We’re looking for leadership. Will anyone rise to presidential challenge?

This past weekend, I stumbled across a question posted by a Facebook “friend” asking people who they would choose for president – IF the choice is a matter of Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., or Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

Personally, I said I would sooner lead a write-in campaign for the “friend,” who is a former competitor from my days as a Springfield reporter-type person.

BECAUSE THE IDEA of an Indianapolis-based radio personality as president makes about as much sense as any of the other scenarios being pitched out to the public.

For I don’t have a clue as to who will wind up actually running for president in the 2016 election cycle to replace Barack Obama. There isn’t anybody coming forth who is going to capture the spirit and emotions of the public (at least the portion that isn’t ideologically-inclined to still view Obama as some sort of “socialist”).

Former first lady, senator from New York and secretary of state Hillary R. Clinton has been lingering for so long as the presumptive presidential candidate for the Democratic Party that I can’t help but think most people are sick and tired of hearing about her possible campaign.

Did she do herself in by waiting so long to state her intentions that nobody cares anymore what she does?

WHAT MAKES THIS particular election cycle for president intriguing is not just that Chicago will lose its personal tie to the White House, it is that Vice President Joe Biden isn’t the automatic choice of Democrats to succeed Obama.

I expect Biden will run for the post. But can he win? Would anybody get excited at the thought of a President Biden? Or would he create the kind of electoral excitement amongst would-be Democratic voters that led to the overwhelming Republican victories in this year’s election cycle. A Monmouth University poll shows Biden with only 2 percent support (compared to 48 percent for Hillary).

On the Republican side, I have heard the names of “Jeb Bush,” “Haley Barbour,” “Newt Gingrich,” “Bobby Jindal,” “Rick Perry” and “Marco Rubio,” along with former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels – who might well attract the attention of what’s left of the Illinois Republican establishment, which often acts as though it wishes they could be Hoosiers.

The Republican National Committee is doing a straw poll trying to gauge support for presidential dreamers, and has 34 different names on its ballot, according to the Washington Times newspaper.

MY POINT BEING that in such a large sea, the ideological rants of Cruz could easily catch on with just enough Republican people that he winds up becoming the front-runner.

Cruz vs. Warren isn’t the biggest fantasy in the world, except for the fact that Warren herself said Monday during an interview with NPR that, “I’m not running for president.”

That is, unless the lack of a clear candidate arouses her ego to the point where she decides to change her mind. It wouldn't be a political first!

Because you also know that the moment Hillary does make it public what her intentions are, all the goodwill her name brings up now will dissipate, and the ideologues’ rants and memories of the Clinton presidential administration (“Hide the girls, Bill Clinton’s back in the White House,” is the image they will repeat over and over) will predominate the public debate.

PERSONALLY, IT’S ALL going to make me reminisce more fondly for the days of Obama. That’s how stupid the rhetoric is going to get between the presidential dreamers.

Which is why I can joke about the notion of “Abdul-Hakim Shabazz” as president. Anybody who knew him when he was a broadcaster in Springfield, or who now listens to him in Indianapolis, knows he has the over-bloated ego to be a public official.

Along with a sense of decency as a human being that many in our society – including those who actually will run for president – are totally lacking.

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Not a surprise that Chico now for Rahm

I don’t doubt that mayoral candidate Jesus “Chuy” Garcia will take a majority of the Latino vote in the upcoming municipal elections. But it shouldn’t be a shock that some Latinos will feel more than willing to back Mayor Rahm Emanuel for re-election.

As evidenced by the fact that Gery Chico, currently head of the Illinois State Board of Education who ran for mayor against Emanuel back in 2011, says he is supporting Rahm come the Feb. 24 elections.

BOTH THE CHICAGO Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune reported this weekend that Chico, who is of both Mexican and Lithuanian ethnic origins, plans to publicly back Emanuel for mayor.

It is part of the effort by Emanuel to try to ensure that Garcia doesn’t completely dominate the votes of Latinos – who account for about 30 percent of the city’s population.

If anything, it means that Emanuel wants to repeat his level of Latino support that he achieved in the 2011 election cycle that he managed to win without the need for a run-off election.

Amongst Latinos in 2011, Chico won the vote with about 40 percent, and another 20 percent preferring the mayoral aspirations of then-city Clerk Miguel del Valle. Emanuel took about 30 percent of the Latino vote, with the three remaining candidates (all African-American) splitting the remaining vote of under 10 percent.

