised if the Rauner campaign has any stronger physical presence in similar neighborhoods. Or actually, if ANY Republican running for office is bothering much to campaign in ways to try to appeal to non-white voters.

OBAMA: His old staffers amongst those suing

I suspect the Republican strategy in general is to make electoral politics as unappealing as they possibly can to non-white voters. If not many actually bother to vote, then the GOPers can focus on their preferred element of the electorate – and it could possibly be large-enough to win an election.

In this case, stirring up some doggie poop to try to build resentment against the Pritzker campaign won’t get any significant number of votes for the Rauner re-election bid. But I’m sure he hopes it will make his hard-core GOPers a large-enough faction to prevail on Nov. 6.

So when I read the statement from Illinois Republican Party executive director Travis Sterling that says, in part, “Pritzker’s actions don’t back up his words. Here we have his own staffers, seasoned political operatives, alleging racial discrimination and harassment,” I can’t help but be skeptical.

AND WHEN HE says, “It’s finally time for J.B. Pritzker to answer for his actions,” I have to cackle sarcastically.

How many lawsuit fans are also Trump backers?

For many of these Republican operatives are the same kinds of people who are desperately trying to ignore so many of Donald Trump’s inane comments and actions that are nothing more than appeals to the bigoted nature of a segment of the electorate. In large part because they have little objections to such ideals themselves.

Now I’m not going to be naïve enough to claim J.B. Pritzker is high-minded and moralistic; although I have noticed that throughout the years of his political financing, he tends to give his money to candidates who do fight for such ideals.

We can only hope that gives him some sense of what is right and what he should strive to achieve if he actually wins political office himself. Irregardless, we still need to dump Rauner, who can’t even appease the ideologues amongst us and still has all those anti-labor hang-ups that brought about his stubborn actions that have made a total mess of Illinois’ government in recent years – a fact that no amount of money can cover up.

  -30-

Avoiding talk of 'Quincy' while in Quincy key to analyzing gov. debate

Thursday is the last of the three official debates the candidates for Illinois governor will hold prior to Election Day, and there’s really one simple way of determining who comes out ahead.

We'll see a Quincy-centric world Thursday

Just how much does discussion focus on the Veterans’ Home in Quincy – the facility where several fatalities occurred from elderly residents who contracted the Legionnaires Disease.

BECAUSE YOU JUST know that Democratic nominee J.B. Pritzker is going to want to turn the entire session into a rant against how those men who served their country wound up dying while in the care of Gov. Bruce Rauner.

That’s actually a gross oversimplification of what really happened, but then again most of what gets said during a political campaign is oversimplification and distortion with only the slightest tidbit of truth to it.

So if we wind up being given the impression that Rauner is personally responsible for dead military veterans, it will mean that Pritzker will have “won” the debate – he will have been capable of having his version of “the truth” predominate.

Whereas if we wind up being given the impression that this election cycle is about a man who had the toilets ripped out of a mansion in order to get a significant property tax break (because it no longer qualified as an inhabitable home), then we can chalk up Thursday night to Team Rauner.

YOU MAY BE wondering “What’s your point?”

RAUNER: Caused negligence that killed vets?

It’s that these circumstances shouldn’t be surprising. Political debates have the great misfortune of being so filled with nonsense that it’s a wonder anything useful comes out of them. There actually are times I wonder why political candidates bother to participate in them.

Personally, what I always try to look for when watching such an event is just how quick on one’s feet one is. How they handle the back-and-forth of answering back.

And also watching for that moment (which can crop up at virtually any point in time, usually most unexpected) when a candidate goes off-script and says something from the heart. Telling us what he really thinks about an issue.

PRITZKER: A toilet-less tax cheat?

OF COURSE, THOSE moments can be dreaded by a candidate because “honesty” can often be ugly – showing us just how insipid a political aspirant truly is and all-the-more reason why we shouldn’t bother voting for that person.

