April 30, 2025
THREE BLACK DEMOCRATIC WOMEN INSURE KRISHNAMOORTHI U.S. SENATE WIN -- AND BLAGO IS BACK
Numbers usually don’t lie. They can be omitted or manipulated but they cannot be ignored. For U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) the numbers are 80 and 88, which is his current age and the age he would be in 2032 if he finished another term. Durbin is retiring. For Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-9) the numbers are 81 and 5/5, which will be her age as of May 26 and the date (May 5) of her annual “Ultimate Women’s Power Lunch” at which she will likely announce her retirement. Toss in 10 or 12, which is the number of candidates who will be running for her seat in 2026. For congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-8) the number is 19, which is how many millions of dollars he has already stashed in his campaign account for his 2026 Senate bid, with plenty more to come. For IL lieutenant governor Juliana Stratton (D) the number is 4, which is the net worth (about $4 billion) of Governor JB Pritzker who has endorsed her for Durbin’s seat and will bankroll her as needed. For congresswomen Robin Kelly (D-2) and Lauren Underwood (D-14), as well as Stratton, the number is 3, which could be how many Black women are running for senator in the March 17, 2026 Democratic primary, which would thereby guarantee a Krishnamoorthi win. For the much-maligned former governor and ex-con Rod Blagojevich the number is 0, which represents his chances of getting elected IL senator next year as a pro-Trump Republican. Blago has become a regular Trump-booster and Democrat-basher on FOX News and his hair is again dyed, so you know something is percolating inside his egotistical, narcissistic 68-year old skull. Full Article...
April 23, 2025
TOO MANY LAWYERS, TOO FEW JUDGESHIPS AT DEMOCRATS' PRE-SLATING
A Biblical proverb says that “Blessed are those who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed.” That definitely does NOT apply to Democratic politics in Cook County, Illinois. In fact, it’s the obverse: Blessed are the powerful and well-connected who expect everything, for THEY shall not be disappointed. All 80 Cook County Democratic committeepersons gathered April 16-17 for their biennial “Pre-Slating” dog-and-pony show, wherein a slew of supplicants (52 to be exact) wasted a lot of time blathering egotistically about their goodness and greatness (if any). Pre-Slating is like Pre-Boarding at the airport: A bunch of “preferred” people get on the plane first, then the rest. At slating few others do. According to a list e-mailed to me by the county Democratic Party (CCDP) there were 59 aspirants scheduled to appear for an available total of 14 offices; 7 were no-shows. So there will be at least 38 unblessed people who expected something and got nothing. See the LIST of presenters below. DON’T DITCH FRITZ: The rap on Kaegi in 2022 was that his attempt to down-assess residential property and up-assess commercial/industrial property was crippling Loop construction. That frenzy has subsided. Trades and operating engineer unions are now quiescent. HURRY UP AND DECIDE: Dick Durbin is dawdling but knows he must make a quit-or-run decision by July 17. The instant he retires he becomes irrelevant in Washington. The U.S. Senate candidates will be congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-8) and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton. The point here is that ex-MWRD commissioner Dan (Pogo) Pogorzelski, who won the 2022 primary (D) but lost in 2024, is giving current commissioner Cam Davis the “blueberry.” According to Pogo, Davis, the MWRD’s sole White man (of 9 commissioners) votes out of Evanston and has a consulting business in Chicago but also owns and operates North Sky Farm in South Haven, Michigan, which grows blueberries. Davis is also reportedly an attorney licensed to practice in MI. Full Article...
April 16, 2025
A CLOWN, A CROOK AND A FRAUD -- A TALE OF 3 MAYORS IN CHICAGO, NYC, LA,
Let’s try to have some fun – a mix-and-match multiple-choice question. There are three mayors in America’s three largest cities, which are New York (pop. 8.258 million), Los Angeles (pop. 3.821 million) and Chicago (pop. 2.664 million). Those mayors are Eric Adams (D), Karen Bass (D) and Brandon Johnson (D) and their current terms end, respectively, in 2025, 2026 and 2027. All are on a trajectory to lose massively. Which noun would aptly characterize each, or more that one? (A) A clown, defined as a clumsy, boorish buffoon. (B) An alleged crook, defined as a person who steals, cheats or swindles. Or (C) a fraud, defined as a person who lies and intentionally misrepresents themselves. The answers are (1)(b), (2)(c), (3)(a), (3)(c), (3)(d), (1)(d) and (2)(a). DEMOCRATS READY TO DUMP KAEGI: It’s far from a done deal, but county Democrats at their April 16 -17 “pre-slating” are fumbling around for a candidate to slate against Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi, who has held the key office since 2018. Kaegi’s sin is that he has ignored the party’s longstanding “Honey Pot” norm by shifting more of the county tax burden from residential to commercial properties. But then Steele was arrested for a DUI in Chicago on in November of last year and her intemperate, egotistic, vulgar verbiage recorded on a police body cam will be a great ad for Kaegi in 2026. Nevertheless Steele, southwest suburban Lyons Township assessor Patrick Hynes and Rogers’ chief-of-staff Dana Pointer will appear at pre-slating, as will Kaegi. “I’m running” said Kaegi, regardless of slating. He largely self-funded in 2022, and “will do it again,” he added. Full Article...
April 9, 2025
RETROGRESSION AND PROGRESSION IN SKOKIE, PLUS 2024 LEFTOVERS
Democrats seem to cling to the term “progressive,” which means moving onward and forward and making improvements. Sounds good. But then some Democrats want the power to make all those decisions. Doesn’t sound so good. SKOKIE: It does not apply to the nation, states or cities but non-retrogression is always percolating somewhere, like in Skokie this year. The north suburban village was a magnet for the displaced Chicago West Side Jewish population in the 1950s who fled the influx of African-Americans. Skokie’s Jewish population topped 60 percent in the 1960s but has now dwindled to about 25 percent. But the Jewish vote, as a percent of the registered voters, still remains about half – and that is why outgoing 26-year mayor George Van Dusen and his Democratic allies thought they could hand off his job to David “Azi” Lifsics this year. They miscalculated. And so did I. I called it for Lifsics in a previous column. The new mayor is Ann Tennes, a longtime village communications director, who is not Jewish. 2024 LEFTOVERS: I’ve been sitting on these stats for nearly a half year and I better use them or lose them. While Donald Trump surged among working-class Whites in other urban states it was status quo ante in the Cook County suburbs. As depicted in the attached CHART his 2024 vote of 380,035 was only slightly larger than 2016’s 317,976, an uptick from 29.7 to 35.7 percent. A gain of 6 percent is notable but it is mostly attributable to a decline in turnout as well as the Harris-Walz vote. Combine the White with the Black vote in the suburbs -- and add Chicago – and any Democrat comes out of Cook County up by 800,000 in a presidential contest. Illinois is now and will forever be a Democratic lock. Attached in a CHART detailing the suburban presidential vote in 20 Cook County townships for 2024/2020/2016. Full Article...
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