When an Election Day endorsement doesn’t mean a whole heck of a lot

There were those people who expected this election cycle for Chicago mayor to ultimately come down to a political brawl between candidates Toni Preckwinkle and Bill Daley.

Preckwinkle wishes she could claim … 

With that in mind, it would seem like it somehow ought to be significant that the Daleys are now throwing in their lot with Preckwinkle. But not really!

IT MAY MORE well be evidence that an endorsement can be cheap. Just like talk itself.

Actually, Bill Daley has pretty much kept quiet since that night in late February when he fell short of having enough votes to qualify for the ongoing run-off election that will take place April 2.

The endorsement proper came from John Daley, as in one of Bill’s brothers and one of the many men who can say they’re a son to one-time Mayor Richard J. Daley.

John is the one who’s saying people ought to cast a vote for Preckwinkle over the campaign of Lori Lightfoot.

WHETHER THAT WILL mean much in the way of generating political support has yet to be determined. We’ll have to wait and see whether anybody is swayed by the idea of the Daley name taking a stance in this run-off.

… to have the political backing of Daley … 

Personally, this strikes me as one of those formality endorsements. As in it’s being done for the sake of saying he took a stance – rather than because he actually cares much about which candidate actually prevails.

Either that, or John Daley himself is incredibly eager for a political promotion.

For John Daley is a member of the Cook County Board. He even has the title of “finance chairman,” which does put him in a position of authority and makes him someone whose judgment on issues often is deferred to.

AND IF BY chance Preckwinkle manages to prevail in the mayoral election, it would create a vacancy for the board president’s position. A spot that would be filled by the other county board members from amongst their ranks.

… and Obama.

Meaning John Daley could find himself in line to become the county board president for the next three-plus years. Considering he’s the Daley brother who often is thought of as the one whose political ambitions are on a smaller scale than those of Rich or Bill, it would be ironic if he wound up becoming the highest-ranking Daley in our local political scene.

In fact, it would be the real kicker if Bill Daley’s mayoral loss set the stage for John to become the county board president.

Of course, the Daley endorsement isn’t the only “big name” one that Preckwinkle would like to have these days. Much has been made of how she wanted to have Barack and Michelle Obama make some sort of statement of support on her behalf.

HOPING THAT THE Obama influence could still linger over Chicago sufficiently enough to sway some people to actually get off their keisters and cast ballots for Toni.

Barack backing didn't help Quinn

Unfortunately for Preckwinkle, the Obamas have decided to keep quiet this election cycle after all. They’ll cast their ballots (via absentee from their home in the D.C. metro area), but they’re not making anything in the way of public statements about who people should vote for.

Then again, perhaps they’re remembering the 2014 election cycle when Obama made a point of a late endorsement in support of Pat Quinn for governor. It didn’t help. We still got Bruce Rauner’s one-term stint as guv.

Perhaps Toni has become so bogged down in the nonsense that could take her down to mayoral defeat that Barack and Michelle just figure it’s better to remain silent, than open one’s mouth and remove all doubt about being a fool.

  -30-

Politics creates strange bedfellows

There are no permanent enemies in electoral politics. Or maybe the reality is there are no permanent friends – just people you’re allied with for the time being.

PRECKWINKLE: Got two endorsements

Take the mayoral campaign of Toni Preckwinkle – whom some are determined to believe is desperately clinging to life and is on the verge of political oblivion.

YET EVEN PRECKWINKLE is still capable of finding people willing to say they support her political aspirations. And not just the labor unions whom Toni had been hoping all along would be the life’s blood of her campaign for the right to work on the City Hall side of the municipal building, rather than the County Board side.

Preckwinkle picked up a pair of people who, at one time, might have been a major political coup. But now?

We’re talking about the endorsements she got from one-time state legislator and county board President Todd Stroger and from the rap music star Chance.

As in the guy who was the pulse that was the only reason anybody took seriously the mayoral aspirations of Amara Enyia. The one who kicked in the campaign cash that enabled her to actually have a campaign.

THE GUY WHOM some thought might inspire young black Chicagoans to care about this election cycle enough that perhaps Amara could have a chance of winning something.

STROGER: Sympathizing w/ Toni? Nah!

But as it turned out, Chance’s support was only good enough to get Enyia a 7 percent share of the vote in the Feb. 26 election – not even close to qualifying for one of the spots in the current run-off election.

So now, Chance has become a part of the Preckwinkle bandwagon. Which doesn’t surprise many political observers. It was always noted that one of the chairmen of the Preckwinkle campaign is Ken Bennett – a.k.a., Chance’s father.