For what it’s worth, Thursday’s debate between Rauner and Pritzker is meant to be the “downstate” debate. Unlike the two previous events sponsored by the Chicago Urban League and the League of Women Voters that were held in Chicago, this one is being held outside the Chicago area.

It will have a panel of broadcaster-types from Quincy, Peoria and Rockford, along with a reporter-type from the Herald-Whig newspaper of Quincy. Which means it may well have questions that focus on the rest of the state – the part of Illinois where Rauner dreams he’s the favorite and that will lead him to a victory over Pritzker.

Now I don’t doubt the downstate Illinois types will vote against Pritzker because he’s “too Chicago-ish” for them. Although how they manage to tolerate Rauner is a mystery. It must be a really tight clothespin tacked onto their nose while they cast their ballots.

EITHER WAY, I’M sure many think this election stinks.

It is a victory for Pritzker’s part that his political operatives were able to get a Quincy-based debate as one of the events, and pressure Rauner into having to accept it. I have no doubt that the governor would rather be anywhere else in Illinois than in Quincy Thursday night.

Will gov candidates muck up the shores of the Mississippi River?

And as for Pritzker, it’s probably a matter of following the old political adage – “Avoid saying anything stupid!”

Because amidst all the cheap shots and distortions that both candidates will make about each other, we need to realize we’re getting our last glance at the two multi-millionaires who want to think that their personal wealth is significant enough to buy the political post of Illinois governor.

  -30-

Hillary politically active, despite some wanting to view her as damaged goods

I’m sure ideologues are all riled up with anger at the very notion that Hillary Clinton was out this week on the campaign trail.

CLINTON: Backing her financial backer

Sure enough, Clinton made Chicago-area appearances Monday on behalf of the Illinois gubernatorial campaign of J.B. Pritzker. She’s letting it be known she thinks the wealthy fundraiser who contributed many millions of dollars to support her presidential aspirations of 2008 and 2016 is a worthy pick to be our state’s governor.

OF COURSE, TO listen to the ideologues, Hillary Clinton is supposed to be the woman living out the rest of her life in shame and disgrace. She’s supposed to be someone who we find to be so repulsive that other political people ought to be running in the opposite direction every time they see her approaching.

They certainly shouldn’t be seeking her political support, or be viewing her positively in any way!

Yet in the ultimate evidence that this Age of Trump we’re living in is really a mindset of a minority segment of our society, we have Pritzker more than willing to be seen with Clinton – perhaps riling up a majority of Illinoisans to think that picking Pritzker is Step One towards undoing the notion that Trumpian ideals are in any way in control of our country.

While also reminding the nation as a whole that Illinois is NOT part of the reason we have a “President Donald J. Trump” in the first place. Don’t blame us! We didn’t vote for the boob!

PRITZKER: Gave Hillary $14.7M in '16

TO WHICH I’LL offer an immediate apology to boobs (and nit-wits) everywhere for implying in any way that Donald Trump is on the same level as them. He's worse!

But back to Hillary, whom some people like to say is the worst candidate ever to be nominated by a major political party. The real reason, they want us to believe, that Democrats lost the 2016 election cycle to Trump.

Those people always want to disregard the level of bigotry that backs Trump to this day. It’s as though they don’t want to have to acknowledge issues of gender, race and ethnicity that they have contempt for, and don’t want to be called out on the fact that their contempt was so great that they voted for the worst candidate who ever actually managed to win a presidential election.

TRUMP: He's Hillary's ultimate target

So for Hillary Clinton to be out campaigning publicly, allowing herself to be seen and for her support to be gladly accepted by people with their own political aspirations? It’s a mighty blow to the oft-twisted ideals that the right-wing elements of our society want to think we all ought to have.

JUST AS I’M sure they view Bill Clinton as equally offensive. He’s supposed to be the president who was impeached, and by whom anybody with any association to him was forevermore supposed to be tainted beyond reproach.

Instead, they seem to keep coming back into influence, largely because it seems the ideological leanings the critics espouse are the ideals that many of us find to be truly repulsive.

