My
gut feeling says it shouldn’t be a surprise if Rahm Emanuel manages to come up
with a bare majority – enough votes to win re-election outright, rather than
have to go through a run-off come April 7 against whoever manages to finish in
second place on Tuesday.
THEN
AGAIN, THE number of people who are detested by the very thought of another
Mayor Emanuel term could be just enough that we have to go through another election
just over a month from now.
Which
is something that many voters in Chicago will have to do anyway, because there
are several wards in the city that have competitive aldermanic races. Some
people are going to have to vote a second time to decide their City Council representation;
why not hit them up to cast another mayoral vote on that date as well?
Back
a few days ago, I pointed out how poor the totals were for people deciding to
cast their ballots at early vote centers. Evidence that the electorate probably
wasn’t getting all worked up over this election cycle – despite the hostile
Rahm rhetoric expressed by a few.
Although
I feel a need to point out that the final few days of early voting (which ran
through Saturday) saw a flood of people.
THE
CHICAGO BOARD of Elections indicated nearly 90,000 people casting early ballots
for Tuesday’s election, compared to just over 73,000 who voted early in the
2011 mayoral election cycle that first gave us “Mayor Emanuel.”
Although
I can’t help but note that the early voting totals for the November 2014
elections for governor were also higher than the previous gubernatorial cycle
in 2011. Yet that didn’t translate into higher voter turnout overall.
Overall,
the percentage of registered voters who bothered to cast ballots was something
along the lines of 42 percent – which stinks. It would seem to be that the
people who passionately cared about whether Gov. Pat Quinn or Bruce Rauner
would be elected cast their votes early.
Could
that be the same factor at work, where the people who are all outraged have
already expressed themselves – leaving it to the apathetic masses of our
electorate to decide this political post with their lack of activity on
Tuesday?
THERE
WERE MANY candidates working the streets this weekend – trying to make one last
push to persuade people to vote for them. My own favorite involved the South
Side Irish Parade’s fundraising event.
Candidate
Jesus “Chuy” Garcia had special “Chuy for Mayor” buttons designed – green and
white with shamrocks that would have been totally in character for an
Irish-inspired politico trying to gain some support.
For
all I know, Emanuel could take about 48 percent of the vote on Tuesday, with
Garcia coming in second – even though Willie Wilson’s African-American-oriented
campaign is trying to get us all to believe that a surge of black votes will be
enough to allow him to be “Number Two” and the other candidate in an April
run-off.
Many
political observers are desperate for an April run-off because they think it
will provide the competitive campaigns and electioneering that this election
cycle hasn’t provided thus far.
ANYTHING
TO TURN this snooze-fest of an election into something memorable or exciting, is the way they feel.
It’s
possible, I suppose, even though I’m skeptical.
It’s
just that I’m not inclined to believe the supporters of the various Emanuel
challengers are capable of uniting behind each other after Tuesday. “Anybody
But Rahm” may turn out to be sitting on their behinds come another Election
Day.
And
if people do decide not to bother voting, then they deserve whatever political
leadership we all wind up with at City Hall come May.
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