How likely are we to see a Madigan/Harold political brawl in '18?

How likely are we to see ...

There once was a time when political observers took seriously the possibility that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan would make a credible attempt to run for governor.

But the presence of her father, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, creates so many potential headaches that Lisa has had to postpone her own political ambitions – to the point where 2018 likely will be her effort to seek re-election to a fifth term as the head attorney for state government.

 

... this political matchup on Nov. 6, 2018?

NOW, FROM THE land of academia (and crummy Big Ten football teams) known as Champaign-Urbana comes the potential for the most visible Republican challenger Lisa Madigan has ever had (does anyone really remember Steven Kim or Paul Schimpf?).

Reports starting with WCIA-TV in Champaign and spreading elsewhere indicate that local attorney Erika Harold is being contemplated for the GOP nomination for the post.

For those of you whose memories are faulty, Harold is a young woman who twice has tried running for Congress from her central Illinois district – only to lose both primaries.

Although the line that will get Harold national attention, and is the bit that Republican operatives are hoping gives her a chance to actually win against Madigan, is that back in 2003, she was Miss America.

AS IN A former Miss Illinois who bumped up to win the big prize of what officially is a scholarship pageant (and which enabled Harold herself to complete her Harvard Law School education) and spend the year wearing a tiara and making public appearances while looking glamorous at every opportunity.

For what it’s worth, she now practices law out of an office in Champaign (she probably realizes she’d be totally irrelevant if she tried moving to Chicago and becoming a part of the political scene here).

She has political ambitions. But she’s never been able to succeed. She can’t even win Republican primaries – although part of that may well be that the kind of people who vote in Republican primaries are just the type who would have a hang-up over another defining Harold characteristic.

Sexist to publish this old Harold image?

She is a light-skinned black woman. Which ought to be completely irrelevant. But in today’s Age of Trump, a political climate where people who have racial hang-ups are given a certain sense of credibility, it does.

THE TRICK WILL be to see if Harold can get a free ride through the Republican primary process in order to gain the party nomination and a chance to run against Madigan.

In which case, I’m sure Republican types will go overboard with talk about how Lisa’s time has passed (and probably never should have come about to begin with due to her father). We’ll probably also get an overdose of the glamour shots – perhaps to create the image of a more desirable woman in a political post?

And before anyone claims that’s a sexist image to create, I can’t help but notice that Harold herself uses a Facebook page to promote herself, and often digs up old photographs of herself from her Miss America days – such as the photos of herself she published just last week on Independence Day, signing autographs for soldiers at Fort Belvoir while wearing her tiara.

Recent images used on social media by Erika Harold ...

Of course, the fact that Harold has never won a thing politically means she has little else to run on other than this image that a segment of our society will find attractive – and another will find trivial.

IF ANYTHING, I find it sad that the Republican Party operatives have such a cynical view that they contemplate the need for Harold’s image – figuring that to beat a woman, they need to find one of their own. Nothing about a person’s actual qualifications for the post.

Which also is sad, because I don’t doubt that Harold has certain intellectual qualifications and probably could have been developed into a credible candidate for political office if she were treated seriously – rather than as eye candy for the electorate.

... and Lisa Madigan

Of course, as I already stated, the key will be whether Harold gets a free pass. Because if there’s some ambition type with a law degree who decides HE wants to run for Illinois attorney general, I don’t doubt that many Republican primary voters will prefer him to Harold. So we’ll have to see if a Madigan/Harold brawl ever occurs.

Although considering the anti-intellectual strain that runs through a segment of the GOP electorate these days, Harold may have to sacrifice her best credential of being a Harvard Law grad and emphasize her undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois – crummy football teams and all!

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Anti-abortion activists want to pressure United Way to score political points

It was a few years ago when the city council in Lockport, Ill., was set to give formal approval to a resolution praising the charitable work done by the United Way when one of the aldermen insisted on turning the symbolic gesture into a political stink.

That particular alderman in the Will County city of nearly 24,000 people was heavily influenced by his religion – he was Catholic. He also was determined to use the resolution to make a public statement against the concept of abortion being legal in the United States.

HE ADAMANTLY REFUSED to let his colleagues take a vote on the measure until he was personally given assurances that the United Way chapter that served his hometown did not provide any financial support to women’s health clinics that made abortion of pregnancy available.