THIS TIME AROUND, there aren’t two mayoral candidates counting on Latino votes (del Valle is of Puerto Rican origins) to bolster their overall totals.

So perhaps Garcia manages to get about two-thirds of the Latino vote. So long as Emanuel gets the other third, he’s likely to think he has “enough” of the Latino vote to combine for an overall total large enough to win.

Which could mean that if he keeps the same Latinos who voted for him in ’11, he doesn’t have to do reach out to anybody new!

The key to comprehending Latino political empowerment in Chicago is to keep one thing in mind – there are those who think that Latinos benefit in the long run by taking on the political establishment and replacing its members with “one of our own,” while there are others who merely want to be a part of the establishment.

ALDERMANIC AND LEGISLATIVE elections often turn into political fights between people of those two groups. Emanuel is likely to want Latinos who are willing to keep the basic structure in place in exchange for a piece of the overall political pie.

Having someone like Chico, who once was president of the Chicago Board of Education and who is a prominent attorney whose firm does business with city government, is likely to appeal to those individuals.

As is the fact that even Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., is willing to publicly back Emanuel’s re-election bid. The mayor may well have two of the most prominent Spanish names on the local political scene backing him.

It’s not likely that those two would be sticking their necks out publicly if they didn’t think there was a chance that Emanuel could overcome the hostility he faces in some quarters of the city and get himself re-elected.

THAT COULD BE the key to comprehending the mayoral election we’re going to have in Chicago.

There are those who are greatly offended that Emanuel was willing to close down so many schools in the Chicago Public Schools system contained in non-white neighborhoods of the city. There are those who have their grudges who will be very outspoken in coming months about how much they detest Emanuel.

But there are others who will want to think that those people are just interested in shouting and screaming about something, anything! They’re going to be more than willing to maintain the status quo.

And if it winds up prevailing into a new term come May, the Latino political powers could be the people who are now willing to put themselves out there on Rahm’s behalf now.
 

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Will South vs. West sides equal NYC?

The great divide amongst Chicago’s African-American population is the rivalry that exists between residents of South Side neighborhoods, and those who live on the West Side of the city.

Sout’ vs. West. I have heard countless diatribes from black people who live in those parts of Chicago who will insist that their part of the city is the reality that tells you what Chicago is truly all about.

IT IS A dispute that can get more intense than the South vs. North arguments that crop up during baseball season. It also is one that has developed its character into the debate over where a future library and museum for President Barack Obama should be located.

Two of the four sites under consideration are in Chicago, although I wonder if the inability of the city to get behind one site is what will make the New York City proposal the ultimate winner.

Will the South and West side interests wind up dumping all over each other and make it easier for Columbia University to achieve its desire of housing the Obama presidential legacy for decades to come?

Now I know some people are convinced there’s no way Obama, an adopted Chicagoan, and first lady Michelle, a South Shore neighborhood native, could possibly consider a place other than Chicago for his legacy. I’d like to believe that’s true.

BUT THERE ARE those who would like the appeal of New York, and would argue the fact that Obama actually attended Columbia (he transferred from Occidental College in Los Angeles to earn his bachelor’s degree) ought to put that school on top of the heap.

Considering that the Obamas have already indicated they’re not going to hustle back to Chicago immediately once his presidential term ends in January 2017, our city may well be just the place they came from.

For the record, it was the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago that put together the competing bids that were submitted Thursday, and that will be studied between now and mid-January, when the Obamas have indicated a site will be chosen.

Illinois-Chicago says a museum sponsored with their assistance could be at either Roosevelt Road and Kostner Avenue or Harrison and Halsted streets. A CTA “el” stop on Kostner closed decades ago could be reopened, IF the Roosevelt site is chosen.

WHILE CHICAGO (AS in the university) says a museum could go near the South Shore Cultural Center, near Washington Park on King Drive or on Stony Island Avenue in Jackson Park.

Chicago’s sites would be near (as in a short drive away) the University of Chicago campus, where Obama once served as an instructor in the law school. It would be a boost to the neighborhoods surrounding Hyde Park, and theoretically would make the university less of a racial island on the black South Side.

While Illinois-Chicago’s sites could help bolster the North Lawndale neighborhood that many outsiders still think of as incurable ghetto. College officials also stress the fact that, as a public university, they are more likely to get the kinds of students who don’t fit into some academic and cultural elite.

As though implying that Flames students are less elitist than the Maroons who hang out around the Midway!

