Toi gives up present electoral aspirations so she can have a political future

If I lived in the Illinois Second Congressional district (I’m just outside it in the Illinois First), I probably would have voted next week for Toi Hutchinson.

HUTCHINSON: She's gone

In my dealings with her, she has come across as a responsible official with a sense that not only does her legislative district (south suburban and parts of rural Will and Kankakee counties) have to benefit, but other districts should as well.

WE ALL BENEFIT when we’re doing well and getting something we desire. There are those who mock her as the creator of the “pole tax” (the fee charged to people who attend strip clubs to raise money for domestic abuse programs), but I think we need more people like her in public office.

That’s my opinion. But it really doesn’t matter now, because Hutchinson, the state senator from Olympia Fields, formally gave up her Congressional campaign on Sunday.

She went so far as to say she’ll back the bid of former state Rep. Robin Kelly of Matteson – who has her own qualifications for the post and should now be thought of as the front-runner in next Tuesday’s Democratic primary special election to replace Jesse Jackson, Jr. (the man whose “big crime” was using campaign contributions to buy himself a load of junk that once belonged to people like Michael Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X.

There are those who want to believe that recent news reports about how Hutchinson put her mother on the campaign payroll (I don’t know if she actually did work for her money) is a scandal that would have dogged her chances of winning.

THERE ALSO IS the fact that the same people who have been trashing congressional candidate Debbie Halvorson as some sort of outrageous “gun nut” because the National Rifle Association hasn’t demonized her in the same way they have Kelly’s record as a legislator were planning a new round of campaign advertisements for the final week of campaigning that would have given Hutchinson the same treatment.

KELLY: The new frontrunner?

Although what has caught my attention about the campaigning is the silent sniping that has been directed at Hutchinson. Kelly campaign types seem to think that their candidate ought to be the frontrunner, and that Hutchinson (who is 16 years younger) ought to wait her turn. Even though I wonder if Kelly was such a nondescript legislator that most people had never heard of her until this campaign cycle began.

Why do I suspect that if Halvorson, a Crete resident, former member of Congress looking for a comeback, and the only white person seeking to represent the majority African-American district, would have put Hutchinson on the line as the spoiler if a white lady had really wound up getting the congressional seat.

After all, Hutchinson was once Halvorson’s chief of staff back when Debbie was a member of the Illinois state Senate. And it is Hutchinson who holds Halvorson’s old legislative seat.

PERSONALLY, I HAVE heard and seen enough to know that this campaign cycle has created tensions that have torn at the Halvorson/Hutchinson ties. But too many political observers are more than willing to believe a good conspiracy tale.

Toi Hutchinson selling out black people to benefit her one-time political patron? It could be a tag that could very well stick. Which could result in a targeted effort to dump her from her state Senate post in the 2016 election cycle, and to ensure she could never run a credible campaign for any political post again.

Hutchinson herself indirectly addressed that issue when issuing her statement Sunday that confirmed the end of her current campaign. “I am simply unwilling to risk playing a role going forward that could result in dividing our community at a time when we need unity more than ever,” she said.

Stepping down now could allow the Kelly backers to gradually forget exactly what alleged role they were willing to lambast Hutchinson with. She might be forgiven.

HECK, I’VE HEARD some speculation that Hutchinson could be on the Democratic slate of candidates who run for statewide office in 2014 (Treasurer Toi?).

Say what you want about the improbability of the chances of her actually winning the post. But it probably sounds like a much more attractive future for Hutchinson than a second-place finish on Feb. 26 – and a “bulls eye” on her back come the future.

  -30-

A blast from the political past: Jackson tops Obama once again in public eye

It hangs just over the desk where I usually write – an old campaign leaflet featuring Barack Obama AND Jesse Jackson, Jr.

JACKSON: The "big" man on Friday

It’s from back in the 2004 Democratic primary campaign cycle when Obama was trying to rise from the state Legislature to Washington and the U.S. Senate – and its purpose was to let us know that someone as important as Jesse, Jr., thought highly enough of Barack that we should vote for him.

IN YEARS SINCE, Obama’s political profile has risen so high that he clearly dwarfs that of the one-time Congressman from the Far South Side and surrounding suburbs.

But on Friday, we got a reminder of the old days when the son of the civil rights leader would get the real attention – leaving Obama to slug it out for the scraps of public attention that remained once Jr. was finished.

By that, I mean that Obama’s “major” address concerning gun control and urban violence wound up getting skunked in the news cycle by the word from Washington that both Jesse, Jr., and Sandi Jackson are facing federal charges.

