Can Stratton help Pritzker jump ahead of pack to take governor’s post in '18?

I’ve always had my own theory about Illinois state government posts – Democrats win them when Chicago city voters are motivated enough to care about who wins.
 

STRATTON: Illinois' next lieutenant governor?

Which can be a challenge. Because the city perspective is that the mayor and aldermen are all-important, while there’s some attention as to who gets sent “up and out” to Washington.

BUT AS FOR the clowns in Springfield? It’s easy for those elections to become after-thoughts to Chicagoans, while they’re way more significant to those in the rural parts of the state. Whichever one of the half-dozen or so Dem candidates dreaming of becoming governor needs to do something to get city residents to care, or else we'll get "four more years" of Gov. Bruce Rauner -- regardless of how much that thought appalls some urban voters.

Which is the reason why candidate J.B. Pritzker’s announcement Thursday that he will have state Rep. Julianna Stratton, D-Chicago, run with him as a lieutenant governor makes any sense.

It’s actually way too early to be thinking about running mates. Besides, the lieutenant governor candidates actually runs separately during the primary election cycle. So anyone who votes for Pritzker in the March ’18 primary could easily decide to ignore his choice of a running mate.

But Pritzker is trying to give Chicago voters, particularly that segment of the city that lives on the South and West sides, a reason to care about whether or not he winds up winning the election.

 

PRITZKER: Trying to jump to head of Dem pack

THERE MAY BE some city voters who will be motivated merely by the fact they want to dump Bruce Rauner as governor. But their contempt for the governor and the alternative being yet another rich billionaire who thinks it’s a strength he can pay for his own campaign is a perfect recipe for voter apathy!

Stratton is the legislator who has already been through a tough, big-money campaign. She was the woman who defeated Ken Dunkin, the South Side legislator who got challenged for his Illinois House seat because House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, was disgusted with Dunkin’s continual undermining of his authority. She’s also the one who can claim a personal endorsement from Barack Obama himself in that election cycle.

RAUNER: Counting on rest of Ill. to back him

Plus, she is a black woman – which could have an impact in making the African-American segment of the electorate care enough to vote for somebody. Would they really care about two rich white guys?

There are those political observers who think former Gov. Pat Quinn’s biggest mistake in his failed re-election bid of 2014 was dissing black voters by picking a white guy (former Chicago schools CEO Paul Vallas) as his running mate instead.

SO COULD THIS be a move to try to make Pritzker stand out further in the Democratic field? Then also to stand above Rauner come the November 2018 general election?

KENNEDY: Flaky?

At this point, anything that gains him attention over the crowd could help. Because I sense many voters just see a mass of candidates, with nothing that really distinguishes them.

I recently had a conversation over dinner with relatives about the upcoming election, and the consensus was that Chris Kennedy was kind of flaky, Daniel Biss might have some potential and everybody else was kind of bland. Except for Ameya Pawar, of whom I was the only person who even knew who he was.

BISS: Maybe?

Stratton could be the jolt that helps Pritzker leap above being bland.

NOT THAT IT should be thought I’m saying she’s unqualified. She may have only one term in the Illinois House of Representatives. But she’s a former head of the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Center for Public Safety and Justice, and also with the Cook County Justice Advisory Council and Justice for Children.

PAWAR: Who?

She certainly has qualifications for a public post, and it is the lieutenant governor’s position – where she is the person to be on-call in the event that a “Governor Pritzker” were to become incapacitated. Take the current lieutenant governor, Evelyn Sanguinetti, whose qualifications prior to the post were being a municipal official in suburban Wheaton.

So now Democratic voters have a ticket of “Pritzker/Stratton” to consider, along with a batch of other stray candidates. I’m sure Pritzker will want us to think that means he’s better organized than his opponents.

As to whether the voters believe that sentiment, we’ll see come March and November following Election Day.

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Trump can’t have another Admiral Stockdale as his V-P running mate

I’m not about to predict just who Donald Trump will pick to be his vice presidential running mate. Largely because there’s no knowing just what the man will consider to be a priority on any given day.

TRUMP: Who's his Number Two?

Which also is why some people are fearful of what kind of chief executive he’d make if he actually got elected. Nobody cares if The Trump Organization LLC is run by an egomaniac because ultimately Donald himself is the loser if he makes a stupid decision.

BUT IF HE does manage to get elected to higher office, the consequences are much higher. This is bigger than back when Minnesota voters picked one-time professional wrestler Jesse Ventura to be their governor.

Although to tell you the truth, I think the kind of people who made that vote are the same ones telling their brethren across the country to Vote Trump this time around. It’s something of a protest vote by people who resent the idea that they’re supposed to care about government.

So they decide to “clown it up” by doing the equivalent of casting a ballot for “Mickey Mouse.” Except Mickey and Minnie probably have more gravitas as a first couple than do Donald and Melania.

And Mickey would probably give us Goofy as a V-P, with Donald Duck as a Secretary of Defense, while we don’t have a clue who Trump would put in place to succeed him in the event of his demise while in office.

CHRISTIE: A V-P from Jersey?

IF ANYTHING, I suspect Trump would wind up placing any running mate he picks under immediate suspicion that they may try to poison his food in an attempt to gain the top political post for themselves.

Two points to mention. One is that such a motivation is the only reason anyone would want to be aligned with Trump as a running mate. Second is that if one truly wanted to feed Trump something nasty, just keep giving him those “taco bowls” he claims are so wonderful at the restaurants in his hotels.

I’d argue that his opinion of those culinary dishes is evidence that the man has no true sense of cuisine, or elegance. Then again, those 40-foot-high letters spelling out “T-R-U-M-P” on the side of his building in Chicago ought to be evidence of how gauche the man can be.

STOCKDALE: He could have been 'war hero' V-P

So who’s the Trump V-P?

I NOTICED THAT New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was named to be in charge of a Trump transition team as he officially goes from being one of 18 Republican blowhards dreaming of being president to being the GOP’s actual nominee.

Could this mean we’ll soon get the ticket of Trump/Christie running for office, to see which loudmouth can out-shout the other in an effort to lead our country?

Or could this be the sole reward for being willing to give up his own presidential aspirations and be subservient to Trump? Maybe Trump will actually ask Christie’s opinion on who the V-P should be? Then pick someone else based solely on his whims.

Political sense says that Trump, who has never held elective office in his life, needs a hard-core politico at his side. Perhaps such as a New Jersey governor. Or  a member of the Senate (although not Ted Cruz, he’s too likely to think for himself and ignore the latest ramblings of Trump).

THE LAST THING Trump needs is the perception of a rank amateur who’s so clueless that he becomes easy pickings for Saturday Night Live sketches.

Such as the aforementioned Admiral James Stockdale, who was the running mate back in 1992 when H. Ross Perot tried giving us an independent political bid. Political people still laugh at the lines, “Who am I” and “Why am I here” that came from Stockdale during his one debate performance, as though the man were truly too clueless to comprehend his circumstance, instead of trying to answer rhetorical questions meant to introduce himself to the audience.

BREWER: Noooooooooooooo!!!!

Or if Trump were to actually take seriously the suggestion of former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, whose state tried to give law enforcement and local officials greater authority to crack down on Latinos for merely existing. If Trump picked her, we'd see how quickly that any Democratic presidential hopeful would wind up gaining 99 percent of the Latino vote. It would be a pathetic joke.

If anything, that could become the key to figuring if Trump has truly picked a worthy running mate – how quickly can Saturday Night Live turn his choice into a national joke?!? If they can’t, then Trump may have caught on to something.

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