IT’S AS THOUGH people will be asked to recognize Chicago South or Chicago West as being what the Obama legacy is all about. It could make some think that New York is less of a hassle than the Second City. The ultimate neutral site!

Although I honestly think that if it didn’t wind up in Chicago, the best spot for an Obama museum and library might well be the future president’s birthplace in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The University of Hawaii (of which his parents were alumni) could literally wind up having a beachfront site that might make it a place people make the extra trip to attend.

It certainly would be a more appealing destination than Grand Rapids, Mich., which houses the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum.

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Will Garcia's ‘Washington’ tie mean anything to modern-day voters?

One of the facts being brought up repeatedly by those touting the mayoral candidacy of Jesus “Chuy” Garcia is the fact that when he was an alderman, he was aligned with the concerns of then-Mayor Harold Washington.

He was a loyalist to the city’s first black man to become mayor, and throughout the years in various city, state and county government posts has been supportive of issues of concern to African-American voters.

AS THOUGH THE African-American segment of the electorate ought to naturally be gravitating to Garcia in his political battle for votes against Mayor Rahm Emanuel and seven others come the Feb. 24 municipal elections.

Anybody with political sense, however, ought to realize that life is not that simple on Election Day. Garcia is going to have to aggressively seek such votes if he wants to have a chance at winning election – or even forcing Emanuel into a run-off election come April 7.

Evidence of that ought to have been seen this week by the mayoral campaign of Amara Enyia, whose reaction to learning that her nominating petitions were being challenged and that she would have to endure an expensive legal battle to try to stay on the ballot (and likely get only 1 percent of the vote if she succeeded) was to withdraw.

Enyia, whose motivation for running for mayor even though she’s never held elective office before, was her disgust for Emanuel in the position. She wants him out. So to continue her cause of wanting Anybody but Rahm as mayor, she ended her campaign with an endorsement.

ENYIA, HEAD OF the Austin neighborhood Chamber of Commerce and a native of suburban University Park who has chosen to live her adult life in the city proper, is backing 2^nd Ward Alderman Robert Fioretti’s mayoral campaign.

Fioretti, not Garcia. Even though some had tried to claim that as a daughter of immigrants from Nigeria, Enyia might somewhat comprehend the life story of Garcia, who is an immigrant from Mexico who has lived the bulk of his life in Chicago.

Although race has the tendency to complicate human issues, even when Anglo people aren’t involved.

Enyia, in her public comments, didn’t bad-mouth Garcia. She kept it to praise of Fioretti, saying she thought he “is better positioned” to beat Emanuel. Although various polls I have seen have generally indicated that Fioretti and Garcia are pretty much tied for second place behind Emanuel, with the other candidates struggling for whatever leftover votes will exist.

ALTHOUGH I WONDER if she is in line with much of the trash-talk rhetoric that gets spewed by too many people whenever ethnicity comes up in discussion. And it’s not just black people not liking Latinos; I’ve heard way too much stupid talk from Latino officials who want to maintain distance between themselves and black people.

This kind of nonsense could well be what keeps Garcia from being anything other than the dominant candidate in Spanish-speaking enclaves – and irrelevant in the rest of Chicago.

Now I’m not bad-mouthing African-Americans with this commentary. It is up to the candidate to convince us why we should vote for him. If Garcia ultimately can’t take a significant share of the votes cast on Election Day, then his campaign has nobody to blame but themselves.

Washington won back in ’83 because he was able to sway a share of Latino and white voters to go along with his black voter base. The reason there hasn’t been a black person elected mayor since then is that those candidates couldn’t reach out to anybody who wasn’t just like themselves.

IT WOULD BE nice for the Garcia campaign, if they’re to have a chance at winning election, to learn that lesson from the Harold Washington days and reach out to people. Many black voters will feel just like Enyia if Garcia doesn’t give them a reason to vote for him.

Otherwise, the member of the Cook County Board who just got re-elected last month to a four-year term in office would be better off focusing on his duties there, instead of wasting his time doing a Don Quixote impersonation and jousting at windmills he believes to be Rahm Emanuel!

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Quinn gets chance to create one last political headache for his critics

Pat Quinn has just over one month left in his time as governor, yet he’s going to create such a political firestorm. There’s just no way he could leave on a quiet note.

It is because of the death early Wednesday of Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka – one month before she was to be sworn in for her second term as head of the post that cuts the checks to pay the state’s bills.