Obama comes to Hyde Park to give his address – the neighborhood that is the northernmost part of Jackson’s old Congressional district. Yet Jackson in Washington manages to top him.

SANDI: Her 'crime' was in signing

THE PART OF me that can concoct conspiracy theories wonders if someone wishing to undermine the president came up with this sense of timing. Because all many people are going to want to talk about is the Jacksons – and I don’t mean the singing family native to Gary, Ind.

I don’t want to believe that. But a part of me wonders what percentage of truth there is in such a theory!

Of course, none of us were surprised to learn the name of Jesse, Jr. After all, it was just a week ago that Jackson signed an agreement saying he’d cooperate. Now, we know exactly what the charges are that he will be expected to plead guilty to – along with talk of a “57 months” figure of prison time, which can translate into about four full years once early release is factored in.

MICHAEL: Jesse, Jr.'s fantasy image?

The shock is that Sandi Jackson was thrown into the mix on the same day – which I’m sure is meant to create the concept in peoples’ minds of a corrupt family to somehow create the impression that the punishment should be all the much harsher.

ALL OF THIS is gaining much more attention and bigger play than anything Obama had to say during his appearance at Hyde Park High School.

Personally, what I find interesting about the Jackson charges is that they don’t seem to have anything to do with what the ideologues have been ranting and raging for years was Jackson’s actual “crime” – conspiring with then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich to try to “buy” the U.S. Senate seat that Obama abandoned in 2008 when he first got elected president.

Jackson’s offenses relate to his use of campaign funds to purchase items for himself, rather than for his campaign. Sandi Jackson’s behavior falls into the “criminal” category because she signed off on six years’ worth of income tax filings that didn’t acknowledge her husband’s behavior as wrong.

The ideologues would have us think Jackson was trying to buy his way into the U.S. Senate. Instead, it seems he was buying all kinds of memorabilia meant to decorate his office.

PERSONALLY, I FIND the notion of Jackson spending $4,600 for a fedora once worn by Michael Jackson to be laughable. Are we supposed to believe Jackson, the congressman, would put the hat on and moonwalk across his office?

Or maybe he was trying out some karate moves while looking at the Bruce Lee items that the Chicago Sun-Times reported he purchased for some $2,995.

It hardly seems like the behavior of a hardened criminal, or a truly venal man. If anything, Jackson the congressman is guilty of being a star-crossed celebrity fan, spending money many of us couldn’t dream of having to purchase a load of junk – all in the name of it appreciating in value someday.

OBAMA: Topped in his hometown

Who knows? Maybe the football signed by U.S. presidents that Jackson supposedly paid $5,000 for will now be worth even more – since it can now be sold as a piece of presidential memorabilia once owned by a “corrupt” Congressman!

I’M SURE THE titillation factor of all this will top anything in the public’s eye that Obama said about urban violence.

Now, I just wonder how long it will be until people start quipping that Jackson can turn to old friend Obama and ask for a favor to repay that 2004 campaign help – such as a pardon related to these current criminal charges.

  -30-

Public attention for Pendleton

Hadiya Pendleton, the Chicago teenager who was killed when she got caught in the crossfire of a gang-related shooting, is about to gain more of a national name for herself in death than she ever did in life.

PENDLETON: She deserved better

Which is pathetic! Nobody deserves to have that fate be their life’s product.

BUT IT IS the case for the 15-year-old who was shot to death Jan. 29 at a park located less than a mile from the local residence of Barack Obama.

Much has been made of the Obama connection – the idea that she died in an area we’d prefer to think of as safe and pristine and that she partook in the Inauguration festivities for Obama that occurred just a week prior to her death.

As I have written before, I think it sad that her life has been boiled down to these two factual tidbits – as though she and her death wouldn’t have mattered in the least if they hadn’t occurred.

But now, she’s going to continue to gain national attention because of the fact that Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., says he wants to sponsor one of the gun control measures likely to be considered by Congress this year. And he wants to put Pendleton’s name on the bill.

“HADIYA’S LAW” WILL be a measure meant to make it harder for people with criminal backgrounds or other circumstances that are supposed to make it difficult for them to obtain firearms to actually get them.

Which also means that the National Rifle Association-types who like to demonize any form of restriction on firearms ownership will wind up having to face the possibility of voting against the image of that sweet-smiled teenager with the nose so cute even though it’s a little big!

KIRK: Plunging back into work

I don’t doubt they’ll vote against it anyway. But I’d like to think it will make the members of Congress who want to think the NRA is almighty twinge just a bit before they flick the switch that casts their “no” vote.

