Garcia
has been on the local political scene off-and-on for the past three decades,
and has served at City Hall, the Statehouse in Springfield and at the County
Building.
THE
LATTER IS his current place of political occupancy – he’s been a county board
member for the past four years and just got himself re-elected to another
four-year term back in the November election cycle.
Which
means he doesn’t face political oblivion if he doesn’t win on April 7, or
finishes lower than second place on Tuesday.
If anything, he’s now a county board member with a bit of the public
spotlight glowing off him.
He
has a chance to be one of the power players on the county board; and definitely
one of the more significant of the 17 commissioners.
He’s
probably not going to become the equivalent of Commissioner John Daley,
D-Chicago, in terms of being significant in the way Cook County government does
its business (the Daley brother is the county board’s finance committee chair).
BUT
HE’S CERTAINLY going to draw more attention than someone like Gregg Goslin,
R-Glenview, whom I wonder if even northwest suburban residents are aware of who
he is.
A
return to the county board following the municipal elections could give Garcia
the chance to have so many political observer eyes focused on him that he
becomes someone significant.
If
he handles himself right, he could become a political powerbroker in his own
right. People could wind up benefitting in the key issues and the constituency
that he claims to represent during his mayoral campaign.
If
anything, I wonder if he could wind up being one of the most successful mayoral
also-rans on the local political scene.
CURRENTLY,
I’D HAVE to say that niche is filled by Timothy Evans.
Remember
when he challenged Richard M. Daley back in the late 1980s when the future
mayor was trying to win his first term (actually, the right to finish what was
left of the late Harold Washington’s mayoral stint)?
Evans
was a significant part of Washington’s allies in the City Council, and he
managed to dominate the African-American vote the same way Harold did. Only he
couldn’t take any significant white or Latino vote like Washington, so he wound
up losing.
Yet
Evans is now the chief justice of the Cook County court system. Which isn’t a
bad post to have. I can think of a lot of political people whose over-bloated
egos would be thoroughly satisfied if they could wind up with such a position
some day!
IT’S
NOT LIKE some of the other Daley challengers throughout the years, such as
Danny Davis or Bobby Rush – who remain in Congress but clearly have shown they
will never advance any further than their own particular neighborhoods in terms
of being taken seriously.
Garcia,
if he conducts himself properly in coming weeks, could provide himself a chance
to move up in authority. Or else he could be the guy who quickly gets forgotten
except for the confines of his home Little Village neighborhood.
We’ll
have to wait and see.
As
for the other mayoral challengers, I’m not sure what to think. Second Ward Ald.
Robert Fioretti had to give up a chance to keep his City Council post in order
to run for mayor, and I suspect his outspoken demeanor as an alderman will
ensure the powerbrokers will go out of their way to keep him outside the
political structure.
IS
HE THE new member of the “ancient history” club that now includes people such
as Richard Phelan and Jack O’Malley -- the one-time county board president and state's attorney, for those who have forgotten?
Willie
Wilson likely also will not have much of a political future. Although I’ll
admit it would be interesting if whoever does wind up winning the mayoral post
were to consider making the one-time McDonald’s franchise
operator-turned-millionaire into some sort of adviser to government.
He
does have some ideas worth considering (albeit not his suggestions of doing
away with the police superintendent’s post) and he speaks for a constituency
that does not get listened to often enough.
And
as for William “Dock” Walls? We’ll likely see him again in 2019 when he again
tries running a token bid for mayor and takes 2 percent of the vote – making him
the 21st Century equivalent of Lar “America First” Daly, who ran for
mayor and so many other political posts during his life without ever winning a
thing!
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