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| RAOUL: Can he win Tuesday night? |
Sangmeister
and Pucinski were on the 1986 Democratic primary ballot for lieutenant governor
and secretary of state, respectively, and both lost – with the common political
speculation being that all those rural voters across Illinois didn’t identify
with the German or Polish ethnic roots that the two had.
AS
A RESULT, the Democrats nominated Mark Fairchild and Janice Hart respectively –
with the rural types thinking those names were so-much-more “American”
sounding. Even though both were actually ideologically aligned with
right-winger Lyndon LaRouche.
Could
we get a similar reaction come Tuesday to the campaign of Kwame Raoul for Illinois
attorney general?
Raoul
is a state senator from the Hyde Park neighborhood who is the son of parents
who came to this country from Haiti. Hyde Park is exactly the type of
neighborhood that thinks such people are exotic and interesting and likely takes
a certain amount of pride in having Kwame representing them in the Legislature
for the past 14 years.
But
Raoul is being challenged by the one-time Miss America, Erika Harold of
Champaign, who has often expressed political ambitions but been unable to win
anything. Usually because she has ran for Congress from central Illinois-based
districts where the locals were more comfortable with white men representing
them.
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| TRUMP: Could his mentality sway voters? |
BUT
NOW, HAROLD is running for something statewide. Also, she’s running a campaign
that focuses heavily on the theme of her being the lone Republican to hold a
political post – serving as sort of a partisan political balance to all the Democrats
likely to be in power.
I
have no doubt Raoul will take the Chicago vote overwhelmingly. In fact, that
may well be enough for him to win the political post outright.
 |
| Hart and Fairchild (below), … |
But
then again, it may not. Could enough rural Illinoisans who’d rather not have a so-called
“foreigner” elected to office cast their votes for Harold? Could that be
sufficient for her to win Tuesday’s election.
Could
the 2002 Miss Illinois who went on to Atlantic City to win the pageant the
following year be able to claim a similar story as Hart and Fairchild – who will
forevermore be remembered in Illinois political history as the fluke victories.
Ones whose real significance is that they screwed up the political campaign of ’86
for gubernatorial hopeful Adlai Stevenson III?
 |
| … will Raoul's monicker go alongside theirs? |
IN
THIS AGE of Trump that we’re now in, could the anti-immigrant sentiments that
some people so clearly feel and base their political decisions off of become a
factor?
Maybe
even those people who will forevermore remain bitter that somebody named Barack
Obama could ever be elected president will be motivated to turn out to vote
against Kwame (who, by the way, was Obama’s replacement in the Illinois state
Senate in 2004).
All
of this is cheap, petty and makes next to no sense. But it certainly wouldn’t
be the first time that the electorate based their vote off of something totally
stupid!
Could
giving Illinois a former Miss America as the chief legal counsel for state
government be the consolation prize that Republicans take for themselves to
deal with the heavy losses that Bruce Rauner’s presence on the ballot is likely
to inflict on the rest of the party’s ticket?
AS
FOR RAOUL, he was amongst the Democrats using Barack Obama’s presence at the
Sunday rally in Chicago to tout himself – moreso than J.B. Pritzker, whose
gubernatorial campaign was the supposed reason for the political gathering.
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| HAROLD: A trivial image, but may be one many carry in their minds |
Considering
a recent New York Times-published poll saying (amongst other things) that 46
percent of people want Republicans to retain control of Congress and an equal
46 percent want Democrats to gain control of the House of Representatives, it
would seem the partisan split isn’t anywhere near as intense as we get in
Illinois.
Which
could make Harold the ultimate Republican consolation prize coming from Tuesday
night’s vote-counting activity. Sorry Kwame!
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