BECAUSE OF THE fact that she’s in charge of the office that keeps state government running financially (the state treasurer oversees the state’s investments), there needs to be a comptroller to ensure the government keeps running.

So to those people who, for politically partisan reasons, want Quinn to sit back and do nothing and defer to Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner until he takes office Jan. 12, that ain’t a gonna happen.

Quinn gets to pick a new state comptroller to finish out the remainder of the term to which Topinka was elected to in 2010. None other than the Illinois Constitution gives him that authority.

Although ideologues usually don’t care what some stinkin’ piece of paper has to say – they’re going to rant and rage that Quinn has no right picking anybody because of his electoral loss in last month’s elections.

I ALREADY HAVE read assorted commentary about how, if Quinn does get to sign off on a “Comptroller for a Month” position, he ought to defer to whatever Rauner wants to do. Even though when then-Gov. James R. Thompson had a secretary of state appointment to fill in 1981 when Alan Dixon moved up to the U.S. Senate, he picked fellow Republican Jim Edgar for the post rather than respecting the fact that voters picked a Democrat for the post.

Which means the idea of respect for party politics isn’t going to happen. It’s ridiculous to presume it will happen.

You’d think the fact that Quinn’s appointment will only run through mid-January and that Rauner himself will take office with a major appointment to fill (who gets to be comptroller for the four-year term running through early 2019 that Topinka was just elected to) would please those people.

But it won’t. Some people, particularly those who are trying to rewrite state law to call for a special election, are just way too eager to pick issues to complain about.

I’M NOT ABOUT to predict here who’s going to become the new state comptroller – not for the next month, nor for the next four years.

I’ve heard the political wisecracks about how Quinn likely won’t pick Sheila Simon to fill the post that she ran for, and lost, last month. After all, her refusal to continue to serve as Quinn’s lieutenant governor was a fairly prominent snub – perhaps the biggest of the now-complete campaign season.

I’ve also heard the names of “Tom Cross,” “Dan Rutherford” and “Evelyn Sanguinetti” all tossed about as possible picks by Rauner, along with the possibility of putting Topinka's chief of staff in the constitutional post.

The idea being that Cross came so close to winning state election (running for treasurer) that he ought to get some sort of post, while Rutherford serving as state treasurer has some sense of what the state’s financial situation truly is.

THE IDEA OF Lt. Gov.-elect Sanguinetti as comptroller is the most amusing to me – one person suggests that it would save the state some money in salary because Rauner could then go without a lieutenant governor during his gubernatorial term.

Of course, if that happened and Rauner wound up being unable to finish his term in office, that would make state Attorney General Lisa Madigan next in line to become governor without having to be elected. A thought that I’m sure would make the ideologues wretch in disgust.

Personally, I'd rather have someone as inexperienced as Sanguinetti in a do-nothing position like lieutenant governor, than being in charge of making sure bills get paid close to being on time. But maybe that's just me.

It will be intriguing to see who Quinn picks for the “Comptroller for a Month” post. Somebody will get to be a state constitutional officer for 31 (or so) days.

SIMILAR TO THOSE people who remember the week-long stint that David Orr once served as Chicago mayor in between the death of Harold Washington and the appointment of Eugene Sawyer.

Which was only significant in that it makes him the answer to a trivia question for political geeks.

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EXTRA: No more jokes on Judy

I woke up Wednesday to a slew of e-mail messages consisting of the various statements sent to me by assorted government officials, all eager to see who could be the first to eulogize Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka.

She was 70 and suffered a stroke Tuesday. After being taken to a suburban Berwyn hospital, she was pronounced dead early Wednesday.

THERE ARE THE endless reminisces about her ability to work in a bipartisan political manner, which is a rare commodity these days amongst elected officials.

There also are the “crazy aunt” Judy type stories being shared about her outgoing personality with a quirky sense of behavior.

Personally, I can recall her walking around the state Capitol building in Springfield wearing slippers designed to look like the feet of a gorilla. Topinka justified them by saying they were comfortable.

I also recall the 1995 inaugural ceremonies when she was first sworn in as state Treasurer when she shared a campaign anecdote that basically was a fart joke – which left many of the Republican-types eager to celebrate their overwhelming victory in that electoral cycle completely stunned.

WHEN IT COMES to bipartisanship, I recall a Republican campaign event where she offended some of her GOP colleagues because she invited then-Cook County Board President John Stroger – who showed up!

