Only the rich can run for office – is that our political trend of the 21st Century?

I remember once hearing a debate of sorts (it was actually just a couple of political operatives being cranky and arguing amongst themselves) over the appropriateness of would-be government officials paying for their own campaigns.

KENNEDY: The political pauper of 2018 cycle?

One was all for it – feeling that it was somehow wrong for a person to expect other people to come up with the cash for them to afford all the trappings of a successful campaign.

WHILE THE OTHER was convinced that something essential to our existence was being lost if we relied on big money guys for political candidates. “Do you really want a system where only the rich can run for office?,” he asked.

For better or worse, it seems that is the direction we have turned to.

Take our state’s upcoming election cycle for Illinois governor – where we’re more than a year away from Election Day, yet the candidates have already spent some $102 million collectively on their efforts to put their own names forward while also taking down the reputations of the people daring to challenge them.

With some 12 ½ months remaining before the Nov. 6, 2018 elections, who’s to say how much the final total spending will amount to? The academics who devote their attention to politics and government already are calling this the most expensive election cycle in U.S. history, with candidates acting as though they think the election is this November rather than next.

PRITZKER: Entirely self-funded

THE SITUATION IS so outlandish that Chris Kennedy, a member of the not-quite pauperish Kennedy political family, is going around semi-jokingly saying he “thought” his family was wealthy – until he saw the kind of money his would-be opponents for governor were putting in on their own behalf.

Consider that the $3.4 million Kennedy has come up with for his own campaigning thus far buries all the other fringe political candidates with dreams of being the “big shot” of the Statehouse Scene.

But Kennedy himself gets lumped into the fringe candidate category because he doesn’t even come close to the kind of money the top two candidates for the gubernatorial post offer up.

RAUNER: Practically funding entire GOP

J.B. Pritzker, of the family that includes amongst its financial assets the Hyatt Hotels chain, has come up with some $28.2 million – all of which comes from his own money. He’s not raising anything from the public.

WHICH IS WHY the Democratic Party political bigwigs (including state party Chairman Mike Madigan) like him – he makes it possible for them to focus their fundraising efforts in support of other candidates – including the state attorney general fight that it seems Republicans are focusing their efforts on in order to win something, anything, come the November 2018 elections.

But before one can go around saying the Democrats are the big-money guys out of touch with the “real people,” one has to contemplate Gov. Bruce Rauner – who has some $70.9 million available for his campaign. With the bulk of that ($50 million) being his own money.

Personal donations he has made to himself to bolster his chances of re-election, and the election chances of other Republicans wishing to run for seats in the General Assembly.

The state Legislature has been the entity that has kept Rauner from implementing his alleged “reform” agenda – most of which really is nothing more than measures meant to whack at the influence of organized labor within government. Rauner hopes he can buy a more favorable Legislature to support his political desires.

ALL OF THAT money is the reason that Rauner can’t be counted out, despite the fact that he has peeved a significant segment of the Republican electoral base with issues they perceive as violating their social conservative principles. Rauner hopes he can buy enough votes come Election Day to win “four more years” in office.

Times have changed since Daley & Uncle John

While Pritzker hopes he can spend enough to overwhelm any potential competition, then take advantage of the significant number of Illinoisans (most of whom admittedly live in and near Chicago) who are thoroughly disgusted with the 2 ½ years we’ve had of the Rauner Administration and want him gone come January of 2019.

Which reminds me of that long-ago quarrel at the Statehouse. “Do you really want a system where only the rich can run for office?”

It seems that is exactly what we have – at least for the top posts. Perhaps someone without personal wealthy can still run for city Clerk or Illinois treasurer. In the end, it seems the wealthy can be just as much political hacks as those without.

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Will ballots cast for familiar names be enough to overcome self-spending?

Will the son of Richard J. ...

Looking at the campaign finances for the candidates wishing to become Illinois governor, it was interesting to see that fringe candidate Daniel Biss raised more money ($1.015 million) than both Chris Kennedy AND Ameya Pawar combined.

But Biss’ campaign fund doesn’t even come close to that of J.B. Pritzker, who barely raised a dime. The 9-1 fundraising advantage Pritzker held over Biss during the past three months was solely because Pritzker was wealthy enough to pay for his own campaign efforts.

... be able to provide this Kennedy nephew ...

WHICH MEANS DEMOCRATS may well have a candidate who won’t get totally buried by the self-funding efforts of Gov. Bruce Rauner, who himself outspends Pritzker by a 6-1 ratio with the money he provides – although much of the governor's efforts will go toward trying to get more Republicans elected to the General Assembly.

Rauner wants allies who will support his gubernatorial desires and follow orders!