All it means is that Chance’s mayoral preference went down the tubes, and his father convinced him to remain involved ever-so-slightly. But not as much as he was for Enyia.

BECAUSE IT SHOULD be noted that Chance’s endorsement does not come along with any campaign cash. He’s not giving Toni any money to get through the remaining days of this election cycle.

CHANCE: Won't open his wallet

I don’t know if it’s true, but there were always those predicting that Chance would wind up being swayed over to Camp Preckwinkle. Although those pundits were usually speculating a scenario in which this would unify African-American voter support for Toni against someone like William Daley.

Nobody figured this would be a Lightfoot/Preckwinkle brawl!

But this move strikes many as being more predictable than the one in which Stroger put aside his own animosities toward Preckwinkle to say he supports her. Because there are those of us who remember the 2010 election cycle in which Toni turned Todd into the ultimate example of a political hack who was unfit for office when she beat him for the county board president post he inherited when his father, John, had to step down.

COULD IT BE that Todd Stroger somehow sympathizes with the way Toni Preckwinkle’s reputation is being so thoroughly trashed by those Lightfoot backers eager to engage in demonization? Not likely.

LIGHTFOOT: Not likely losing sleep

It’s more likely that Stroger is being truthful when he says he hopes that a “Mayor Preckwinkle” will give him the time of day and be willing to listen to his concerns for things he’d like to see achieved across the city’s South Side. While a “Mayor Lightfoot,” he suspects, would be likely to turn her old federal prosecutorial instincts on him to try to find a way to get him indicted for something.

I’m not saying for sure that will happen. A part of me doesn’t think Stroger was ever ambitious enough to do something corrupt.

But it would be intriguing to see if current circumstances are such that Toni and “the Toddler” are now political allies – or will be for as long as the two see some mutual benefit to tolerating each other’s existence.

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EXTRA: Whose side will people take with regards to Daley’s debate absence?

B. DALEY: Took union endorsement over debate

It will be interesting to see whether Bill Daley’s mayoral campaign takes a hit, or receives a boost, from the fact he blew off a televised debate Thursday night that would have given him some serious exposure in the upcoming election.

Daley, one of 14 candidates with dreams of becoming Chicago’s next mayor, let officials with WFLD-TV know Thursday afternoon that he wouldn’t be participating in the program that Channel 32 had planned for Thursday night.

MENDOZA: Daley a sissy?

DALEY INSISTS HE found out last-minute that local 130 of the Chicago Journeyman Plumbers and Technical Engineers union wanted to do an evening event by which they’d endorse his mayoral campaign.

Saying he saw it as a choice of being with political people or “normal people,” he chose to take the endorsement. By an old-school way of viewing things, I could see how this works – if he can successfully spin this as a chance to spend time with the kind of people who might actually vote for him.

But others think the fact that the Chicago Tribune published a story Thursday morning implying that he only passed a licensing test some four-plus decades ago to sell insurance because someone tampered with it.

BLAGOJEVICH: Pol of  testicular virility

It surely would have been an issue that he would have been questioned on during any debate. Was Daley merely hiding from some serious questions about an old issue?

MAYORAL OPPONENT Susana Mendoza thinks so. “There’s one bad story about him and he wilts like a little flower,” she said, adding that this may well be evidence he’s not fit to be mayor of the metropolis of Chicago. Is she calling him a political sissy?

She might as well have accused Daley of lacking the “testicular virility” that one-time Gov. Rod Blagojevich once claimed was his biggest strength as a government official.

R. DALEY: Man of the people?

Of course, that line is now recalled as one of Blagojevich’s most buffoonish moments as governor. Will this absence from the debate – which already was considered controversial because Daley was among the five candidates invited to participate while nine other candidates were excluded – really be seen as evidence that the Son of Hizzoner himself is too weak to hold office?

Or is it Daley deciding to hang out with the so-called “normal people” his way of trying to play politics the way his father would have – as it was “Old Man” Daley who once said, “No poll can equal the day-to-day visits of the men and women of the Democratic Party.”

  -30-

EXTRA: Presidential birth dates little more than partisan fundraising schemes

12.

 Barack Obama turns 12 on Saturday.

He does, that is, if you follow that quirky means of estimating one’s age by adding up the digits in his actual age (5 + 7) to come up with some youthful sounding number.

SO YES, SATURDAY is the birthday anniversary of that date upon which Stanley Ann Dunham gave birth to her eldest son in Honolulu (I don’t want to hear from the crackpots who persist he was born in Kenya, or Singapore or anywhere else outside the U.S. boundaries).

