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| WALLACE: Can she make Biss backers forget Rosa? |
Perhaps
he thinks he’ll be the representative from the North Shore suburbs when the day
arrives that incumbent Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill. – who has been an elected
official in Springfield, Ill., and in D.C. for nearly three decades – decides
to retire.
IN
THAT CONTEXT, it makes total sense for Evanston resident Biss to replace his
original choice for a lieutenant governor running mate, Carlos Ramirez Rosa,
with Litesa Wallace.
Although
the fact he had to go scrambling at the last minute to find someone willing to
be his “number two” candidate who could potentially serve as governor if he
becomes incapacitated could show more how inexperienced Biss is when it comes
to electoral politics.
Either
that, or how careless he was about vetting his so-called preferred pick.
For
what it’s worth, Biss had to dump Rosa, a first-term Chicago alderman – when it
became known Rosa is one of those people who believes that boycott and
sanctions against Israel are justified because of the Israeli government’s
efforts to restrict Palestinians living in the area.
 |
| ROSA: How will his own political aspirations end? |
THAT
KIND OF talk amounts to “fighting words!” among many Jewish people,
particularly many of the North Shore residents whom Biss was counting on to be
the bulk of his political support to actually give him a chance in hell of
winning a Democratic primary against the “big money” candidate J.B. Pritzker
and the “big name” candidate Chris Kennedy.
They’re
the ones who will toss out the argument about how Israel’s existence as a
Jewish state is threatened by the Palestinian presence, and that the history of
harassment and persecution justifies taking a hard line.
Of
course, I’ve also known Jewish people who were more than capable of spewing out
rhetoric such as, “the only good Arab is a dead Arab.” Which is what provokes those of various Arab
ethnic descents to insist that it is the Jewish people who are truly bigoted
and prejudiced.
 |
| BISS: Future congressman? Or political nobody? |
And
now, the kind of rhetoric that rarely comes up in a state government campaign
has the chance to take over a battle for the ultimate right to live in the
Executive Mansion in Springfield.
THAT
IS, UNLESS you believe Wallace, a second-term state legislator from Rockford,
is capable of making people forget this issue.
Which
isn’t likely, because she’s not exactly a veteran political operative of the
state government scene. She may give some attention outside of the Chicago-area
to the Biss campaign, but no more than Democratic opponent Ameya Pawar will get
from having Cairo Mayor Tyrone Coleman as his running mate.
Now
I know Biss has said he had to dump Rosa – who calls himself a Democratic
Socialist just like failed presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and had hoped
Sanders-leaning Illinoisans would turn to him for governor as a result –
because he is Jewish and has relatives who survived the Holocaust of Nazi-era
Germany.
But
now I’m wondering about those Arabs who are not inclined to look
sympathetically toward the existing Israeli government. Are they going to view
Biss as the guy who turned on them by not remaining loyal to Rosa – himself a
Chicago native who is the first openly gay Latino to serve in
the City Council?
 |
| Usually not a place of concern for state pols |
IS
THE BISS campaign going to get dumped on over the Israel issue, regardless of
how he handled it? Is his interest in not getting branded over the issue in a
future congressional going to create interest in the governor’s race by people
who otherwise might not have cared one bit about the Springfield Scene?
Now
I’m not defending Rosa, or criticizing him. Personally, I think that both of
Biss’ picks for lieutenant governor are relatively uninspiring.
They
probably show more than anything else that Biss has all the political experience
and knowledge of a typical mathematics teacher – which is what he was prior to
his 2012 election to the Illinois Senate.
He
couldn’t properly “vet” the person whom he would have made governor in the
event of his own demise – which is why he may well wind up finishing behind all
the major Democratic primary candidates come the March 20 election.
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