There’s going to be a lot of money spent by candidates wishing to spread their messages of ill-will toward their opposition. We’re going to be flooded with negative messages about how we’d be completely stupid to consider casting ballots for certain candidates.

Better we should go with THE OTHER guy. Nobody’s going to really tell us why we should vote for them. It will be an ugly campaign.

THAT IS WHY I find it interesting to see that Kennedy’s campaign has hired a new finance chairman – it’s Bill Daley, as in brother of Mayor Richard M., former chief of staff to President Barack Obama, Commerce secretary under President Bill Clinton.

... with similar political aid as in '60 cycle?

And let’s not forget that he was chairman of Al Gore’s failed presidential campaign of 2000.

Of course, as a former chairman of Amalgamated Bank, he has ties to many of the “big money” people of Chicago and can sway them into making significant campaign contributions to his candidate.

Which may well be the reason why Kennedy picked him. His is the campaign that raised $703,767.10 during the last reporting period, and spent $652,523.79 of it. This is not a campaign swimming in cash.

KENNEDY PROBABLY DREAMS that Daley can turn to his political contacts and get them to write out the significant-sized checks that would enable his campaign to come close to fully competing with the Pritzkers and Rauners of the political world.

Although it may be the general mood of this campaign season that we, the people, are too disgusted with government officials to want to make any kind of sizable donations. It may be that only the self-funded will be able to do much of anything.

That does seem to be the mentality of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, who while he hasn’t made an official endorsement seems to like the idea of a Candidate Pritzker because he could afford to pay his own way.

Consider that Pritzker spent some $9 million during the past three months, and $14 million total thus far – all of which came from his own bank accounts.

BUT IT ALSO would be ironic if it turns out to be that a Daley winds up making it possible for a Kennedy to win voters in Illinois. You just know we’re going to get a ton of sarcastic comments from people recalling the rumor mill of the 1960 presidential election cycle.

BISS: Raised more than anyone, but nobody cares?

Can the son of Richard J. find a way to make the nephew of JFK the governor, similar to how old man Daley led the effort that got Jack Kennedy the Illinois Electoral College votes that helped him beat Richard Nixon for president?

Or is Kennedy just too far behind (even outraised by the state senator from Evanston)? Although we should acknowledge the polls that have shown at this early stage Kennedy still leads Pritzker and other candidates in voter support – the name does appear to mean something.

Particularly when one considers the most recent Morning Consult poll that showed Rauner with 49 percent disapproval rating (and only 40 percent approving of him). If he keeps that up, it may not matter how much money he spends on himself – a Democrat could wind up prevailing come that Nov. 6 of next year.

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EXTRA: If Kennedy, other Dems, really want to be called “governor,” maybe they should move to England

Chris Kennedy, the son of a former presidential hopeful and nephew to a president and a long-time senator, has taken the step he has never been willing to in his past political fantasies – he declared a candidacy Wednesday for Illinois governor.
 

A Kennedy joining the gubernatorial rat-race

Kennedy, the son of Bobby and himself the long-time manager of the formerly Kennedy family-owned Merchandise Mart property, says he’ll seek the Democratic Party’s gubernatorial nomination for the 2018 election cycle.

WHICH PUTS HIM on a lengthy list of people who have allowed their names to be thrown into the mix; some of whom likely just enjoy the idea of having such speculation being bandied about when people discuss them.

For what it’s worth, that list right now includes:

·        Amaya Pawar, a Chicago alderman,

·        Robin Kelly, in whose congressional district I currently reside,
·        Kwame Raoul, a state senator from President Barack Obama’s neighborhood in Chicago,
·        Michael Frerichs, the Illinois treasurer,
·        Daniel Biss, a state senator,
·        Cheri Bustos, a member of Congress from the Quad Cities,
·        J.B. Pritzker, the financially well-off man (the Hyatt Hotels fortune) who could potentially make incumbent Gov. Bruce Rauner look like a pauper,
·        Lisa Madigan, the Illinois attorney general who has long been rumored to have gubernatorial fantasies, and
·        Pat Quinn, the former governor who has never let being a political long-shot stop him from running for a government office.

Will people feel the same way about his son?

Needless to say, it’s highly unlikely we will have a 10-candidate ballot to choose from in the Democratic primary to be held in March 2018. This list will winnow down considerably, and it may be possible that the person who winds up on top is someone who hasn’t come forth yet.

ALL OF WHICH is to say I don’t have a clue who will be the challenger to Rauner when he seeks another term as Illinois governor.

As for whether any of these people can actually beat the millions of his own dollars that Rauner has already committed to spending to get himself re-elected along with a General Assembly more sympathetic to his anti-organized labor political agenda, that remains to be seen.