My e-mails have been flooded in recent days with messages from the Organizing for Action group (the remains of Obama’s old fundraising organization) telling me to sign off on a digital birthday card that will be sent to the man they say is now “Organizer-in-Chief.”

It’s a way of reminding the majority of us who didn’t vote for the current president (and remain disgustingly appalled he could ever win) that there really was once a better time. And that by uniting together, we might be able to undermine The Donald come the Nov. 6 elections (by erasing the Republican congressional majorities that give him strength) and the 2020 general elections when we can vote to remove him from office altogether.

Otherwise, it would be the tackiest of behavior that we’re supposed to celebrate a past president’s birthday. We don’t get similar requests on behalf of Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter.

OBAMA ALSO POPPED into the news this week when he made his own endorsements for Election Day known publicly. There are some 81 people running for various political posts who can say they have the backing of “the Big O!”

Those include a few Illinois races, including that of J.B. Pritzker for governor and Kwame Raoul (the man who replaced Obama as a state senator some 14 years ago) for state Attorney General.

Also, he’s backing three people wishing to run for Congress from Illinois – although the common thread is that Obama is backing the Democrats wishing to challenge Republican incumbents in the House of Representatives.

Only 9.

Obama thinks we’d be better off with Peter Roskam and Mike Bost (both of whom are people who were amongst his state legislative colleagues all those years ago) and Randy Hultgren. Similar to how Republicans would put effort into trying to win congressional seats held by Democrats so as to reduce the partisan numbers.

I DON’T KNOW how many people are going to be swayed by the influence of Obama, who has done one thing right in his post-presidency – he’s kept a low-profile. Otherwise, the people who think that this Age of Trump we’re now in is largely Barack’s fault because he wasn’t aggressive enough in pushing an agenda of his own (Trump has largely been able to erase many of the Obama-era accomplishments) would really be screeching!

Of course, I also noticed the e-mail I received Friday on behalf of one-time Vice President Joe Biden, who wanted us to know he recently had lunch with Barack (and had a ham sandwich). As though he wants us to think he’s still important enough to warrant a presidential campaign come 2020 – even though he’s already 75 and ain’t gettin’ any younger.

A lot of this e-mail traffic is to be expected. They’re probably p-o’ed at me for not giving them a credit card number so as to make it easier for them to charge me money for their campaign fundraising efforts.

Even President Donald Trump is sending out his e-mails – he wants me to send him $1 (or more, if I absolutely feel compelled to do so) to be entered into a sweepstakes. The prize being a chance to eat dinner with the president and a collection of people he says are, “great American patriots.”

14, by 2020.

JUST AS I haven’t felt compelled to sign off on the Obama birthday card, I also think I’m taking a pass on the idea of eating with Trump.

The man who thinks he’s the sweepstakes prize is just a little too full of himself for me to want to spend time with.

Besides, we have a president these days who is a mere 9-year-old (7 + 2, as of June 14) and often behaves as though he lacks even that much maturity.

  -30-

How much do celebrity stances, endorsements influence political issues?

I always wonder how much the so-called famous amongst us think we really care about what they think of our “local” issues.

Would the youthful Mick have cared about ERA?

Are they so self-absorbed that they believe we’re going to be swayed by their official pronouncements? Or are there those of us who really will consider taking a stance just because of what an entertainer thinks?

TAKE MICK JAGGER, the aging rocker whose band ripped its name off an old Muddy Waters tune and whose early records included a riff on Chuck Berry with “Around and Around.”

Mick, that aging rocker who still has the big ol’ lips that became the Rolling Stones’ logo, of sorts, wrote a brief letter that his daughter, Elizabeth, distributed through Instagram.

His issue of concern is the Equal Rights Amendment, where there are some political people of Illinois behaving in ways as though the issue is a still-pending one, rather than one whose time expired some 36 years ago.

Mick isn't the first Jagger to try to sway Ill.

For the record, the man whose band gave us the drug-tinged song “Mother’s Little Helper” is for the ERA. In his brief letter, Mick wrote that three of his daughters, including Elizabeth, are U.S. citizens.

“THEY SHOULD ALL deserve equal rights under the Constitution of the United States,” Jagger wrote.

Which struck me as an interesting line of logic in that many of the conservative ideologues who often rant against the ERA acknowledge that same basic concept.

They argue that it is so obvious that women already have equal protection under U.S. law that they don’t want to have to add a constitutional amendment. They go so far as to say it is insulting to women to have to specify they’re equal.

 

Bianca fought for Garcia, who's still alive in '18

 Of course, those ideologues often behave in ways that show their actions are not the same as their thoughts, which is why others believe the ERA – with its simple, declarative statement that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex.”

