Lightweight vs. Bigfoot could turn out to be a month of campaign nonsense

I happened to be with a group of individuals this week who are amongst those who think that Lori Lightfoot and her mayoral campaign are the city’s saviors – the new vision that is meant to save the very soul of Chicago.

In fact, much of that conversation centered around the mayoral candidates “Lightfoot” and “Bigfoot.” Which is the snarky name they’ve developed for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s mayoral aspirations.

THEY’RE SO EAGER to trash the years of experience that Preckwinkle has gained through her service as an alderman (the Hyde Park neighborhood) and as the county board president.

You certainly can’t say or do anything that implies Preckwinkle might actually have a clue about the causes of the city’s problems, and that Lightfoot might not actually be ready to take on the role of occupant of the fifth floor office suite at City Hall.

Otherwise known as da mare’s office.

They get rather touchy if anyone dare suggests anything negative about the one-time federal prosecutor and member of the board that oversaw investigations into police misconduct.

PERSONALLY, I WONDER if Lightfoot is the enforcement type who might be best suited to the role of inspector general – doing the investigations into incidents where things get screwed up and making suggestions as to what ought to be done to resolve them.

Preckwinkle 'experienced,; … 

While “Bigfoot,” which was meant to be a derogatory slur referring to the six-foot politico whom some in government circles have used the phrase “Tower of Blunt” to refer to.

Although I’m wondering if this is a phrase whose meaning ought to be turned upside down – as in Toni is the experienced one who ought to be the municipal boss while Lori might just be too touchy and sensitive to handle the post.

I couldn’t help but think such unpleasant thoughts when I learned Thursday of the tiff taking place between Lightfoot and Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White.

IT SEEMS THAT White has endorsed Preckwinkle’s mayoral bid, saying, “We need someone who’s going to run the city of Chicago who has experience.”

… or Lightfoot 'refreshing' for Chicago?

Which led Lightfoot to lambaste White as some form of political hack, saying, “Toni Preckwinkle is the epitome of those entrenched political interests, so it’s not surprising to me that she is seeking people who she has worked with for decades.”

That caused White on Thursday to retort, “Lori Lightfoot seems to feel like she has to attack everyone who disagrees with her. That’s no way to get things done and that’s not what Chicagoans expect in their elected officials.”

While Preckwinkle herself felt compelled to call Lightfoot’s comments about White, “disgusting,” while saying Lightfoot is “point(ing) fingers and attack(ing) her critics.

I’M SURE THE core of Lightfoot supporters are upset that Preckwinkle would say something so nasty. They may be going about as we speak claiming this is more evidence that Toni is a political hack who needs to be replaced – forgetting that the worst thing that happens to her in the April 2 run-off is that she remains as county board president AND Cook County Democratic chairwoman. She ain’t going nowhere.

Who will get to work here for four years come May?

But this kind of behavior does make me wonder – not so much about Lightfoot (who on paper isn’t all that different on the issues from Preckwinkle). But about the Lightfoot backers; who may have created an image of her in their heads that Lori can’t help but fall far short of!

Is there a legitimate reason that Preckwinkle went into this election cycle as the pre-emptive favorite amongst the mayoral candidates? Should we really be quick to dismiss her for the favorite of the segment of the electorate who seems to want to vote for the political “flavor of the month?”

Could it be that if Preckwinkle truly is “Bigfoot,” that she is taking on as her opponent Lori “Lightweight?” Lightweight and Bigfoot – the very thought of all the nasty rhetoric those nicknames will inspire is enough to make me shudder about the upcoming month of an election cycle we will have to endure.

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Short-term ‘retirement’ post turns out to be a long-term one for Jesse White

It was a couple of decades ago when Jesse White ran for election as Illinois secretary of state.

WHITE: At age 84, is he up to sixth term?

The line of logic that existed amongst his political supporters is that White had been an 18-year member of the Illinois House of Representatives from Chicago’s Near West side who then returned home to Chicago for a term as Cook County’s recorder of deeds.

AT AGE 64, sending him back to Springfield for a term as secretary of state (replacing George Ryan, who gave up the post for his now-infamous stint as governor) was sort of a reward for White.

He could finish out his political career “on top,” so to speak. Before wandering off into a retirement from a life of community and public service, while occasionally reminiscing about “what might have been” if he had made it to the major leagues with the Chicago Cubs back in the 1960s.

Shows you how little we all knew back then.

For now, 20 years later, White is about to finish his fifth four-year term as the man who runs the state government office that – most prominently – puts his name on everybody’s driver’s license. Along with a whole slew of other services that makes the local secretary of state’s office the one Illinois residents most frequently deal with in their daily lives.