Will Caroline draw more attention to her candidacy

About the only thing I do know for sure is that having to think about this election cycle more than a year before the actual primary gives me a sense of nausea.

And as for the Kennedy name, we’ll get to see whether the multi-generational political family (supposedly, JFK daughter Caroline is contemplating a bid for office in New York, and there are countless Kennedy cousins throughout the years who have succeeded) can add Illinois to the list of states and cities where voters chose to elect one of their members to handle the duties of governing themselves.

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Is Illinois ready for Pawar? Are Dems ready for ’18 governor campaign?

Chicago-area Democrats have one thing going for them when it comes to the 2018 election cycle when Illinois picks a new governor – incumbent Bruce Rauner who likes to let us know how much we’re supposed to hate Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan is despised almost as much.
 

PAWAR: Illinois' first Indian-American gov?

Rauner may have a personal fortune from his time as a venture capitalist, but no one out there is really going to be enthused about wanting him back for another term in office.

IF THE ’16 presidential cycle devolved into the campaign about “Who Do We Hate the Most?,” the ’18 battle for Illinois governor will be even worse.

I don’t doubt that the other 96 counties of Illinois will lean against anything having to do with Chicago or the local Democratic organization. But the level of contempt that Rauner has aroused within the six-county Chicago area is strong, too.

And let’s not forget that those six counties do account for about two-thirds of the state’s population – with Cook County alone being nearly half the state’s people.

But whether that will be sufficient that people should think Rauner’s re-election bid has the stink of death over it similar to how soon-to-be former Sen. Mark Kirk’s campaign did this year has yet to be determined.

THE ONE THING that Rauner’s re-election bid has going for it is that we don’t have a clue who the Democrats will find to run for governor. Particularly since veteran Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., has decided he wants to remain as a part of the Illinois political establishment in D.C. – rather than be the so-called CEO of state government.

Will governor learn people like him less...

The lack of a credible challenger is to the point where the Politico newspaper took seriously the talk that 47^th Ward Alderman Ameya Pawar wants to run for governor.

Pawar, the suburban Evanston-born son of immigrants from India, is now in his second term in the City Council, and apparently thinks he can replicate his initial electoral victory of 2011 – back when he beat long-time Alderman Eugene Schulter on a puny campaign fund.

In part, he had the appeal of being the first Asian (let alone Indian) elected to the City Council. He has been able to maintain a bit of a progressive image as he has served as alderman. He has been among the most interesting of public officials to serve in the council in recent years.

 

... than they do the Ill. House speaker?

YET I ALSO don’t doubt that all the things that are his strengths as a Chicago alderman will be turned into negatives if he tries to run an Illinois statewide campaign.

Particularly since I don’t doubt that the masses of Southern Illinois who helped remove most of the remaining rural Democrats serving in the General Assembly will be willing to hold Pawar’s ethnicity against him. After all, this is the new Era of Trump in which we no longer give much credence to such considerations!

I don’t think the “Little India” community along Devon Avenue is enough to propel a statewide campaign for public office. And if Pawar seriously thinks he can go knocking on doors all across Illinois to introduce himself, he’ll find out just how big (500 miles long, 350 miles wide) the state is.

There’s also the inevitable tie that Rauner will try to make (and that rural residents will be gullible enough to believe) that Pawar is nothing more than a political lackey to Mayor Rahm Emanuel (who lives in Pawar’s ward) and, by extension, Madigan.

THE REALITY IS that people in Chicago Democratic politics tolerate each other, at best. They don’t really know how to play nice. I remember back when Susana Mendoza was a state legislator whom Madigan thought of as a bit of an annoyance and he was glad to see her leave state government for the city clerk’s post.

 

KENNEDY: Will he ever campaign?

Yet Rauner spewed the nonsense that she was a Madigan puppet to the point where it was obvious Mendoza didn’t get the same Democratic coat-tails from Hillary Clinton’s presence on the ballot that Senate candidate Tammy Duckworth did.

Consider that if Pawar has his weaknesses, he gets taken seriously at this point because there’s no one else. Billionaire J.B. Pritzker (as in the Hyatt Hotels chain) has never run for office before. And as for Christopher Kennedy (nephew of JFK and son of Bobby), the one-time manager of the then-family-owned Merchandise Mart likes the idea of being thought of as a candidate for office – but has never shown the willingness to put in the work of an actual campaign.

All of which means that if Democrats are to put up a credible candidate for governor two years from now, it probably will be somebody whose name hasn’t cropped up yet. Let’s not forget that we didn’t hear of Rauner until March of the year before he managed to defeat Pat Quinn for the political post.