JAGGER’S LETTER HAS been brought to the attention of the Illinois House of Representatives, whose members are contemplating the ERA – the same legislative body who back in 1982 failed to approve the measure, and that failure is oft regarded as the death blow for the amendment’s ability to be ratified by three-quarters of the nation’s legislators.

Will Mick Jagger really be able to sway the way our political people think?

Or will his involvement (as minor as it truly is) become the matter that offends ERA critics to the point where their opposition is stepped up to a new intensity.

Will the man who gave us “Paint it Black” or “Sympathy for the Devil” have any impact on the Illinois ERA battle, where state Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, said he hopes to have a vote take place before month’s end – which also would be the end of the ’18 spring legislative session?

IT AMUSES ME in part because I remember a moment from a couple of decades ago when one of Jagger’s ex-wives, Bianca, had her own little activist moment in Illinois.

How many Stones fans also wore these pins?

She actually made the journey to the Statehouse in Springfield to try to sway state officials about capital punishment. Specifically, as to the pending execution of Guinevere Garcia – a woman who killed her husband after being released from prison for another crime she was convicted of.

That 1996 execution ultimately was commuted by then-Gov. Jim Edgar, although I remember some people were bothered by the presence of Amnesty International and Bianca Jagger. As though that would have been reason enough to let Garcia die.

Will Mick’s involvement get the anti-ERA types equally riled up? Or are there others star-gazed enough to wish that the soon-to-be 75 Jagger, himself, could make the sojourn to Springfield.

  -30-

Which way will Rahm swing in upcoming election for aldermanic post?

I always thought one of the most humorous predicaments ever faced in electoral politics was that by Rahm Emanuel back during the 2008 election cycle.

EMANUEL: Political predicament reminiscent of '08

But watching the circumstances that are developing in advance of the 2019 elections for municipal office – including the seats on the Chicago City Council, make me wonder if Emanuel is going to face an equally-difficult predicament.

AT STAKE IS the 30^th Ward aldermanic post – one that represents a heavily-Latino ward Northwest, and one currently represented by Alderman Ariel Reboyras.

Reboyras, who chairs the council’s Public Safety committee, has developed a reputation as an alderman as a political supporter of the mayor. To the point where some people are inclined to think he’s “too close” to Emanuel, and that perhaps the ward and its residents would be better off with someone else.

That seems to be the line of logic that Jessica Washington Gutierrez plans to use in her efforts to challenge Reboyras in the Feb. 26 non-partisan elections.

So who will Emanuel side with when it comes to the election? Standard political logic says he backs the incumbent, particularly one who has been as loyal to Emanuel as Reboyras has been.

REBOYRAS: Thinks he's earned Rahm's backing

BUT THEN WE run into the complicating factor, Gutierrez is the daughter of soon-to-be retired Congressman Luis Gutierrez.

Luis would love it if his family were to become a part of that oldest of Chicago political traditions of multi-generations holding electoral office. Particularly since Luis himself was once an alderman back in the days of Harold Washington as mayor.

Luis also has become an Emanuel supporter in recent years – taking actions that helped bolster Rahm’s re-election chances the last election cycle in 2015. I don’t doubt he figures that the mayor owes him in the form of support of his daughter’s political aspirations.

So who does Rahm Emanuel wind up siding with? Or more important, who does he decide it will hurt him less to piss off?

Can Jessica's father gain her aldermanic seat?

REBOYRAS ON MONDAY said he thinks he has done enough to be entitled to the mayor’s support – and the financial support his campaign would receive from the mayor’s campaign coffers.

Which would mean squatting all over the aspirations of Jessica Gutierrez – who is engaging in her first political campaign and will try to feed off the votes of those people who liked Luis as their political representation and would like to see the name live on.

But does Emanuel really want to do that – particularly since it could result in having Gutierrez stir up resentment within the Latino segment of the electorate? Which could come back to bite him on the derriere.

Although several other Latino aldermen are saying they think the “right thing” for Rahm to do is stand by Reboyras. Either way, it’s going to be an Election Day headache as people will be parsing every word and action of Emanuel, even though my bet is that he’s going to go out of his way to say and do as little as possible.

JUST LIKE HE did back in the spring and summer of 2008. Remember that Hillary Clinton sought to be the Democratic nominee for president and figured she’d have the political establishment all locked up, thereby ensuring her an easy primary victory over all the other Dems who had the nerve to think they could run against her.