HELLAND: Out to make it a prime issue

NOW, COME NOV. 6, White will be the Democratic nominee seeking a sixth term, taking on Republican Jason Helland and Libertarian Steve Dutner. Both of whom are ridiculously young, compared to White.

Dutner is a 2002 college graduate, while Helland was in high school back when White was running the recorder of deeds office.

It almost brings to my mind the old Ronald Reagan debate wisecrack, the one where he said of presidential opponent Walter Mondale, “I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”

 

REAGAN: Able to beat it down against Mondale

The point being that Reagan already was 73 years old, and wasn’t about to be intimidated out of running for office just because some people would prefer he retire to memories of his days as a B-grade movie actor.

JUST AS SOME people, including Republican Helland, are trying to make age an issue in this election cycle.

They’re claiming that electing White to a sixth term is really nothing more than putting control of picking the secretary of state into the powers-that-be of the Democratic party.

They’re claiming White has every intention of retiring shortly after his re-election – thereby giving the governor the ability to hand-pick a replacement – similar to how Rauner in 2014 picked an Illinois comptroller when Judy Baar Topinka died before she could be sworn into office.

An 'alternate life' version of White … 

Of course, Republicans want to believe that all Democrats are puppets of Michael Madigan, the Illinois House speaker and state Democratic chairman whom they’re trying to demonize.

OR COULD THIS be the admission by Republicans that Bruce Rauner’s re-election dreams are little more than delusions? Which means a “Gov. J.B. Pritzker” will go along with whomever Madigan desires for the post!

Even though the real admission is that Helland is a candidate with no chance of winning secretary of state, and is merely doing service to the GOP by allowing his name to fill the ballot slot.

… if there hadn't been an 'Ernie Banks?'

Because running the Grundy County state’s attorney and a former prosecutor in Kankakee County for the post comes across as falling way short of White’s political service dating back to 1975, and his work with kids, particularly leading the Jesse White Tumblers, that goes back even further.

About the only reason people might find a negative about White is his time as a professional athlete – playing first base for Chicago Cubs minor league affiliates back in the 1960s and futilely trying to beat out Ernie Banks for his major league job. Then again, I don’t think even Chicago White Sox fans would hold that against him.

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Pritzker on race – blunt-spoken B.S.? Or simple-minded electoral analysis?

I held off a couple of days on commenting about Democratic gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker’s thoughts about the realities of various elected officials on Illinois’ political scene, largely because I have heard many people throughout the years say similar things about black officials.

PRITZKER: Too blunt, or too simple?

If I were to trash Pritzker for his somewhat-insulting analysis (J.B. himself admits he wasn’t all that diplomatic in his decade-old thoughts), I feel like I’d have to recall every nitwit who has ever tried to spin my thoughts about politics.

BUT THE BIT about all of this is the way some officials are trying to make it out as though they have “exposed” Pritzker for saying something radical and offensive, and that this now single-handedly trashes his electoral chances come the March 20 primary.

Even though many of the people spewing such thoughts against Pritzker are also the ones who have said such things themselves.

This particular round of political rhetoric was spouted out by the continuing use for campaign purposes of the recordings the FBI made back in the days when they were trying to get then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich to say incriminating things on tape to be used as evidence against him in criminal proceedings.

WHITE: Did J.B. praise, or denigrate, him?

As we all know, Blagojevich is now a convicted felon and still has another six-or-so years to serve before he can think of returning to his spouse, Patti, and their two daughters.

DURING THOSE TALKS, Blagojevich spoke with prominent Democratic financial contributor Pritzker, and I’m sure the fact it might create the impression amongst the clueless that Pritzker himself did something illegal pleases the J.B. opponents.

JACKSON: Used to have a political future

But as for what he said, it was Pritzker suggesting that Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White was the best possible replacement Blagojevich could pick to fill the vacancy created when our state’s U.S. senator, Barack Obama, became president in 2008.

Because he was not “crass” like then-Illinois Senate President Emil Jones. Besides, getting White out of the secretary of state’s office would have meant Blagojevich getting to pick a person who could then fill the mass of jobs controlled by that office – which does much more than just issue your driver’s license.

JONES: Oft-overlooked

As for then-Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., Pritzker made it clear he sympathized with Blagojevich not wanting the son of Rev. Jesse Jackson to have such a political post – even though the speculation back in ’08 was that Jackson might be the most-logical person for the post.

EXCEPT TO BLAGOJEVICH, who had the ego all outraged that he had been surpassed on a national sense by Obama and would get dumped on again by Jesse, Jr.