Almost as if that old cliché about “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” is the way many of us – even those who are apathetic towards the efforts of the Clintons to moderate liberal and progressive ideals out of a belief that it is the only way to win an election – view Bill and Hillary.

Particularly in the case of Hillary, we might not be all that enthused about her continued political presence. But appearing to back her in any way – such as J.B. Pritzker is doing now – is a very practical way of reminding voters that they’re not aligned with anything coming out of the White House administration of “The Head Cheeto” himself.

  -30-

Edgar an old-school “real” Republican, instead of an "Age of Trump" character

It shouldn’t be surprising to learn that Jim Edgar (the Illinois governor of the 1990s) doesn’t think much of incumbent Bruce Rauner, and is actually offering up some advice to Democratic challenger J.B. Pritzker.

EDGAR: A political adviser to all

That was the BIG STORY offered up this week by WCIA-TV in Champaign, that Edgar won’t endorse Rauner’s re-election and is almost something of a counselor for Pritzker – whom it seems he knows firsthand from when the two of them served on a board over a decade ago promoting gambling interests connected to horseracing.

IT IS THE kind of political tidbit that will get the conservative ideologues who have taken over the Republican Party all worked up. They’ll spew a whole lot of nasty names – the nicest of which may be that he’s a “RINO” (a so-called “Republican in Name Only”).

As in one of those people whose refusal to be ideologically rigid is what is wrong with politics these days.

Yet I can see where Edgar is so different in background compared to Rauner – and most definitely to President Donald Trump that the real news would be if Edgar could find a way to be supportive of either man.

Or any of the ideologues determined to use party politics and government for the sole purpose of wiping out the opposition on just about any issue.

RAUNER: Lost the leanings of Gov. Jim

THE TRICK TO comprehending The Edgar Years (which coincide closely with the Bill Clinton era) is to remember that Edgar was a man who worked the bulk of his professional life collecting paychecks from Illinois state government.

He was a guy who went from being an intern within the Illinois Legislature all the way up to two terms as governor. I remember I used to joke to people that Edgar was the equivalent of the mythical guy who went from working in the company mailroom to being CEO – except that his company was Illinois state government.

He also served as an Illinois House member(from his hometown of Charleston, the college town that gives us Eastern Illinois University), on the staff of Gov. James R. Thompson and also as Illinois secretary of state.

PRITZKER: Will he listen to Edgar advice?

Edgar was definitely someone who worked his way up through the system, learned how it works and took a strong interest in preserving it.

I CAN SEE where a person like that would find someone like Bruce Rauner distasteful.

With Rauner being the venture capitalist who developed significant personal wealth, then decided to run for a top government post (none of that working his way up politically) because he thinks government made things difficult for his business-self entity.

Just like I’m sure a significant part of the Trump presidency is about trying to change all the government regulations that see sees as having interfered with the business interests of himself, and people like him.

Never mind the fact that many of those regulatory functions were meant to protect the public from the harm that could be caused by Trump’s every little precarious whim.

SO IS THE fact that Rauner let state government go for multiple years without a balanced budget in place an act of irresponsibility that would lead Edgar to say he’s endorsing nobody this year – and certainly not Gov. Bruce? Very likely yes!

Edgar an antique in this Age of Trump

Does the fact that Edgar has always had a strong interest in horses and racetracks and the fact that he got to know Pritzker mean he’s willing to sit down and advise him on how to conduct himself responsibly during a campaign? Probably.

So for the Champaign-area CBS affiliate to report that there have been meetings between Edgar and Pritzker – with the former governor advising J.B. not to get too tied into details now because the realities of governing could cause him to have to change his stance on issues – shouldn’t be shocking.

Because I don’t doubt Edgar is a “Land of Lincoln”-style Republican at heart, and he’ll probably be the first to publicly lambast a “Gov. Pritzker” the first time J.B. screws something up.

  -30-

Only 49 more days ‘til “real” election cycle begins – the Chicago mayoral

Is political matchup between Preckwinkle … 

Seven weeks from Wednesday is a date that I’m sure many people will be awaiting, depending on their own political perspective.