Would Hillary be president if Rahm backed her

Instead, we got the rise of Barack Obama, who took a few early primary victories and he wound up engaging Clinton in a brawl that dragged out all the way through the primary cycle. It wasn’t until the very end that Clinton conceded. Which put Emanuel, then a member of Congress from the Northwest Side and a former White House staffer during the Bill Clinton presidential administration in quite a political pickle.

His responses to “Obama vs. Clinton” questions were even more vague and nonsensical than the way Gov. Bruce Rauner now answers questions involving his "support" for President Donald J. Trump. Rahm didn’t come out and endorse Obama for president until the day after the final primary when Hillary herself conceded defeat.

Watching someone who, by nature, is outspoken and antagonistic as Rahm Emanuel having to keep his mouth shut was a sight to see. The idea we may get a repeat of it during coming months is something we’ll likely never forget.

  -30-

EXTRA: Does the 'power of the press’ extend to endorsements any longer?

I couldn’t help but be amused by the Chicago Tribune editorial page on Tuesday.

FAIRLEY: Will 2 Tribune endorsements help?

The newspaper, which already has endorsed Sharon Fairley for the Democratic nomination for Illinois attorney general, felt compelled to write another editorial about the merits of the woman who helped create the current panel that oversees Chicago Police activity and investigates the doings of bad cops, and also is a former federal prosecutor in Chicago.

FAIRLEY IS ONE of eight people wishing to be the Democrat who succeeds Lisa Madigan, but the most recent poll by the We Ask America group (conducted for the Capitol Fax newsletter) shows her running fourth.

With only 3.5 percent support. This remains a political brawl between former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s comeback desires and the dreams of state Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, to become something other than a Hyde Park neighborhood pol.

Fairley appears to be part of the anonymous pack, no matter what her credentials. Which led the Tribune to take another crack at influencing its readership on how to vote this week, or a week from Tuesday on Election Day.

It will be odd if Fairley is the candidate who had the official endorsements of both the Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times (along with a few other publications, including the State Journal-Register of Springfield) but couldn’t rise above the pack. Probably more evidence of the declining influence that newspaper endorsements carry, although I still think they serve a purpose in helping to clarify a publication’s perspective and judging the honesty and objectivity of its reporting.

  -30-

Is Kennedy for governor campaign trying to follow family history?

One of the big disappointments of the upcoming election cycle – at least as far as some political observers are concerned – is just how weak and pathetic has been the campaign of Chris Kennedy for Illinois governor.

Jesus Garcia offers his support to Chris Kennedy's gubernatorial dreams. Will that make a difference?

There were those people who went into this campaigning thinking that Election ’18 would be a brawl between the big family money of J.B. Pritzker, versus the Kennedy family legacy backing Chris – who is the Chicago-area’s Kennedy connection (for years, he ran the family-owned Merchandise Mart).

BUT KENNEDY’S CAMPAIGNING has been weak, particularly in the area of raising finances. Kennedy has name recognition (sort of), but it would seem that unless Chris can get a jolt in coming weeks, it will be the other fringe political challengers who will offer the Pritzker people their political fight.

Just where that jolt could come from got political people to speculating that it could be the growing Latino population (29.7 percent of Chicago’s populace, and now larger than the city’s African-American population) that could be what revives the chances of Chris Kennedy becoming the first Kennedy to get elected in Illinois (his cousins have been elected to office in various other states).

Could the Latino people of Illinois seriously wind up banding together to give Chris Kennedy enough political support to win the Democratic primary to be held March 20?

Bobby Kennedy and Cesar Chavez, back in the day

Such talk got goosed up last week when Jesus Garcia, the one-time alderman and state senator who now serves on the Cook County Board and who unsuccessfully challenged Rahm Emanuel for mayor two years ago, endorsed Chris Kennedy for governor.

SPECULATION AMONGST SOME is that Garcia has enough influence amongst the Mexican-American community in Chicago, along with other Latino ethnicities, that they will turn out for Kennedy.

Which would give the Kennedy campaign at least one group willing to publicly support him. When one considers the half-dozen or so Democratic gubernatorial dreamers, it is likely the primary winner will NOT top 50 percent. It won’t be a majority, but last year’s political victory by Donald J. Trump showed us a majority isn’t required to win.

JFK seeks Mexican-American votes back in '60 bid

Could Latino backing be enough to win a primary?

Could it cause the Latino public officials (including Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza) who have already come out in favor of J.B. Pritzker to think they have to figure out a way to change sides, or else wind up looking like a vendido – selling out the interests of their community?

WHAT IS INTRIGUING is that if such a strategy works, it would merely mean that Kennedy followed in the family tradition. Chris is the son of one-time Attorney General, senator and presidential dreamer Bobby Kennedy, and the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy AND former Sen. Ted Kennedy – the long-time senator from Massachusetts.