In short, a lot of this would have been considered stating the incredibly obvious a decade ago. For all I know, there may be some people who will read such thoughts coming from Pritzker who will think he’s on to something and may be more likely to vote for him.

BLAGOJEVICH: Reliving pol history?

Personally, I think some of the thoughts were expressed a little crassly themselves.

But then again, since when is anybody on our local political scene all that eloquent or articulate? What about any of this would truly make Pritzker worse?

WE MAY WANT to fantasize that Obama rose our state’s political sensibilities to a higher moral plane. But Barack was someone who knew how to make his political accommodations – he wouldn’t have got elected to the top political post if he hadn’t.

So as for the people who want us to think they’re now looking out for black people at large by criticizing Pritzker, I suspect many of them could really care less about anyone other than themselves.

How much does it add to White's appeal?

They’ll use race if they think it can benefit their own political interests, but then back away once it no longer serves their purposes.

Besides, a part of me has always thought that one of White’s political benefits was his athletic background – a one-time baseball player in the Chicago Cubs organization. Is that denigrative of the man’s political acumen to bring that point up?

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EXTRA: Note to GOP; Quit yer whinnin' and find a challenger

The latest whiny rant that makes the Illinois Republican Party seem like a six-year-old who just dropped his ice cream cone and Mommy won’t buy him another came out Wednesday, and this time Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White is the target,

WHITE: Two decades, and counting, in current post

The one-time Party of Lincoln wants us to be all offended that White will not say for sure if he’s running for re-election in 2018. He has hinted in the past he’d like to retire (he’s already 82 and has held the post since 1999), but seems to be one of those political people who just can’t see himself doing anything but holding office.

OF COURSE, FOR Republicans the real issue is that if White does run again, it is very likely they won’t be able to come up with a credible challenger. That would mean yet another high-profile political post they would likely lose come the 2018 election cycle.

If White does retire, maybe some GOPer has a chance to slip into office and prop up the potential future political opportunities for Gov. Bruce Rauner. Of course, that’s presuming voters aren’t so fed up with the Illinois political status quo of ‘no budget’ that they don’t just dump him too.

Republicans are trying to make it an issue that White ran for re-election back in 2014 even though he previously had hinted at retirement, and has since made statements in 2015 and 2016 that he didn’t want a sixth term as secretary of state.

We, the voters of Illinois, didn’t seem to get too offended just over two years ago. Who knows how we’ll react. Or do you really think a gaudy, cluttered license plate design is really the kind of issue that will rile up voters?

RAUNER: He'd like political allies

ALTHOUGH IF YOU really want to get technical, you’d think the Illinois GOP would be the last entity to try to make an issue out of term-limit pledges.

For they’re the ones who include amongst their ranks Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill. He’s a congressman from the part of Illinois that is suburban St. Louis, and when he originally ran for office back in 1996 he made a firm pledge that – if elected – he would not serve more than six, two-year terms in office.

Which means we should be coming up on the 10-year anniversary of Shimkus’ departure from the Washington scene. Somehow, Shimkus keeps concluding that his presence in the District of Columbia is still needed. As far as I know, he’s going to face about as credible of opposition on Election Day ’18 for his congressional seat as White will for secretary of state.

SHIMKUS: Supposed to leave 10 yrs ago

It is kind of odd in White’s case, because I remember when he first got elected to his present post in 1998, the idea was that White was a long-time state legislator and Cook County recorder who would serve a term or two in Springfield before taking political “retirement.”

JESSE, HOWEVER, SEEMS to be a political survivor. One whose presence causes the Republican Party to engage in such lame nonsense as what they’re now spewing.

And yes, this latest Republican statement tells us that White is sticking around because Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, wants him too. It all comes back to Madigan, in the minds of the Illinois GOP.

I guess the idea of coming up with more credible candidates who can actually beat the opposition is an idea that goes beyond their intellect; or perhaps even the power of all the millions of his own money that Rauner has committed to spending in next year’s election cycle.

All I know is that it is likely Rauner will be a little bit poorer come early 2019 – and probably just as lonely politically as he is currently.

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Out with the old on political scene, White and Carter keep busy into old age

Listening to a 90-year-old Jimmy Carter talk Thursday morning about the treatment he will start receiving for minuscule (but still deadly) cancerous spots on his brain couldn’t help but remind me of that election cycle nearly 40 years ago when the man from Plains (as in Georgia) became our president.

From 1976, when Mayor Daley gave Jimmy Carter a less-than-stellar election effort

To be honest, Carter prevailed because the stink of Watergate hovered over the nation – leaving a lot of people turned off to the political party of Richard Nixon.

ANYBODY WHO WON the Democratic primary was likely to win the general election in that Bicentennial year.

