September 19, 2018
GRAVITAS, NOTORIETY DRIVE 2019 CHICAGO MAYORAL CAMPAIGN
Who's got the gravitas? Or, maybe more aptly, who's got the better social media presence? With 15 announced candidates for Chicago mayor, and another 19 pondering a campaign, the contest is all about who will finish 1-2 and make the April 2019 runoff. That will take just 15-20%. So who can best solidify their racial, gender, ethnic and/or geographic base? If Daley, Preckwinkle, Mendoza, Garcia and/or McCarthy are in the race, they will be bunched at the top. Full Article...
September 12, 2018
EMANUEL'S CHOICE WAS EITHER TO GET OUT OR TO GET BEAT
Call it crunch time, or a reality check. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is a smart guy, but on Sept. 4 he acknowledged that he had only two choices for 2019: Either get out or get beat. He got out. Over the past century Chicago mayors have faced similar predicaments. Thompson (1923), Kelly (1947) and Daley II (2011) got out before they got beat. Dever (1927), Thompson (1931), Kennelly (1955), Bilandic (1979) and Byrne (1983) got beat because they didn't get out, having estranged voters with their governance. Emanuel was the proverbial recipient of the can kicked down the road by Daley II, and his tax hikes to fund underfunded city pensions, the murder epidemic, and the Laquan McDonald fiasco (and trial) rendered him unelectable. He has $9 million, would have raised another $15 million, and his opponents were not overly formidable, but one of them would have beaten him in the April 2019 runoff. Full Article...
September 5, 2018
LAURINO DYNASTY ENDING IN 39TH WARD -- BUT MAYBE NOT
Baseball legend Yogi Berra once famously said that "it ain't over until it's over." With the retirement of Ald.Marge Laurino in Chicago's northwest side 39th Ward after 24 years, the presumption is that the Laurino Dynasty, which extends back to 1965, is over, The next alderman will not be named Laurino -- but it could be John D'Amico, who is the alderman's nephew and grandson of Tony Laurino, alderman from 1965-94. D'Amico is a 14-year state representative and has $368,848 on-hand, dwarfing the totals of announced candidates Robert Murphy, Samantha Nugent, Casey Smagala and Jeff LaPorte. Here is an early SCOUTING REPORT on the developing field. Full Article...
August 29, 2018
O'CONNOR UNDER SIEGE AS "COPORATE DEMOCRAT" IN 40TH WARD
A plethora of benefits accrue to the young woman crowned as Miss America, but one of them is not being Illinois' attorney general. The pageant's 2003 winner, Erika Harold, is running for Lisa Madigan's post as a Rauner-funded Republican, and State Sen. Kwame Raoul (D) is the Madigan-backed Democrat. Both are African-Americans. Raoul is trying to position himself as the "change" candidate, but he is part and parcel of the Springfield culture. The AG's office has especial power, particularly in the Trump Era, to intervene in a myriad of legal matters. Illinois has become so lopsidedly Democratic that Harold has no chance. Full Article...
August 22, 2018
O'CONNOR UNDER SIEGE AS "COPORATE DEMOCRAT" IN 40TH WARD
The "corporate wing" of the Democratic party - as exemplified by the likes of Bill Clinton, Mike Madigan, J.B. Pritzker, Rahm Emanuel and, in Chicago's 40th Ward, Ald, Pat O'Connor -- is under siege by the "Democratic wing of the Democratic party," which has become increasingly leftist. O'Connor's primary foe in 2019 is teacher Dianne Daleiden, who calls herself a Bernie-crat, and backed socialist Bernie Sanders in 2016. "Democratic socialists" are running for alderman in the 33rd, 35th and 40th wards. O'Connor has been alderman since 1983 and is Emanuel's floor leader. Daleiden will attempt to make the contest a referendum on Emanuel-O'Connor, and will have CTU backing. Daleiden got 41.6% in 2015, and decries the gentrification of the ward, which runs from the River to Clark, between Petersen to Lawrence.. "It is time for change," he said. Full Article...
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