As for the proposal itself, it is all too similar to measures that have been considered, and enacted, at the local level.

IT WAS JUST a couple of weeks ago that the Cook County Board approved an ordinance calling for significant fines against people who don’t report their firearms stolen.

Law enforcement types, including Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, have said that many people who purchase firearms with the intent of reselling them to people who shouldn’t have them make the claim that the weapons were stolen – when they wind up being used in criminal activity.

Under Kirk’s proposal, which he’s co-sponsoring with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., it would become a federal offense for someone to let their legally-purchased weapon lapse into the hands of someone else who should not have it.

Which means we’re talking about prison time, in a federal correctional center. And most likely at the 85 percent standard of time that must be served before one can qualify for early release.

I DON’T DOUBT that the truly criminal of minds will figure out a way to continue to get firearms. But I don’t buy the line of logic that says such a reality makes any sort of firearms restrictions a pointless measure.

So it will be intriguing to see how Kirk, who only recently returned to his duties following a year away from Capitol Hill due to a stroke, manages to succeed in what will be his first significant governmental effort.

Although much of the effort ultimately ought to go to Hadiya Pendleton, whose image will provide the impetus to shame many of our members of Congress into doing the right thing!

Even though she probably deserves much better than to have her name become publicly known as nothing more than the identity of a gun control law.

  -30-

EXTRA: It’s up to Mr. Speaker now

Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, managed to keep his promise. The state Senate gave its approval to the concept of gay couples being able to marry, and it did so on Valentine’s Day.

HARRIS: A non-stance on marriage issue

Not that there’s going to be a rush on wedding chapels in the coming hours. We still need to get the Illinois House of Representatives to back the idea – although with the leadership there of House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, it would seem likely that the issue will eventually get through the legislative process.

THEN, GOV. PAT Quinn can have his big moment of signing the measure into law; putting Illinois in a class with Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and Washington – along with our sister state of Iowa.

But on Thursday, it was up to the state Senate, which gave the measure a 34-21 vote – with newly-elected state Sens. Napoleon Harris, D-Flossmoor, and Patricia Van Pelt, D-Chicago, taking the weak stance of voting “present” (because they know how much grief they would get from the party faithful if they had voted “no”).

The actual debate on the issue was rather predictable. State Sen. Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields (a.k.a., Congressional candidate wishing to replace Jesse Jackson, Jr.) managed to throw in a reference to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., while voting “yes.” But state Sen. William Brady, R-Bloomington, who hopes to run again for Illinois governor in 2014, voted “no.”

While state Sen. Dan Duffy, R-Barrington Hills, tried arguing that considering gay marriage was a “distraction,” as legislators should do nothing more this spring session than ponder the mess that they have made through decades of inaction on pension funding.

ALTHOUGH IT WAS noted that one Republican did manage to shake off the threats from the ideologues that they would single out for electoral abuse any GOPer who dared to support this particular bill.

State Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Champaign, was swayed by the amendment that allows churches and other religious organizations to refuse to perform such ceremonies – if it goes against their beliefs.

VAN PELT: Keeping quiet with 'present'

Which is why it is such a crock when some people make the argument that this somehow forces people to violate their own social beliefs. Nobody is forcing them to marry a same-gender individual.

And nobody is forcing them to perform the ceremony. The new law merely means that the ideologues can no longer force their own beliefs on others – which is what the General Assembly really did back in 1996 when they went out of their way to amend Illinois law to say that gay marriage was not legitimate.

THAT WAS JUST a mean-spirited effort by the then-Republican-dominated Legislature that hopefully will soon become an obsolete provision of the state statutes.

One that ought to be obsolete on the grounds that permitting marriage for all is really about not going out of their way to impose their thoughts on others. What’s wrong with the idea that people ought to mind their own business?

  -30-

 

EDITOR'S NOTE: The bill, along with a complete roll call in case you want to look up your own personal senator's stance, is all on the record.

 

The superficiality of government and public policy, as Simon likely tops Quinn in terms of public interest

Gov. Pat Quinn on Wednesday made a significant pronouncement with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius concerning the way that President Barack Obama’s health care reform will be implemented in Illinois.

SIMON: Looking to move up

Yet why do I suspect the bulk of people with an interest in public service or electoral politics will be more concerned with the activity of Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon instead.

FOR WHILE WE got to learn about the state partnership marketplace that will begin enrolling people in October, I suspect many people will find it easier to comprehend Simon’s uncertainty toward what office she wishes to seek than the deals of federal health care reform.