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Kennedy “mystique” to hit Illinois

It shouldn’t be a surprise. Christopher Kennedy (the son of Bobby) has made a life for himself in Chicago. And he comes from a family drenched in electoral politics.

So it was only a matter of time before he started thinking seriously of combining those factors and becoming a government official – running for a political post in a city where the magic name is “Daley,” not “Kennedy.”

FOR IT LOOKS like Kennedy, the guy who runs the Merchandise Mart (for many decades, the Kennedy family included the riverfront office building among their real estate holdings), thinks the world needs another Sen. Kennedy on Capitol Hill.

Unlike his Uncle Ted who stood in the Kennedy "homeland" of Massachusetts, Christopher would like to be the junior senator from Illinois.

In short, Christopher Kennedy has aspirations of being the guy who dumps Roland Burris from the U.S. Senate. Considering that the field is going to be crowded enough, I’m not sure what to think of the fact that a building manager with no prior elected offices on his resume wants to have one of the Big Four positions in Illinois politics.

It could be that in a crowded field, the Kennedy “mystique” will be sufficient to generate about 25 percent of the vote – which could be enough to win the Democratic party’s nomination in 2010.

WE COULD VERY well get a 21st Century sequel to the 1960 presidential campaign. That is the race where Richard J. Daley’s political organization (the dreaded Machine) turned out the vote to win Illinois’ electoral votes for John F. Kennedy.

Now, it could turn to Richard M. to get the powers that be of local politics to put aside their own elective ambitions to turn out the vote for Christopher come next November. For his part, Daley says he thinks the “Kennedy” name has a magic in Illinois.

On the one hand, it would be intriguing to see an “outsider” such as Christopher Kennedy run for office in Illinois. Next year is going to be the campaign where Republican officials at every level will scream the name “Blagojevich!” at every opportune moment (and even a few occasions where they make themselves appear gauche for doing so).

Because he has not held elective office, and hasn’t done much politically other than write out checks to make donations to favored candidates throughout the years, Kennedy might actually be able to dodge such accusations.

HOW COULD HE be just another “corrupt Blagojevich Democrat” (how many times will we hear that phrase?) when he has never been elected to anything. Yet that Kennedy name will draw national attention, which would make it easy for him to tap into sources for fundraising.

But I’m sure there will be people who will resent his presence, and will try to make him out to be some foreigner to this state – even though he has lived and worked in Chicago for decades (longer, I’m sure, than Barack Obama, who is now our ultimate “favorite son” on the national political scene).

I’m sure people like Burris, Jan Schakowsky, Alexi Giannoulias and anyone else with dreams of being in the U.S. Senate will start sniping at the Kennedy name, trying to make it seem as though some Massachusetts guy wants to steal a Senate seat from Illinois the same way Alan Keyes of Maryland tried to do in 2004.

I’m also sure that the hostility he will face will be comparable to the attacks sustained by Caroline Schlossberg. The daughter of JFK had her own dreams of being in the U.S. Senate from New York when Gov. David Patterson had the chance to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Hillary Clinton (herself a Park Ridge native).

BUT SHE GOT hit with all kinds of accusations that she was totally inexperienced and knew nothing of the ways of public policy and public life. I can guess the campaigns against Christopher Kennedy in Illinois will echo that rhetoric – only more harsh.

Personally, I’m not sure if I’d vote for Christopher Kennedy. That is assuming he does proceed with plans to seek the nomination. I’d have to hear more about what he stands for.

But you have to admit it would have been the ultimate in bizarre if Caroline had become the senator from New York, with her cousin Chris being the senator from Illinois. The kids of JFK and RFK on Capitol Hill.

I’d feel all Kennedy-ed out. For those people who used to make an issue out of the fact that a Hillary Clinton election as president would have given us at least 24 years of the U.S. presidency being controlled by two families, I’d say the spread of Kennedys across the country makes the Bushes and Clintons seem like small change.

ACTUALLY, THAT IS the ironic part of this Kennedy conspiracy. Christopher isn’t even the first Kennedy to think of running for electoral office in our city.

Remember William Smith, the son of JFK and RFK sister Jean Smith?

One of the founders of the Center for International Rehabilitation who is most remembered for a 1991 rape trial in Florida (where he was acquitted) gave some thought back in 2001 to running for a U.S. House of Representatives seat from the Northwest Side.

That’s the one Rod Blagojevich gave up to run for governor in 2002.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: A modern-day Daley thinks a modern-day Kennedy could do well politically (http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/1583041,daley-kennedy-chris-caroline-052009.article) on the Chicago scene.