It is either seven more weeks until the current election cycle – the one that will give Illinois a governor, legislators and other constitutional officers – is over and done with. Or it is seven more weeks until we can forget about this layer of government and get on with what they want to believe is the real government.

… and Daley more intriguing … 

AS IN THE election for mayor and the 50 members of the City Council who will oversee the municipal activity of Chicago.

Yes, it is an overly parochial attitude to take that people who live outside of the Chicago city limits have government that doesn’t mean a thing. And that our state officials ought to be subservient to those officials from the city.

But I also don’t doubt there are people who are tired of the rhetorical trash talk coming from the governor candidates and will never get intrigued by who is running for attorney general or comptroller.

They probably don’t have a clue who their state legislators are.

… than the 'millionaires' brawl … 

FOR THOSE PEOPLE who want to think the state government doesn’t matter, just keep in mind that Bill Daley has kicked off his own campaigning for mayor in the Feb. 26 elections (with possible run-offs April 2) by saying he expects newly-elected Gov. J.B. Pritzker to be supportive of initiatives that will help Chicago resolve some significant financial issues the city has.

A concept that I’m sure grossly offends Illinoisans from that one-third of the state’s population lying outside the Chicago metropolitan area’s boundaries.

I actually wonder if Bruce Rauner’s lone chance of prevailing on Nov. 6 and getting himself re-elected to a second four-year term as governor is if enough non-Chicago voters decide to band together and Vote for Bruce to keep the city from becoming – from their perspective – too powerful.

… we're now getting between Rauner/Pritzker?

So long as ideologues getting all worked up about social issues such as abortion or immigration see flaws in Rauner because he hasn’t been hardline right-wing enough to appease them, then Pritzker is likely to prevail.

WHICH IS WHY many voters are acting as though Nov. 6’s Election Day is already a done deal; and why they’re probably waiting for the activity that decides who will be the replacement as mayor for Rahm Emanuel – who already has made public his first act.

He has a book deal – one that will let him settle scores against everyone who he thinks has wronged him during his eight years as mayor and will keep his name in the public eye while he decides what he wants to do with the rest of his life.

That book, which Emanuel has yet to write, is expected to be published by the year 2020 – around about the same time that Chicago White Sox fans think their favorite ballclub will morph itself into a contending ballclub.

Which may, or may not, be a fantasy in its own right.

WITH THE MAYORAL election cycle turning into a brawl between Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and former White House chief of staff Bill Daley, with former school board President Gery Chico saying Tuesday he’s interested in getting into the mix and others speculating about likely Rep. Jesus Garcia, D-Ill., and Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza becoming involved, the upcoming political fight is taking on a heft that will make many eager to see this “governor nonsense” over and done with.

What if Mendoza  swings ahead of all?

It definitely has taken on more heft than it had just a couple of weeks ago when it was Emanuel likely running for re-election against a dozen or so lightweights whose only real strategy for winning was that they could force Emanuel into a run-off election and beat him by taking the “Anybody But Rahm” vote.

Now, it’s more likely the Chicago city elections will produce a mayor who actually has people intrigued by his/her qualifications for the office – instead of feeling like a default choice.

And as for governor? It would amuse me if Pritzker wound up spending all those millions of dollars of the family fortune to buy himself a political post, only to have someone like Mendoza (who currently holds a post four notches below his in the state pecking order) somehow swing around him and gain the more prestigious (to some) political post for herself!

  -30-

Does J.B. have to fight to get his campaign attention in coming weeks?

We’re past Labor Day; which makes now through the coming weeks when would-be voters actually start paying attention to the upcoming Election Day – giving thought as to who they want to be governor for the next four years.

Could this yet-to-be-determined mayoral hopeful … 

Yet Democratic nominee J.B. Pritzker has one disadvantage going against him – the fact that the withdrawal of Rahm Emanuel as a candidate for mayor means that most Chicago-area people who give a damn about anything political are going to be focusing their attention on trying to figure out who’s going to run for mayor in next year’s election cycle.