Simon on Wednesday held her own public event in which she said she does not plan to seek another term as the governor-in-waiting come the 2014 Illinois elections. So when Quinn proceeds to seek election to another term as governor, he’s going to have to have another second-in-command in mind.

Not that Simon told us what she wants to do – only what she doesn’t. Although she did pretty much confirm that all the speculation about her electoral future is true.

QUINN: Upstaged by Simon?

She may run for state attorney general or state treasurer – both positions of which have the potential to be vacant as the current incumbents are considering campaigns for the gubernatorial post. Or, she may take on state Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka next year, assuming that no one else tries to pre-empt her by seeking the Democratic nomination for that post.

IT PRETTY MUCH seems that Simon, the daughter of long-time Illinois politico Paul Simon and herself a law school professor (Southern Illinois University College of Law), has her fate in the hands of Lisa Madigan.

For if Lisa goes for governor (following three terms as attorney general), she would go for the post of being Illinois government’s attorney. If Madigan decides that a fourth term is preferable, then Simon goes for one of the lesser posts – potentially treasurer since incumbent Dan Rutherford is likely to be one of the Republican candidates for governor next year.

SIMON: Daughter following in his footsteps?

Ironic, in that a poll published this week by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute has Lisa Madigan and Dan Rutherford as the top candidates among those rumored to be running in the Democratic and Republican primaries, respectively.

Supposedly, 31.9 percent of Democrats would back Madigan, while 10.2 percent of Republicans would prefer Rutherford. Which might sound like much, except that it is more than any other candidate except for the “undecided” option that gets 53.9 percent.

FOR THE RECORD, Quinn was included in the poll, and he gets only 22.9 percent – which is almost double the support for one-time Commerce Secretary and White House chief of staff William Daley.

But Madigan wallops them both!

It would seem that Simon will wind up with her choice of which statewide offices she will choose to seek – which will be encouraged by the Democratic Party because there’s an overwhelming chance that the rest of the party candidate slate for statewide office will consist of Chicago or suburban Cook County residents.

MADIGAN: Simon's fate in her hands?

Carbondale resident Simon will be offered up as the “face” of downstate Democrats.

I KNOW I already have stumbled across some speculation that Simon offers little of benefit to Democrats – since much of the Southern Illinois region either backs Republicans or wants Democrats who are willing to buck the party leadership and vote like Republicans on social issues.

For all I know, they’re the kind of people whose reaction to Quinn Wednesday morning was to be repulsed at the idea that the Affordable Care Act is going to be the “law of the land,” even though the notion of some 500,000 more people having health coverage ought to sound like a good thing!

Perhaps if Quinn wanted some serious coverage, he would have had Simon make her announcement in conjunction with his event, rather than prior to a United Negro College Fund luncheon like she actually did.

  -30-

Some things just never change

Personally, I took the word that Pope Benedict XVI would be stepping down from his post as Archbishop of Rome and spiritual leader of Catholics around the world as a positive.

BENEDICT: The first retired pope in centuries

The man’s 85. It’s not shocking that he’s not as spry as he once was. His admission that he’s not physically able to cope with the demands of the job struck me as such an honest one – something I wish more people in many walks of life were capable of doing.

HECK, I REMEMBER back to 1999 when I saw the previous pope, John Paul II, in St. Louis. The rituals were rigidly scripted – which was a good thing because the one-time Karol Wojtyla wasn’t physically capable of improvising anything.

Perhaps he’d have been better off cutting his papacy short a few years prior to his 2004 death – which was the last time we saw the process of the cardinals converging on the Vatican to pick a new pope.

But all of this is going to result in the speculation about whom the new pope will be. I’ve already stumbled across the reports based on guesswork and wishful thinking about the chances that the new pope will be someone born in an African nation, or perhaps somewhere in Asia.

After all, the Catholic Church is growing in those places. Perhaps the new pope shouldn’t be so blatantly European.

ALTHOUGH CONSIDERING THAT it took until the late 1970s to get over the idea that the Pope ought to be Italian, this isn’t exactly an institution that worries about change.

Already I have stumbled across reader commentary on the Internet calling the idea of a non-white pope an abomination and something that will scare off “’real” Catholics from the church.

I even saw one comment claiming sarcastically that a “black” pope would be appropriate because the modern-day Catholic church has already evolved into an institution with people singing and swaying in the pews just as much as any Baptist church.

Not that all the Internet bigotry is racial. I’ve also seen some people who try to criticize the current pope as “dirty Jews.”

