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| PRITZKER: The officially-preferred Dem gov hopeful |
For the Cook County Democratic Party, the heart and muscle of Democratic organizations in dominating Illinois, decided Friday amongst themselves that the gubernatorial campaign of J.B. Pritzker is the officially-preferred choice
come the March 20, 2018 primary.
FORGET CHRIS KENNEDY and his family aura, or the idealism of Ameya Pawar or Daniel Biss, or the
political delusions any of the other gubernatorial dreamers may have.
The
party will put its money, so to speak, on the member of the Pritzker family
whose wealth originates with the Hyatt Hotels chain, betting he is the most
likely to have a chance to defeat Gov. Bruce Rauner’s dreams of re-election
come the Election Day on Nov. 6.
Actually,
that phrase about “put its money” is a misnomer, since the party hacks largely
see the advantage of a Pritzker campaign is that he has a large private fortune
and has expressed a willingness to make many large donations to himself in
order to pay the costs of a political campaign.
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| Political spirit of the one-time Bismarck Hotel ... |
Democratic Party organizations won't have to make a priority of trying to raise money for a governor's race where they will be outspent overwhelmingly by Rauner's own personal fortune.
DEMOCRATIC REGULARS SEE that as absolutely essential to compete with the significant private wealth
that Rauner is prepared to spend to try to get himself re-elected, and also to
alter the General Assembly composition in ways to create political allies for
himself.
Because
it has been a hostile Legislature run by urban Democratic Party interests that
has been the buffer between the public interests and the many anti-union
fantasies that Rauner repeatedly tries to portray as “reform.”
Cook
County Democrats gathered Friday at the Erie Café restaurant (Italian food, but
the prime rib looks scrumptious) to come to their decision to officially slate
Pritzker’s campaign over all others for governor.
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| ... carries over to a Near North restaurant |
But
the spirit may well have been that of the one-time Bismarck Hotel where
politicos used to merely have to walk across the street from City Hall to
gather in those aforementioned smoke-filled rooms to decide which candidates
were worthy of political support.
THAT
ACTUALLY IS the key to comprehending what the value of the party’s slate truly
is.
It
means the party regulars are now bound to back Pritzker for governor. They’re
bound to have their campaign workers out on the streets trying to stir up the vote
for J.B.
If
by chance they are absolutely appalled at the thought of a Pritzker as
governor, they’re required to keep their mouths shut about it. They can’t go
off and offer support for anybody else – unless they want to be viewed as
renegades.
Although
Pritzker’s preferred status by the party isn’t really surprising – he did have
a sister, Penny, who served as Commerce Secretary under President Barack Obama.
The family isn’t new to electoral politics.
AS
FOR WHAT the other gubernatorial candidates wanted was for the party to slate
no one. Which would have given the individual party regulars the ability to
make up their own minds and allow their campaign workers to push for votes for
whomever they truly supported.
Now,
J.B. has something of a political army willing to do the legwork to try to gain
him more political support beyond what he hopes to buy during the election
cycle.
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| BAULER: Some sentiments never change |
Dems
may think this is a strength, but it also is potentially the Pritzker weakness
– one that Biss already is trying to play off of. He says that a “Gov.
Pritzker” would be no different than a “Gov. Rauner,” just another rich guy who
won’t have the public interest in mind.
So
while we might be nearly two full decades into the current century, there’s
just enough of the old sentiment remaining that the idea of letting political
people pick which pol they prefer may just be too modern a concept and the decades-old
ideal of one-time alderman/saloon-keeper Mathias “Paddy” Bauler (“Chicago ain’t
ready for reform”) still applies.
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