AT THE VERY point in time when Chicagoans should be thinking about the governor’s race come Nov. 6, Pritzker is going to face a great reality about the Chicago political scene.

That is the fact that many would-be voters could care less about state government activity. They’re going to view the governor’s post as the least significant of the top-level political posts that exist. Mayor and U.S. senator are much higher priorities.

Which could be the factor that makes incumbent Gov. Bruce Rauner not a totally hopeless case in terms of his desires to be re-elected to a second term in office.

The Rauner campaign is one that is focusing its attention on trying to turn out the vote in the rural parts of Illinois. Which most definitely means outside of Chicago. In places where the fight over who will be the next mayor of Chicago is one of no relevance.

… take attention away from Pritzker, … 

AS MUCH AS us Chicago residents think such people live in isolation, it could be that a strong vote for Rauner in the 96 counties outside the Chicago metropolitan area could make him competitive electorally come Election Day.

Could electoral apathy be the factor that enables Rauner to overcome his own political complications and have a chance to actually win in November?

Could the mayoral brawl, what with people like Toni Preckwinkle or Luis Gutierrez deciding they want to rise to the political top and candidates like Paul Vallas and Garry McCarthy trying to claim they deserve to be taken more seriously than somebody who’s only now deciding they might want to run for office come February 26, wind up taking attention away from Pritzker?

… thereby bolstering Rauner's chances?

I couldn’t help but notice the event Friday in Urbana where Pritzker tried making his electoral appeal to University of Illinois-types at a coffee shop.

PRITZKER GOT ATTENTION because of who he brought along with him – former President Barack Obama, who managed to steal the focus of the event to the point where I’m sure there that the people who were at the Café Paradiso at the time of the event will remember it as the time they got to see Obama in person.

Did they even notice the heavy-set guy (who admittedly has lost some weight during his past year on the campaign trail) who was off to the side? Did they give him any thought whatsoever?

That might start happening a lot more in coming weeks. Because at a time when the candidates are supposed to step up their efforts full-throttle to try to capture Election Day votes, many Chicago voters are going to have their attention diverted.

Because there is only so much attention one can pay to political matters; and I also don’t doubt there will be others who will be more preoccupied with thoughts of the Chicago Bears and trying to have delusional thoughts that this team could be a Super Bowl contender.

I’M SURE FEB. 26 (and April 2 in the likely event that a mayoral run-off election is needed) are dates that will garner more attention amongst people than Nov. 6.

Was Barack the 'big man'  in Urbana?

Not that I’m predicting a Rauner victory. That man has his own political issues, and the fact that many Illinois voters living outside metro Chicago are disgusted with his own performance to the point where they want "Anybody But Bruce" to be the Election Day victor.

Which means the next 58 days could wind up being a political period with a sense of apathy amongst voters.

Almost as though we can hardly wait for this silly election cycle to come to an end so we can get on with the one that truly matters!

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EXTRA: Remembering Bernie (and I don't mean Sanders) down in Florida

“Epton for mayor – Before it’s too late.”
--Campaign slogan for Republican Chicago mayoral candidate Bernard Epton in 1983 when he challenged Democrat Harold Washington, who ultimately became the first black mayor of Chicago.

“The last thing we need to do is monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda.”

--Election night statement Tuesday night by Republican governor candidate Ron DeSantis about his challenge against Democrat Andrew Gillum, who could become the first black governor of Florida come Election Day on Nov. 6.

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Didn't remainder of nation learn from Chicago example?

Some 35 years have passed since Bernard Epton (who in reality was a liberal Jewish Republican state legislator from the Hyde Park neighborhood) created the public perception of himself that he’d never be able to live down.

More than a third of a century later, some things, sadly, remain eternal. Which is why some of us will forever be suspicious of just what is meant during this Age of Trump (of which DeSantis is a strong supporter) and its campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”

Will DeSantis be forevermore remembered for Tuesday night?

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