In the end, the resolution passed (the chapters in Will County did not provide any financial aid that could be tied directly to abortion-related services) and the alderman in question piped down – having made his point.

What makes me recall this moment from my reporter past (I was writing for a newspaper at the time and I covered the hearing when this happened) is that there’s a good chance we’re going to see similar outbursts all across Illinois in coming months.

The Glen Ellyn-based Illinois Family Institute (somehow, I’m on their e-mail list) distributed a commentary written by a Peoria-based pastor who wants everybody to start cracking down on the United Way chapter in their hometown to make a statement against abortion.

REV. JAMES McDONALD, in his commentary, said his problem with United Way is that local chapters across Illinois make donations to Planned Parenthood – the long-demonized group that operates health clinics (some of which make abortion-related services available) and provides other services meant to help women who are pregnant.

Since United Way chapters provide their financial help to a common Planned Parenthood fund for Illinois, that means indirectly, every United Way chapter is providing aid to the local Planned Parenthood facilities that offer abortions, even if the ones in their local hometowns do not.

Or, as McDonald chooses to see it, financial donations to United Way from rural residents are being used to support the, “large abortion clinics in Aurora, Champaign and Chicago.”

“I encourage you to end your support of any organization that gives monies to the cause of darkness,” McDonald wrote. “Should a Christian support any organization or any candidate who endorses this modern-day holocaust?”

I COULD NITPICK against the attempt to dredge up Third Reich imagery through use of the word “holocaust” by pointing out that in Nazi Germany, the government of Adolf Hitler was vehemently opposed to abortion, and actually considered it to be a capital crime by doctors and (on occasion) the pregnant women themselves.

But giving in to the overly hysterical rhetoric of the anti-abortion right does not accomplish much.

What really disgusts me about this plea couched in religious terms is that it is a blatant attempt by rural activists to impose their view on the issue across the state. If anything, that viewpoint is already too prevalent.

Many health care professionals see the issue of abortion access as being one of it not being easy enough to obtain. Abortion services are not equally available to all of Illinois’ residents.

ANY WOMAN WHO lives outside the Chicago area (with the exception of those living in Champaign, or perhaps Bloomington/Normal or Springfield) is going to have a hard time finding a local clinic where the medical procedure (and that’s exactly what it is) can be obtained under safe conditions.

A woman who desires to end a pregnancy is either going to have to make a lengthy trip to a strange place, or accept the fact that her rights deriving from the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in “Roe vs. Wade” do not apply to her because of where she lives.

Too many of the local officials in rural communities are willing to use their political influence to keep women’s health clinics and other services out of their areas. Perhaps that is their right. But it is silly for them to start thinking they can somehow impact the services made available in those “wicked places” such as Aurora or Champaign.

THEY WANT THE pressure put on United Way chapters to make their abortion-related statement, even though many do not provide any direct aid to women’s clinics. And the idea that ties between various chapters of a common organization is somehow insidious strikes me more as being ridiculous.

If anything, I wonder how much these people would be complaining about Planned Parenthood if their chapters in different cities and towns made no effort to work together. I can already hear the rhetoric lambasting the organization’s fundraising efforts as doing little more than paying for wasteful administrative expenses.

The same thing can be said about the limited cooperation that takes place between United Way chapters across the state. Reducing money spent on bureaucracy does not mean a scary organization is looming over the Land of Lincoln.

I’M HOPING UNITED Way chapters manage to stand firm against the verbal barrage they will be hit with in coming months. Because I have no doubt the rhetoric will become ugly. For what it is worth, Rev. McDonald has copy written that he will make available to anyone who wants to use it to write nasty letters to their local United Way chapter.

I recall the Will County United Way officials from a few years back thought it incredulous that anyone seriously thought they were providing direct assistance to abortion.

I would hope that same attitude prevails today.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Perhaps I need to quit reading my e-mails from the Illinois Family Institute (http://www.illinoisfamily.org/news/contentview.asp?c=33945) so as to avoid reading rubbish such as this commentary.

Access to abortion related medical (http://www.abortionaccess.org/content/view/59/62/) services depend heavily on where one lives.

Mention the name “Planned Parenthood,” and you are destined to provoke a verbal (http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=19751893&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8) brawl.

Planned Parenthood relies on far more than the United Way to raise money to pay (http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB121417762585295459-lMyQjAxMDI4MTI0MzEyNzM3Wj.html) for the services it makes available to women.