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| FIORETTI: He needs a job! |
Robert
Fioretti, the one-time 2nd Ward alderman, got his share of city-wide
attention when he was one of the dreamers who tried to depose Rahm Emanuel as
mayor in last year’s election cycle.
BECAUSE
HE DOESN’T like the idea of being just a former alderman with no current
political post, Fioretti has decided to run for a seat in the Illinois
Legislature.
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| VAN PELT-WATKINS: Wants to keep hers |
I
guess he figures serving in Springfield is better than being a political nobody
– even though most people view the Statehouse Scene as the place where you go
to get some training and experience before running for higher office in Chicago
proper.
In
Fioretti’s case, he’s decided to run in this year’s election cycle for an
Illinois Senate seat – making him one of the people who votes “aye” to the idea
of keeping John Cullerton in his position of authority by supporting him for
another bid as Senate president.
To
do that, he has to take on the incumbent legislator, who happens to be state
Sen. Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins, D-Chicago, a woman who got elected to that post
in 2012 – one year after losing her own bid for Chicago mayor in the 2011
election cycle.
YES,
SHE WAS one of the half-dozen people who had dreams of replacing Richard M.
Daley when he decided not to seek re-election to a seventh term in the post.
Yes,
she got her clock cleaned in that election cycle. Then again, Fioretti didn’t
exactly inspire voters when he decided to take on Emanuel last year.
He
may have had fantasies of capturing the support of those people whose passion
was aroused into anger against Emanuel. But he couldn’t even qualify for a
run-off election. Jesus Garcia was the legitimate opposition candidate to Rahm.
Fioretti was barely more credible than Willie Wilson.
Actually,
that’s probably an insult to the reputation of Wilson, for which I owe HIM an
apology – not Fioretti.
FIORETTI
IS TRYING to make an issue out of what appears to be a Van Pelt-Watkins gaffe –
one in which she implied she supports the idea of “right to work” laws being
enacted in Illinois. She now says she mis-spoke, and I’m actually inclined to
believe her.
Because
there have been many instances in my time as a reporter-type person writing
about government when I suspected the public officials themselves didn’t truly
comprehend what it was they were doing while passing or rejecting new laws.
There’s
also the fact that my own memories of Fioretti as an alderman consist of a
public official who liked the sound of his own voice.
I
really wonder if much of the rants he used to go on about Daley, then Emanuel,
were more inspired by the fact that he liked to hear himself talk. Many of his
opposition tirades seemed a little too knee-jerk, as in he knew his answer was “no”
but wasn’t always sure about why he was in opposition.
THE
ONE-TIME LEGISLATIVE correspondent in me thinks the absolute last thing the
General Assembly needs is another political blowhard.
It
actually reminds me of Rickey Hendon, the one-time West Side alderman who later
served several terms in the Illinois Senate. He developed a reputation as an
outspoken goof, and we’d jokingly wonder how long it would be until then-Senate
Democrat leader Emil Jones would try to have him whacked for his many
outbursts.
Is
that really the fate that Fioretti aspires to? Because he really comes across
as one who is eager to have a government post – any post – to run, just so he
can think of himself as a public servant and have a place to go during the day.
Either
that, or perhaps his spouse Nicki, wants him out of the house more often.
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