But I also recall this was a woman who back in 1996 seriously believed her GOP colleagues should nominate Phil Gramm to be president – and she was one of the few Illinois Republicans with enough of an independent streak not to “follow the leader” and think that Bob Dole was the key to defeating Bill Clinton in that election cycle.

Personally, I recall when I got laid off from my then-job at the Statehouse with United Press International in 1999. Topinka was the one public official who came to see me and offer condolences, including a kiss on the cheek. Most political people would have given me a "smack" with their fists.

A day later, her aides told me a job was open on her staff, if I was interested.

I WOUND UP not taking it, and in fact came back to Chicago in coming months. But it was nice to know that the offer was there and that somebody had noticed me in a favorable way.

There also was the fact that Topinka in the 1990s got hit with a so-called scandal when she tried to resolve a debt owed to the state by a company that built a luxury (by Springfield standards) hotel.

The company owed some $40 million and was likely to default. Topinka was willing to write off the debt in exchange for a $10 million payment – which turned out to be better than the miniscule amount of repayment the state ultimately got.

Topinka wound up getting dinged with repeated jokes about her love of luxury and hotels – which was about as far removed as possible from the reality of a woman who often shopped at consignment stores.

I EVEN REMEMBER once being on the brunt of a Topinka diatribe who was convinced I was going to find another excuse to write about that long-ago issue.

But if there’s one plus to the fact that Topinka’s spirit is no longer with us, it is this – she won’t have to endure any more stupid hotel jokes at her expense.

Rest in Peace, Madam Comptroller (and Treasurer). And condolences to son Joseph, daughter-in-law Christina and grand-daughter Alexandra.

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Waiting for the ‘el’ or a bus, the quintessential Chicago experience

We’ve all endured it, getting drenched by the rain or pelted by snowfall while standing at a street corner waiting for the damned bus that just doesn’t seem to ever want to arrive.

The concept of mass transit in Chicago is a wonderful way to get around the city. It makes it possible to avoid owning an automobile (and dealing with the expense) without being reduced to the life of a shut-in.

BUT WE ALL know how unreliable those Chicago Transit Authority buses and elevated trains are when it comes to showing up on time. The great uncertain is figuring out how much time to allot for the actual commute because you don’t know how long it will take to complete – particularly if a bus or train transfer is involved.

I know I have read those alleged schedules that claim buses on many lines run every 15 minutes, and that there are times of the day when ‘el’ trains are supposed to come along every seven minutes.

It’s supposed to be the endless system where one can just show up at the street corner or ‘el’ station whenever and catch the next train or bus. It is the reason many city residents claim they could never live in the Chicago suburbs, where the trains and buses run on set schedules once an hour (or sometimes even more infrequently).

Yet those suburban Pace buses and Metra trains at least have set schedules, and people know when the train or bus is late. City residents are expected to just cope with the delays, and hope they don’t work for the kind of boss who looks for reasons to rant against his employees.

WHICH IS WHY I found it amusing to learn of a new survey by a mass transit app called Moovit that says the amount of time people spend waiting for their bus or train is less in Chicago than it is in other cities.

Thirty-one minutes is supposedly the amount of time we spend each day waiting at the street corner or train platform, as reported by the Chicago Tribune.

By comparison, New Yorkers wait an average of 38 minutes a day, 39 minutes a day in Boston and 36 minutes in San Francisco.

Supposedly, Los Angeles residents wait an average of 41 minutes per day. Although my understanding of LA mass transit is that it isn’t as extensive as what other cities try to do, which means many people avoid it and turn to the freeways where they cause those daily traffic backups that can be just as frustrating as getting drenched by rain while waiting for a bus.

I’M SURE CHICAGOANS don’t feel comforted in the least by learning their average commute is less than other U.S. cities – particularly since we all have memories of incidents where we waited at least an hour for the bus to show up.

And whenever there’s a mechanical problem or a heavy weather-related storm, all bets are off in terms of getting to work on time – or even at all if things get particularly bad.

If anything, it is memories like this that make me remember fondly the summer some 30 years ago when I lived in an apartment on Damen Avenue just three doors south of the Brown Line ‘el’ station, which also was a bus stop.

Living in such proximity (I could see the ‘el’ platform out my bedroom window), I developed an inner sense of knowing when the trains and buses would arrive so I could avoid the waits – a sense I haven’t had at any other point in my life and one that I (along with many other Chicagoans) wish I could get back.

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