All of whom had their own sense of Latino ties to bolster their chances of winning, with some using the label of “first Latino senator” to describe his Uncle Teddy.

A younger Jesus Garcia supportive of Harold Washington and Teddy Kennedy

Chris Kennedy himself, in announcing the Garcia endorsement, made a point of reminding people of his father’s ties to United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez. Bobby Kennedy included in his own presidential campaigning appearances with Chavez. Chris himself once joined with Chavez back in 1988 and fasted with him for three days when Cesar did a 36-day fast to highlight the impact of pesticides on the farm hands working the fields.

Could Chris Kennedy have 21st Century take on Viva ?

But if you go back to 1960 presidential campaign, the one that Mayor Richard J. Daley allegedly stole for JFK right here in Chicago, one could also make an argument that it was victories in California and Texas that put Kennedy in the White House.

MUCH OF THOSE state victories were due to the “Viva Kennedy” Club efforts – by which Mexican-American people were a focus on the Kennedy campaign, and their 10-1 voter support for JFK over Richard Nixon were considered significant elements of those victories.

Those “Viva Kennedy” club efforts were one of the first ever by a national political campaign to reach out to Latino voters – previously, such voters were ignored.

In Illinois, Chris Kennedy has developed a reputation as a guy who likes to talk about running for office, but doesn’t have the political will to follow through a campaign to its finish. Some political observers are convinced that Chris still doesn’t have what it takes, and will drop out before the primary.

Could it be that the lesson for Kennedy to figure how to get through an entire political campaign is to follow the examples of “Dad” and “Uncle Jack” and reach out to the group in Chicago that actually is on the rise? Although I doubt anybody will someday do songs in tribute to Chris the way Chicano activist/singer Lalo Guerrero did for his dad, Bobby.

  -30-

What's an endorsement worth? Or, bringing ethnicity, race into campaign!

It will be interesting to hear the rancid rhetoric that will be spewed in coming days in reaction to the two major candidates seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for Illinois governor.
 

GUTIERREZ: A Pritzker person

Both of them got endorsements from members of the state’s congressional delegation that are going to be viewed as strategically significant, yet their detractors will be eager to put their own negative spin on the support.

FOR IT SEEMS that Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., is backing J.B. Pritzker for governor, while Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., is a supporter of Chris Kennedy’s campaign.

 

RUSH: Backing Bobby's son

Or, as some people are already putting the spin on it, Kennedy has the backing of the militant, radical one-time member of the Black Panther Party. A real-life radical of the type that the conservative ideologues always wanted to believe that Barack Obama was.

While Pritzker has the backing of a Puerto Rican radical who has been a vocal supporter of the independence movement for the U.S. commonwealth and of the many FALN members who have turned to violence in support of that independence ideal!

KENNEDY: Trying to play catch-up

Or, if you don’t really know anything about Puerto Rico  (do you even know what FALN stands for? Or was?) and don’t want to be bothered finding out, perhaps you’d rather think of Pritzker as just an extension of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

FOR IT SEEMS that when people gathered at a Pilsen neighborhood Methodist church for the Pritzker endorsement, the backers of Gov. Bruce Rauner arranged for a man wearing a Blagojevich mask to stand outside carrying a sign reading, “Luis endorsed ME too.”

PRITZKER: Trying to bolster lead

In short, it seems that for every potential positive vote that these endorsements create for their respective candidates, there is someone who wants to create a negative perception. As though they hope the "nasty" overcomes the "positive."

In fact, that is what most captivated me about the word of these electoral announcements that were made to start off the new week.

RAUNER: Sticking his nose into Monday's antics

It would seem that some people want to think of any non-Anglo support as somehow being a negative – as though this will be the election won by the support of white people who don’t think of themselves in terms of (and, in fact, may not have any real comprehension about) their ethnic origins.

AS IN I found one website comment (anonymous, of course) that said such endorsements, “cancel one another out.” While another suggested we, “will ask JB about Oscar Lopez, right after we ask Chris about the Black Panthers.”

Some people are prepared to smudge up anything and everything, which may well be the problem with the political process – even moreso than all the millions of dollars that will be spent this election cycle by the major candidates to further spread these semi-noxious messages.

I say “semi-,” because a part of me actually thinks they’re too stupid to take seriously. The Black Panther movement of old is so far in our past I wonder how many have a clue what it ever was.

BISS: Lonely at the bottom of political pile?

While Lopez is a more recent phenomenon – Gutierrez actually offered up his support for the bid for clemency that got the FALN activist who served longer in federal prison than any other his freedom from prison in Terre Haute, Ind., back in February – and release from house arrest May 17.