Amongst our own local political trivia, it ought to be noted that 1976 was one of the fluke years.

It was one of only two election cycles during the 20^th Century (1916 was the other) in which someone managed to win a presidential election WITHOUT taking Illinois.

In what was Cook County “Boss” Richard J. Daley’s last election cycle on the national stage (he died one month later), Illinois’ votes in the Electoral College went to then-incumbent President Gerald R. Ford.

MAKING THE LAND of Lincoln one of the few places that actually did vote to have Ford as our nation’s chief executive.

Carter took only 53 percent of the vote in Cook County, meaning all the rest of the state (outside of a few sparsely-populated Southern Illinois counties) was able to gang up on Chicago and put the state into the Republican column.

The reports back then indicated that Daley didn’t think much of the idea of a Southerner like Carter, and doubted he had much appeal to working-class Chicago. Which resulted in the lackluster effort by the political organization to turn out the vote.

There also were the reports about how Daley felt insulted at the Democratic National Convention that year when his big public moment was to attend a press conference with Miss Lillian – as in Jimmy Carter’s mother.

CONSIDERING SHE WAS the one with the sassy personality, it would have made the aging Daley come across like the grouchy ol’ man from Bridgeport – telling the kids to keep off his lawn.

Or perhaps to have the cops parked on the block to keep watch on his bungalow do it for him?

WHITE: Will he finally retire come '18?

But Carter went on to win his one term in office – one that still gives the conservative ideologues material for their rants and rages. So much that those who felt compelled to use Fox News Channel websites to read the story to make crude insults about the man!

Back in those days when Carter and Daley were at the top of the pecking order, one of the lower-rungs was Jesse White, who had just finished serving his first term representing a piece of Chicago in the Illinois House of Representatives.

AN OFFICE HE held through 1993 – when he got himself elected to what locally was a higher post; Cook County recorder of deeds.

Then, in the 1998 elections, White won the post that was supposed to allow him to retire on top – he became Illinois secretary of state at age 64. A term there, and he could go out in style.

Except that White has managed to keep that post through five terms. Although he said Thursday he has no intention of running for term number six come the 2018 election cycle. Retirement for White would come at age 84.

Although I found it interesting to learn he intends to remain active by continuing to operate the Jesse White Tumblers, the gymnastics group that tries to give inner-city youth something to do.

JUST AS HOW Carter told reporter-types he wants to be able to think he can carry on with his charitable works even while receiving his medical treatments.

Some people just seem to want to keep busy. Which may be why they are remembered long after most of us are forgotten?

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For what it is worth, following is a commentary I wrote for United Press International from Springfield, Ill., at the end of Jesse White’s first week in January 1999 of what could wind up being his 20-year return to the Illinois Statehouse scene.

Around the Statehouse

White’s Statehouse ‘return’ well-received

By GREGORY TEJEDA

SPRINGFIELD, Ill., Jan. 18 (UPI) – When Jesse White gave up an Illinois House seat and a career in state government in 1992 to be a Cook County government official, he was following the Chicago rulebook about moving up in politics.

But the Cook County recorder of deeds return last week to the Statehouse scene made him one of Illinois’ most popular politicians these days.

“I’m glad to be home,” White, 64, says of his return to the state payroll when he was sworn in as Illinois secretary of state.

Democrats routinely gave him enthusiastic rounds of applause and cheers during his public appearances last week. Even Republicans are on the White bandwagon.

Part of the appeal is the bipartisan political rhetoric that flowed through Springfield last week. Once the General Assembly and state government has to start doing things for people, the blatant praise will pass.

White’s popularity from Democrats is due to the party’s lack of anyone holding a state constitutional office during the past four years.

Now, a Democrat controls the agency that has many jobs around Illinois and deals with licensing motorists – the function that brings most people into routine contact with state government.

“He’s looking mighty good up there,” state Rep. Art Turner, D-Chicago. Noted during legislative inauguration ceremonies where White presided. “It’s nice to have one of our own in a position of power.”

But White’s record of community service, including the nearly 40 years that he has headed the Jesse White Tumblers gymnastics team and other work he has done to benefit inner-city kids in Chicago, also is a factor.

It is hard for even the most cynical political observer to bad-mouth someone with White’s social work background. One Statehouse observer says White, “already was an American hero. Now, he’s an American hero with 1,000 patronage jobs.”

One should not doubt that White knows how to do politics. Already, he is arranging to put failed lieutenant governor nominee Mary Lou Kearns on his state payroll.

White also is playing the Chicago political game, trying to influence the choice of his successor as recorder of deeds.

