Powers-that-be don’t have qualms about thought of another ‘Mayor Daley,’ but what about the voters?

Lori Lightfoot, the former Chicago Police Board president, is the mayoral candidate who let it be known she thinks none of the political dreamer who are only now jumping into the mayoral field for 2019 should be taken seriously.

DALEY: Is he raising sufficient funds?

Yet it would see that the political establishment – those people with money who are willing to use it to prop up that candidates they think are worth taking seriously – doesn’t agree.

FOR IT SEEMS that the candidacies of William Daley and Gery Chico are taking in large amounts of campaign cash in recent weeks to give them just as much money as those candidates who have been in the running for months to become mayor in next year’s elections.

Seriously, Daley (the brother and son of former Chicago mayors) filed reports with state Elections Board officials indicating he has raised $885,100.

By comparison, Lightfoot’s campaign reported having raised $827,794 – but she has been at it for months. During the same time period during which Daley came up with his total, Lightfoot raised some $313,073.

There’s also the campaign of the one-time Chicago schools superintendent Chico, who once was a Daley family ally. But isn’t about to get the Daleys to go against their own family tie to reclaiming hold on City Hall.

CHICO: Is he capturing enough voters?

BUT CHICO HAS managed to come up with $519,500 since throwing himself into the campaign a few weeks ago. What makes his tally intriguing is that it is a combination of money from 87 individuals or entities.

While I’m sure some will try to dis Daley’s campaign total because some $500,000 of it came from a donation the one-time presidential cabinet member (Commerce secretary) and chief of staff made to himself.

Although another $200,000 came from a Madison Dearborn Partners official who in past quarters had been a significant donor to Rahm Emanuel’s mayoral aspirations.

Could all those people who would have given their campaign contributions to Emanuel’s desires for a third term as mayor now shift to giving Chicago its third version of “Mayor Daley?”

PRECKWINKLE: Can she gain supporter

THIS REALLY IS becoming an election cycle where none of the long-running candidates mean a thing! It seems to be all about the newcomers who waited until Emanuel decided running for a third term in office would be too risky to his political legacy to chance.

After all, he might have won, or maybe he wouldn’t have. A notion that gained some credence in recent days following the “guilty” verdict handed down against the Chicago police officer who repeatedly shot a teenage boy to death some four years ago.

Some people are forevermore going to want to claim Emanuel’s departure from City Hall was because of that act – although I wonder if it will wind up turning out to be irrelevant, since it could be argued that the new mayor will be just more of the same.

That’s why we watch for tidbits of evidence to see whose campaign might turn out to have enough strength to prevail come Election Day Feb. 26. Or on April 2 – the date set aside for a run-off election; should there be a need to hold one.

LIGHTFOOT: Surpassed in cash

WHICH IS WHY some are speculating that the mayoral hopes of Toni Preckwinkle may wind up fizzling. All she reported raising during the current fundraising period was $245,000 – although $100,000 from the Service Employees International Union local 1.

That donation is considered significant enough by some to have chased Jesus Garcia away from running for mayor and settling for the seat in Congress he’s running for come the Nov. 6 elections. Since it was expected that union would have been a significant Chuy financial backer, but chose Toni instead.

WILSON: Can he afford mayoral price tag?

Admittedly, it’s still early. We haven’t even begun to cast ballots yet for Illinois governor. Things could change between now and next year’s Election Day. Yet that could make the mayoral aspirations of Willie Wilson the most intriguing. He has some $660,000 on hand, with $100,000 coming during the most recent filing period. Yet almost all of it is from checks he has written to himself.

Is Wilson (the man whose fortune began with McDonald’s franchises on the South Side) really wealthy enough to buy control of the mayor’s office for himself next year – similar to how Bruce Rauner and J.B. Pritzker are trying to buy the governor’s mansion this autumn?

  -30-