BUT TO BE honest, it would be absurd to expect Gutierrez (who himself lived a part of his life on the Puerto Rican island and in his college days protested peacefully for independence) to have no opinion – or past – on this issue.

If he were truly as blank a slate as the conservative ideologues would claim he should be, then he wouldn’t be representing the constituents of his heavily-Latino district (which includes several Puerto Rican-based neighborhoods on the city’s Northwest Side).

To be honest, trying to bring up these issues into the governor’s race is absurd. It is the mentality of a campaign that can’t explain why we should possibly vote for their candidate, so they want to spend time bad-mouthing the others.

Although I will express some sympathy for whomever the schmoe was that got stuck showing up at the Pritzker event in the Blagojevich costume (which consisted of a mask and stereotypical orange prison get-up). It must have been hot and sweaty and miserable for the person spewing political garbage – which serves them right!

  -30-

To dominate Dem gubernatorial field now, could Pritzker hurt himself later?

There’s no doubting that as of this point in time, J.B. Pritzker (of, amongst other financial interests, the Hyatt Hotels fortune) is the front-runner for the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor in next year’s election cycle.

PRITZKER: Union 'love' now short-sighted?

Heck, he’s the one who’s drawing all the criticism at this early stage of campaigning. No one seems to be getting worked up over Daniel Biss or Ameya Pawar no matter how many self-serving press releases the latter issues that compare his thoughts to the "New Deal" – and the entry of state Rep. Scott Drury, D-Highwood, isn’t about to change the campaign dynamic.

IT’S PRITZKER WHO is the focus of that Chicago Tribune report claiming that tape recordings exist of the FBI catching J.B. talking with then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich about possible future political appointments for himself.

Now the notion that’s supposed to be spread by the existence of such recordings is that Pritzker was doing something clandestine with none-other-than the man who now is serving his 14-year prison term and is making last-ditch appeals to the Supreme Court of the United States to try to find a sympathetic judge who might reduce his length of sentence.

We’re supposed to jump to the conclusion that Pritzker himself must have done something sleazy.

Although to actually listen to the tape, Pritzker rejected the notions that he’d make campaign contributions to Blagojevich in exchange for future considerations. And in fact, the position that Pritzker was interested in (Illinois state Treasurer) didn’t wind up becoming vacant.

SO IN THE end, Pritzker got nothing. As far as the notion that he is tainted by talking to Blagojevich, I’d argue that Rod WAS the governor at the time. He was THE MAN to talk to as far as possible government posts were concerned. Who else was he supposed to talk to?

My point is that these recordings do reek of a certain sense of desperation by Republican political operatives eager to find anything they can use to taint J.B. Even though I realize that Tribune-types insist Gov. Bruce Rauner (the likely suspect) is NOT their source.

But it doesn’t necessarily take much to stir up trouble on the campaign front. Which is probably the reason why Pritzker is so eager to get the endorsement of the interest group that usually is the Democratic Party’s most loyal friend – organized labor.

Specifically, Pritzker-types were pressuring the Illinois AFL-CIO to make a formal endorsement of J.B. for governor – even though we’re 10 months away from the actual Election Day. As it turns out, the labor union gave in. They're now officially Pritzker people

IT SEEMS RIDICULOUSLY early to take a stance, and some union officials were taking that attitude – claiming they don’t want to get locked in right now when we don’t know yet what is capable of developing in coming months.

Although on the short-term, Pritzker probably thinks this is a way to make these tapes go away. Not that it won’t cause other problems.

Consider that the Illinois Republican Party already is using the AFL-CIO indecision as material for criticism – they say it is Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, who is strong-arming an organized labor endorsement so prematurely.

Which plays right into their “Blame Madigan!!!” strategy that they have so desperately used in several election cycles to try to garner votes for their own candidates.

PERSONALLY, I REMEMBER the 1998 Democratic gubernatorial primary when organized labor wound up endorsing the bid of Glenn Poshard – who as a member of Congress from Southern Illinois had a record of being friendly to unions. Particularly the ones connected to coal mining in his part of the state.

The other Democrats running in that primary also had reasons to think they could appeal to organized labor. But in the end, union leadership strong-armed a Poshard endorsement – which wound up creating enough ill-will amongst the rank-and-file that the overall sentiment amongst would-be voters became apathy -- which is how we wound up with the concept of "Gov. George Ryan."

Pritzker might gain something in the short-term by using this endorsement now. But what happens if a bigger controversy develops come November and he no longer has the option of a fresh labor endorsement to help overcome it?

