March 13, 2024
2024'S TWO WORST CAMPAIGNS -- 45TH WARD COMMITTEEPERSON (D) AND STATE'S ATTORNEY (D)

Politicians often say that one should never overestimate the intelligence of voters. History proves that. Voters often say that one should never underestimate the stupidity of politicians. History also proves that. For me it’s always a joy before an election to write about the stupidest candidates or politicians. So here’s a rundown of 2024’s “Stupidest Campaigns” – as exemplified by those being badly run, poorly strategized and messaged, unfocused and doomed from the start. Those not covered here will be post-election. But John Catanzara, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police, recently and inadvertently came to the rescue of Harris. 45TH WARD COMMITTEEPERSON (D): The two most popular politicians in the ward are state Representative Lindsey LaPointe (D-19) and Alderman Jim Gardiner (45th). The least-popular are, paradoxically, Gardiner, plus ex-alderman John Arena (who got beat by Gardiner in 2019), and 2023 aldermanic loser Megan Mathias. Gardiner was elected committeeman (D) 5,554-5,267 in 2020. But the ward’s real benchmarks are Pat O’Brien’s (R) 2020 13,275 votes for state’s attorney  (51.1 percent) and Paul Vallas’s 2023 12,244 votes for mayor (68.7percent). That is the Right’s high and the 10,535/5,583 for Kim Foxx/Brandon Johnson the Left’s basement low. Gardiner got 7,578 in 2019, when he defeated Arena, 5,559 in 2020 when he beat Ellen Hill by 292 votes, and  9,488 in the 2023 runoff. That’s an average of 7,541 votes.  Gardiner’s 2020 fall-off of 2,000 was from Republicans not voting in a Dem primary. That will recur in 2024. Cook won’t win without Republican crossovers. Arena got 6,083 in the 2011 runoff, 7,263 in the 2015 runoff and 5,388 in 2019, and Mathias 8,214 in the 2023 runoff, an average of 6,737 outright Bernie Sanders got 7,457 in the 2016 presidential primary; and LaPointe, in her contested  2020 and 2022 state rep primaries got, respectively, 3,432 and 5,293 votes in the ward. That’s an overall Leftist base of about 6,300 and it will deliver for Rabbitt. Full Article...


March 6, 2024
LATINA COURT CLERK MARTINEZ BEING PURGED BY PRECKWINKLE, DEMOCRATS

It is said that no good deed goes unpunished and Iris Martinez, the Clerk of Circuit Court nominated in the 2020 primary (D) with 31.3 percent, has discovered that to her chagrin. She replaced Dorothy Brown, who let the office decline into a dysfunctional morass during her 20-year tenure. Anyone with a pulse and some legal knowledge could have done better, and Martinez did. For her good deed Martinez got dumped by the Democrats last August. “They dumped me because I beat them,” said Martinez, claiming county party chair Toni Preckwinkle and state senator Rob Martwick (D-10) orchestrated the purge. Another compelling factor, she said, was her slate of 5 females in the 2022 primary (D). “I want more women and Latinas in politics.” THE NEW DEMOCRATIC IDENTITY PRONOUN: LATINO MEN NOW RANK WITH WHITE MEN. The 2024 Political Priority Power Rankings are in, and Democrats’ slating and appointing options are as follows. Whether you like it or not, identity politics is alive and well in the county. Aside from checking all the boxes such as LGBTQ, female and non-White, the old way of doing things is over. Also, if it is a direct choice between a man and woman, the guy always gets a go-to-the-end-of-the-line card. Any well-to-do pro-Democratic ethnic groups who  chip in 100K from time to time also check the boxes. The only box a candidate needs to fill in is “How much donated lately?”  remember,  no money, no slating, no box. Jewish Democrats, once a bedrock part of the party coalition, used to get a third of the county judgeships, with Irish the rest. That era is long gone. Of the 22 slated Democrats on the March 19 primary ballot, only one is Jewish. (9) Latinos and Latinas seem like they are galloping downward politically. Exhibits A and B are Iris Martinez and Jesse Reyes. Martinez was dumped as Clerk of Court, and Reyes was rejected at 2024 slating for the vacant IL Supreme Court 1st District vacancy for Joy Cunningham, an Appellate Court justice like Reyes. Full Article...


February 28, 2024
LOTS OF KERNELS OF TRUTH (KOTs), LIES, DAMN LIES IN 20TH DIST. DEMOCRATIC STATE SENATE PRIMARY

Mark Twain famously popularized the expression “lies, damn lies and statistics.” In other words, statistics were the incontrovertible truth. Ex-Speaker Mike Madigan (D) famously created the concept of “Kernel of Truth” (KOT), which solidified and grew his Democratic majority. KOT means using vast amounts of money to perpetuate lies, damn lies and whoppers in a relentless and intentionally mendacious manner so as to create a false narrative, but still based on a kernel of truth. There are lots and lots of corn kernels growing, blooming, selling and flying around the Northwest Side 20th Senate District, and being consumed by the voters who will turn out for the March 19 Democratic primary. The candidates are Woke/Leftist Gabriela Guzman, appointed incumbent Natalie Toro, and doctor/farmer Dave Nayak. 2024 CHICAGO SCHOOL BOARD (CSB) ELECTION UPDATE: The concept has been around for a long time but finally reached fruition when the legislature passed a bill on Nov. 1, 2023 creating 20 districts with a 2024 non-partisan election in ten, a 2026 election in ten, and the president elected citywide in 2026. All terms were 4 years, no compensation provided and no runoffs required until 2028 and beyond. A simple plurality (not a runoff majority) would suffice. (To see the Map go to my Website/archives/1-24-24.) But there were two unresolved, sticky issues that needed clarity by March 24, which is the start of the 90-day petition circulation period for the Nov. 5 election. A minimum of just 250 signatures are required to run, each district has about 144,000 people, so expect a stampede of candidates eager to gobble 60K for a part-time job. The issues were (1) compensation, which in the final bill to be passed in March permits the board to set its own salary, benefits and member expenses. Uh-oh. The sum of $60,000 is being bandied about. Then there’s (2) federal voting rights laws, which mandate “equal protection.” A jurisdiction (city) cannot have an election where half the same offices are elected and half appointed. That seems unconstitutional. But politicians, while often lacking in clarity and integrity, are never lacking in creativity. The solution is PAIRING. In 2024 one member will be elected from every two districts, with the top votegetter winning a 4-year term in the district he/she resides. Then, after Nov. 5, the mayor appoints the member in the other PAIRED district to a 2-year term. Any place but Chicago that would be decried as voter fraud or election tampering. But it’s OK if Democrats do it. To read Russ's recent in-depth analysis of the school board contest Click Here. Full Article...


February 21, 2024
NO ARTICLE THIS WEEK


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