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...
April 2, 2025
NO ARTICLE THIS WEEK
March 26, 2025
ZONING, LYING ARE PARAMOUNT ISSUES IN EVANSTON, SCHILLER PARK MAYOR CONTESTS
All politics is local, and you cannot get any more micro-political than the 137 municipalities and 30 suburban Cook County townships which will hold elections on April 1, you know, April Fool’s Day. Mundane governmental housekeeping tasks need to be performed and there are plenty of self-interested politicians who are eager to “serve.” You, know, after April Fool’s Day. EVANSTON: You have got to love a city of 75,070 which has foreign policy, a domestic policy and a humongous reservoir of affluent “Liberal White Guilt.” And also an ocean of virtue. But only a puddle of Trump worship. Biden won with 90 percent in 2020, Clinton with 87 percent in 2016 and Obama with 85 percent in 2012. First, on foreign affairs, the city has told the world, particularly Russia, “don’t mess with Evanston, Illinois, USA.” Rumor has it that Russia’s generals were so impressed and intimidated that they re-calibrated their missiles’ guidance systems and instead now plan to plop a multi-megaton warhead on Skokie. Just kidding. But it’s the thought that counts, not the body count. SCHILLER PARK: Most politicians are known to lie, some more than others. Some might call it simple exaggeration or embellishment. And that’s OK with one’s fellow politicians, as long as the lies are to the voting public. But there is one cardinal rule: THOU SHALT NOT LIE to other politicians who claim to be your buddy and/or ally. DES PLAINES: Term limits are just swell for young aspiring politicians because it gives them an opening to win by not having to defeat an entrenched, well-funded incumbent. Not so much for the incumbent who sees an exit door looming. That’s the predicament of Mayor Andrew Goczkowski, an ambitious Democrat with great delusions about becoming a congressman. PARK RIDGE: Hillary Rodham Clinton is the city’s most famous legacy. She was born and raised there during an era when it was hip to be square. Hillary was a “Goldwater Girl” back in 1964, parading around in a skirt and sash for the conservative Republican presidential nominee, who won Park Ridge 60/40. Full Article...
March 19, 2025
RATS, TRASH, TOTES ARE DOMINATING ISSUE IN SKOKIE MAYORAL RACE
There are a lot of rats in Skokie, and I don’t mean the politicians. Villagers must be buying a lot of food and not eating all of it, thereby creating a lot of bio-degrading food waste and spoilage which crams a lot of 64-gallon garbage carts and provides a lot of tasty cuisine for the chubby critters. This irritates many Skokie voters. The April 1 municipal election is not about thwarting any threats to democracy, or saving the soul of Skokie, or about reproductive rights, or halting the onward march of Trumpism. Instead the thundering chorus is about getting rid of those rats. How mundane can you get? It’s a quality-of-life issue. Possible solutions involve bringing in ICE and deporting all the rodents to Evanston or, more likely, Chicago. Or bring in Brandon Johnson’s approach which is to not exterminate the execrable rats but stick them in a shelter, give them three meals a day at government expense and proclaim success. Lifsics, the sole Jewish candidate in a village which is 28 percent Jewish – way down from 56 percent in the 1950s – is the most adamant about more tote pickups. Esho, who is an Assyrian-American, essentially ignores the issue. “His (Isho’s) campaign is just a bunch of platitudes,” said Van Dusen. Tennes was a longtime village employee in the communications department. She is “studying” the rats/totes issue. All are Democrats but the election is non-partisan. Lifsics will win by 100 votes.Full Article...
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