Last Sunday, I attended a candidate forum with those seeking to replace Cong. Jesse Jackson, Jr. at Reverend Wright’s former church (he’s still Pastor Emeritus), Trinity United Church of Christ. 22 candidates have filed to replace the mentally ill congressman, 17 Democrats and 5 Republicans. The candidates Sunday were placed at a long table and even had to wrap around the edges in order to be accommodated.
How, in the city of Chicago where the Democrat Machine is so strong, could there be 17 Democrat candidates vying for one open seat? It could hardly be imagined under the iron rule of former Mayor Daley.
The candidates run the gamut from completely clueless, yet dangerous in their ignorance, to practiced Chicago pols like Alderman Beale and Robin Kelly, who worked for the anti-gun maven of Chicago Toni Preckwinkle.
Former Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson made the biggest news of the night when she was alone except for Republican Candidate Paul McKinley, the only Republican of the five who showed up for the debate, in refusing to support a ban on the semi-automatic Bushmaster rifle. Read more about how Halvorson’s gun move might shake up the race for the Democrat nomination.
The Democrat voters of this district certainly are given a plethora of choices, and that is a win for them, but is cannot be a win for the man whom Paul McKinley refers to as “Rahm Caligulus Emanuel.”
Perhaps Rahm has been distracted by fighting the PR battle over a massive 2012 murder total of 506, the highest January totals (42 as of last count) since 2002, questions of the “code of silence” amongst police officers, capitulation to a Chicago Teachers Union/International Socialists Organization show of strength, a Supreme Court smackdown on Chicago’s strict gun ban, and having to reconcile all that with a crumbling Illinois economy.
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I’ve always avoided Chicago – is there ANY upside on the horizon for Chicago or Rahm? Because if the city keeps going downhill, it can’t be good for Rahm’s political career.
radiofreeca — The upside is the mayoralty, it’s the nation’s foremost extractive institution. He and all his friends get rich, and there’s little pressure to govern effectively.
Rahm’s political career was probably always supposed to end here. Mayor of Chicago isn’t a steppingstone, it’s the gold mine you retire to.
Some say gun-controlled Chicago can also become a politician’s graveyard, but not sure how they mean that.
I used to go to this convention .. the ASCP, American Society of Clinical Pathologists convention and exhibition. It was in Vegas ever other year and someplace else, except Chicago, during the off years.
They did Chicago many years before, but the union dominated city was just too much for the doctors, so they scratched it off their list, permanently.
One can only hope…!
if ya ask me, Mrs. O’Leary’s cow had the right idea.
Why, yes, it did! I can say that because I live here!
Go mcKinley!
I doubt that the cow had anything to do with the great Chicago fire. It was probably from someone not paying for ‘protection’, or the Stable Stall Muckers Union, Local 305, was on strike and had to take matters into their own hands…
You get the idea. 😆
Preckwinkle? Is that Dutch for foreskin?
lol – whom shall I bill for a new keyboard and coffee mug?
I disagree; this is a normal part of the process used to fill seats in Cook County and Chicago. When a weak candidate is selected by the ‘patron saints’ of Chicago (though the candidate will be loyal) it is far easier to split the opposition with several other ‘factional’ candidates. These other candidates bleed off votes that might have aggregated to a single strong candidate – or worse, may have held a grudge against the selected candidate.
While many of these individuals will draw less than 3% of the vote, collectively they will pull aside 35% to 40% of the vote, making it far easier and cheaper for the Chicago Machine to run their candidate. This minimizes expenses and the need to draw on other political favors (“get out the vote activities” and other “efforts” by unionized employees who could otherwise be doing their “normal job” at the city/county).
The goal is to fracture and segregate votes in the district. If a strong candidate (Latino) is against a weak candidate (Black) and the district is perceived as ‘Black’, many additional members of the first group will enter the race, diluting the consolidation of power.
This is normal politics in Chicago/Cook County. The goal now is to review the candidates and determine who was selected to get the seat. By moving away from a primary and away from a general election to a single “electoral day’, the votes will come in as expected.
The best thing about Chicago is the January weather.
[…] IS RAHM EMANUEL losing his grip on the city of Chicago? […]
the PR battle over a massive 2012 murder total of 506, the highest January totals (42 as of last count) since 2002, questions of the “code of silence” amongst police officers, capitulation to a Chicago Teachers Union/International Socialists Organization show of strength, a Supreme Court smackdown on Chicago’s strict gun ban, and having to reconcile all that with a crumbling Illinois economy.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Is Rahm losing his grip on
the city of Chicagoreality?There ya go.
I’ve been to Chicago maybe three times and escaped every time.
L.I. Community – We’ve pulled together a new web site to illustrate the totally idiocy and utter mayhem that is present day Chicago. Given the murder rate and general violence level of a sometimes mild and sometimes cold January, we’re going to have a very busy year. Just wait until May.
heyjackass.com
We don’t believe Tiny Dancer has much of grip on this city. The media would like to think so, but T.D. is no Daley, Jr. or Sr.
Debbie Halvorson had to run away from the gun ban; she’s from the southern part of the district, Will County, and needs the votes there to have any chance at all.
She was a miserable member of Congress when she was in from ’08-’10; I worked on the Kinzinger campaign in ’10 just to help get rid of her.
Sad thing is, she’d be a clear improvement over Junior.
Chicago is closer to becoming Detroit than they think.
Once the old money starts to pull out, it will snowball.
How about some good news from Illinois?
We’re down to only one former governor still in prison!!
[…] this is heartening. Chicago and Boston have always been uber-corrupt but well run. They both had the biggest necessity […]
I am not seeing this on any Us sites I visit.
Hadiya Pendleton , a 15 year old black girl was shot in a park Just 10 blocks from Obama’s Chicago home.
Hadiya performed just last week at Obama’s Inaugrial thing .
I would have thought that would be big news. It made front page here.
Oh yeah – forgot to add – DEAD.
The anti-gun attack ads against Halvorson are running full-steam now, I saw it a few times already on the local Fox network.
With all due respect to Hadiya Pendleton, her death is very unfortunate, but it’s just another crisis that Emanuel can use to push his gun control agenda! And, he’s using the fact that she performed at obama’s inauguration as a tool to get more nationwide attention. Typical rahm…!
I’ve begun to notice that my specialty has been scheduling any courses in the suburbs, rather than downtown, as they used to.
[…] He already has: (Instapundit) IS RAHM EMANUEL losing his grip on the city of Chicago? […]