CONSIDERING THAT THE Benedict life story includes superficial evidence that he came from a Nazi-sympathizing family (he was a boy during 1940s-era Germany, although it seems his Catholicism helped him cope with that era’s monstrosities), it seems like a particularly inappropriate way to try to defend his reputation.

It just seems that some people are determined to hold onto the vestiges of anti-Catholic bigotry that we’d like to think are long past. Then again, I have to admit there probably is an element of truth to the idea that even within the Catholic Church, there are strains of intolerance to the idea of change.

It actually reminds me of a report I once saw about the growth of the Catholic Church in this country being largely due to increased numbers of Latinos living here. I still remember the sight of a white woman in Missouri who said her parish had become two separate factions – the “Catholic” church and the “Spanish” church.

AS THOUGH IT is the white Catholics who are somehow legitimate! A part of me wants to think an African pope – if it becomes reality – would serve them right. Preaching morality while spewing immoral rhetoric.

I’m not about to predict a new pope. Anybody who says they know who’s going to get the title is lying. I’m just realistic enough to know that the nasty rhetoric I’m already reading is going to increase in coming weeks – which is truly despicable.

It’s probably not a religious thing at all. Some people just want to isolate everyone else away from themselves – which strikes me as being about as un-Christian a concept that exists.

  -30-

Obama vs Dart – who’s the focal point as Chicago copes w/ urban violence

First Lady Michelle Obama was in Chicago this past weekend; partaking in the public mourning for Hadiya Pendleton – the teenager who has become the symbol for innocent victims getting caught in the crossfire of urban violence.

OBAMA: The "big" gun, so to speak

She met with the family, and tried to create the impression that the president himself hasn’t forgotten his home city of the past three decades. He cares!

THAT’S PROBABLY WHY Obama himself plans to be in Chicago on Friday. Just three days after he gives the State of the Union address (with Hadiya’s mother, Cleopatra, expected to be present in Washington), Obama will be present in Chicago to give a State of the City, so to speak.

It will be interesting to see if Obama merely reiterates his recent rhetoric of the need for stricter laws concerning firearms – particularly when it comes to weapons with magazines that hold dozens of rounds of ammunition at a time.

Or will he come up with something genuinely relevant to Chicago? While the firearms restrictions might be a legitimate point, the fact is that they are a divisive issue. Keeping the focus there might solely turn Hadiya Pendleton’s smiling face into some sort of symbol that the conservative ideologues will demonize.

They’ll probably argue that if Pendleton could have had some sort of weapon, she could have shot at her attacker (even though that attacker likely wasn’t within clear sight of the girl).

BUT THIS IS a case where I’m not sure Obama is the official who needs to be most active. I realize that the South Side activist types have been crying and whining for days that Obama needs to be a physical presence in Chicago to counter the violent images, and that this visit on Friday will go a long way toward appeasing them.

But when Obama is in Chicago that day, I’m wondering if more significant activity will be taking place in Gary, Ind.

DART: Getting overshadowed?

That is where Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart says he plans to be on that day. What he says he hopes to accomplish is some sort of meeting with law enforcement officials.

Because while many Indiana residents like to denigrate Chicago and Illinois by claiming we’re a violent cesspool, Illinois people like to think that all the firearms being used for this violence are coming from Indiana.

SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE THE Hoosier state has lesser restrictions on actually purchasing a weapon – making it possible for people to legally buy a weapon there, then surreptitiously allow them to “fall into” the hands of people who could not legally get a weapon.

Dart’s office uses the statistic from the University of Chicago Crime Lab that 20 percent of all firearms seized by Chicago Police since 2008 could be traced back specifically to Indiana.

I’m not saying that’s true or false. There probably is an element of legitimacy to it – yet I also realize that a statistic can be found to verify the legitimacy of just about anything that someone wants to believe.

The idea that law enforcement officials in both states are ignoring the tendency to blame each other, and are actually getting together to possibly work on the problem is something of significance.

PERHAPS MORE SIGNIFICANT than the idea of the president making an address that will get public attention for a few seconds – until the news cycle spins on and we become more concerned about whether or not the Chicago Bulls will actually matter this season!

Personally, I’m interested to see the public reaction to the dueling events.

For the Associated Press reported that Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy were invited by Dart to join him in Gary in meeting with that city’s police chief, Wade Ingram, and Lake County Sheriff John Buncich.

Why do I have a hard time envisioning Obama’s former chief of staff venturing to Gary to be with Dart when the president himself is in town? And why do I suspect he won’t be alone – in that a lot of people will be lured into the pomp and circumstance of the president rather than substance?

  -30-