In trying to clinch victory now, J.B. may wind up hurting his chances later. Besides, there’s always the likelihood that the other gubernatorial candidates will peter out so weakly that it would be ridiculous for the unions to back anybody but Pritzker come Election Day!

  -30-

Will anyone vote for Gary Johnson just because the Chicago Tribune said to?

It was about a month ago that I, while having lunch with some former work colleagues, made the bold prediction that the Chicago Tribune would wind up eating crow and endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential bid.

JOHNSON: Trib pick for prez

It was made clear by the newspaper back during the primary that Hillary Clinton was not an acceptable option. In fact, the newspaper back in March dissed the entire Democratic Party primary process and anyone who was looking there for national leadership.

THE ONE-TIME “WORLD’S Greatest Newspaper” actually backed Marco Rubio in the Republican primary even though it was already clear by that point that Trump was well on his way to securing the GOP nomination.

I figured that since they had so clearly rejected Clinton as an option, they’d have to find some rhetorical way of taking back their Trump hostility. Probably something along the lines of the need to support someone who’d back conservative Republican principles and pick GOP operatives to handle the actual work of governing. Which is something that Hillary certainly won’t do.

Well, it seems I was off a bit. While most newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times that shares Tribune ownership, and the Chicago Sun-Times, are begrudgingly endorsing Clinton (the Arizona Republic out in Phoenix says she’s the first non-Republican they’ve ever backed for president), the Tribune had to figure out its own way of being different.

The Chicago Tribune on Friday let word get out that they are officially backing the presidential aspirations of Gary Johnson, He’s the former New Mexico governor who has the Libertarian Party’s nomination for the Nov. 8 general elections.

IT SEEMS I was right in thinking that the Tribune would not be able to get in line with the concept of “President Hillary Clinton.” But the Tribune, which calls Johnson “a principled option for U.S. president,” is now the newspaper of choice for those political malcontents who wish they could cast idealistic votes.

Will Republic readers care more about coupons?

Although I find it humorous that the people most anxious to find an alternate political party are going out of their way to ignore Jill Stein and the Green Party. None of that liberal freakish nonsense for them.

They’re willing to ignore the portions of libertarian ideology that says laws against narcotics use, restricting abortion and a military draft are bad (on the grounds that government shouldn’t be involved in such things) because they like the idea that firearms restrictions, public schools and taxes, in general, are equally abhorrent.

Natl. Enquirer picked Trump during primary season

That’s what the Tribune has thrown its lot in with, at least for this election cycle. Come 2020, they’ll be back in bed with the Republican Party – which, I suspect, they were looking forward to rejoining this election cycle following two terms of bringing itself in line with backing Barack Obama.

BECAUSE I’M PRETTY sure the Tribune made that decision largely because they knew their readership would revolt if they had dared to go against the hometown boy – even if he was really born and raised in Honolulu (with a stint of his childhood in Malaysia).

As it is, Hillary Clinton (if elected) would be the first Chicago-born U.S. president. But she went out east to college, then followed her husband to Arkansas. Meaning she wrote us off, so they can justify writing her off as a hometown girl made good.

Oddly enough, the Tribune may have got one-upped in their attempt to gain public attention for their Libertarian endorsement.

Because it seems the Detroit News made the same selection, publishing an editorial that, like many other newspapers, apologizes for not picking the Republican for president this election cycle after generations (143 years, to be exact) of having done so.

THEN, THERE WAS USA Today, which came up with its own editorial that didn’t tell us who to vote for. It said we should NOT vote for Trump; calling him “unfit for the presidency.”

Johnson doesn't know 'Allepo?' Do voters know either of these guys?

It really is the trend this time around. “Don’t Vote for Trump!!!” Which makes me wonder how many would-be voters would feel compelled to listen. I suspect the minions who are backing Trump will react with revulsion. Just like at the Dallas Morning News, which said that its “Vote Hillary” endorsement resulted in significant subscription cancellations!

There are very few newspapers (such as the Santa Barbara News-Press) willing to publicly pick The Donald as their endorsed candidate. For two of them – the New York Post and the New York Observer – it can be argued that those publications have relied on Trump’s boorish antics for so many years to generate their news copy that they need a Trump presidency to create stories.

Something has to fill all that otherwise-white space in the paper that goes around the ads for testosterone-production pills that run on Page 17.

  -30-

EDITOR’S NOTE: As for those people who are getting all worked up now that Gary Johnson didn’t know any world leaders, I suspect 90 percent of the electorate doesn’t know either – and many probably think the people who do know have way too much free time on their hands. That may be the real problem our society faces these days -- and why Trump does as well as he does in public polling.