White is backing Darlena Williams-Burnett, the wife of a Chicago alderman, even though Cook County Board President John Stroger and other officials prefer state Rep. Eugene Moore, D-Maywood.

White also became the first newly-elected pol to create a mini-scandal of sorts by offering a key financial post in the Illinois secretary of state’s office – and its $70,000 annual salary – to his daughter, Glenna.

But political observers are putting all that aside. Many are recalling White’s cooperation and willingness to support newly-elected colleagues during his 16 years in the Illinois House.

He’s close enough to them that state Rep. Joel Brunsvold, D-Milan, quips White can still be used by the Illinois House softball team, which has not been able to beat the state Senate team in years.

White played baseball in the Chicago Cubs minor league system in the 1960s, and remains athletic. But it is his Cubs connection that led to what was the closest to a hostile comment made about White all last week.

Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan – speaking like the life-long Chicago Sout’ Sider that he is – says, “the only mistake (White) ever made in his life was to play with the Cubs, instead of the White Sox.”

  -0-

Copyright 1999 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

Mighty Quinn ought to look to White, Lisa Madigan for lesson on how to win

Pat Quinn won his bid for election as governor in 2010 because Chicago voters cared enough to turn out in force and cast ballots for him.

 

QUINN: Generating apathy?

The fear was that some rural guy who was showing a completely downstate bias toward government would come in and muck things up. That caused Chicago voters to care enough to turn out on Election Day and vote for governor.

WHETHER THAT WILL be the case again come Nov. 4 is something we’ll have to see. Because I do believe that if Chicago voters take an interest in the gubernatorial campaign, then Quinn wins.

Republican gubernatorial nominee Bruce Rauner’s millions won’t even come close to displacing Pat from the Executive Mansion in Springfield (in which he rarely stays, preferring his own West Side-based house).

So when I’m looking at the latest polls coming from the We Ask America group, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m placing heavy emphasis on how Chicago-based voters feel about this campaign.

For the record, the latest such poll shows Quinn taking 64.64 percent of the vote, compared to 17.54 percent for Rauner. That’s a decent lead.

BUT IS IT enough to overcome the downstate Illinois lead of 59.24 percent to 27.34 percent that Rauner has over Quinn?

The numbers that really get to me are the undecideds. In Chicago, it’s 17.82 percent, while in the suburban part of Cook County, it’s 19.56 percent. Those are significantly high.

It’s the reason why political people look wary. It may be another four-plus months until Election Day, but those figures are kind of high.

 

WHITE: Giving lessons to Quinn?

Now if it turns out that all of those undecideds decide to vote for Pat Quinn, then he prevails. 80-percent plus support in Chicago and its inner suburbs is a strong enough margin of support that it would take a near miracle (one that not even Pat Brady could pull off) for Rauner to overcome.

ANYTHING LESS THAN all, and then Quinn might fall short statewide. Considering that the Rauner campaign strategy appears to be to create a sense of apathy amongst the kinds of voters who would prefer Quinn to him, there’s always a good chance that those undecideds will ultimately decide that they have better things to do Nov. 4 than wait in line at a polling place.

Now if you think I’m kidding about this regional factor, take into account the next two ranking Democratic nominees for statewide office – Secretary of State Jesse White and Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

 

MADIGAN: Another Quinn role model?

In Chicago, White has the kind of lead Quinn wishes he could have – 76.36 percent support to only 12.21 percent for Republican nominee Mike Webster.

Madigan does just as well in Chicago – 74.72 percent compared to 10.56 percent for Republican challenger Paul Schimpf.

OF COURSE, IT helps those two Dems that they have relatively-nothing opponents to run against on Election Day. Webster is a school board president in the outer Chicago suburbs, while Schimpf likes to campaign on the fact that he once served in the Marine Corps.

It’s not like Rauner has any more real experience in the ways and means of electoral politics. Then again, his fortune and a willingness to spend it to try to buy a certain neutral, non-specific image of himself while also demonizing his opposition (“Pat Quinn is Evil!”) can go a long way.

But will it be enough?

The reality of Chicago is that while we are a very politically-minded city, we are also very parochial. Governor is always the one post among the so-called majors that we are apathetic about.

MANY OF THOSE people who are ready to get worked up over an election are already focusing their attention on whether it is possible to dump Rahm Emanuel in the 2015 campaign cycle.

 

RAUNER: Gov. Apathy?

Which makes me wonder if they’re viewing this year’s election cycle is merely a prelude. Or perhaps a test run.

Try out some tactics against Rauner to see if they work. If so, they may wind up being used again against Emanuel come February.

And the Quinn campaign becomes the political equivalent of a guinea pig!

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