By Steve Rhodes
A roundup of highs and lows. Mostly lows.
Too Soon?
“Rahm Receives Call From U.S. Attorney.”
A) Will you be home tomorrow morning about 6?
B) Please secure all evidence when you take office.
C) Were any fish harmed in the making of your campaign?
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Crap.
A Star Is Born
But it’s not Susana Mendoza, it’s Ameya Pawar, who upset Gene Schulter’s handpicked replacement to become the city council’s first Asian American.
“So stunning was the victory that Pawar’s campaign had not scheduled the customary election-night party,” the Chicago News Cooperative reports. “As returns came in showing that Pawar was winning, his campaign hastily organized a victory gathering at the Timber Lanes bowling alley on West Irving Park Road. Pawar himself hurried in from Des Plaines, where he had been watching the returns with his parents.”
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Timber Lanes: 8 classic wood lanes, manual scoring and a full bar.
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See also: “There Are No Asian-American Aldermen Here.”
First In Class
Incumbent downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly got more votes – 15,499 – than any other city council candidate. He ran unopposed.
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By contrast, George Cardenas won re-election in the 12th Ward with just 2,680 votes.
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Meanwhile, Ed Burke, he of the $8 million war chest, ran unopposed but garnered just 5,778 votes.
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By contrast, Marty Quinn (who?) ran unopposed in the 13th Ward and notched 11,530 votes. (Matthew O’Shea won a five-person race in the 19th with 14,426 votes.)
Rahm’s Base
“Closer to the lakefront, some voters said they turned out specifically to vote for Emanuel,” the Tribune reported.
“‘It’s a big change in Chicago,’ said Margaret O’Hara, who cast her vote for Emanuel in a high-rise residential building near Lake Shore Drive. ‘It’s important that the next mayor understand the importance of keeping the Magnificent Mile nice, with art and flowers.'”
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Margaret O’Hara, you are the Worst Voter of 2011.
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These are the worst non-voters.
We’d All Like To Forget Jane Byrne But . . .
“I said to my niece Claire, maybe someday you will be the first woman elected to be mayor of the City of Chicago.”
– Carol Moseley Braun
I Won’t Mention The Fact That . . .
“City Clerk Miguel del Valle repeated his charge that former White House chief of staff Emanuel’s use of President Barack Obama’s image and voice in a campaign commercial is dishonest,” ABC7 reported.
“‘His opinions have always been insightful, his commitment to this job has always been heartfelt,’ Pres. Obama says in the ad.
“He played a radio ad then-Senator Obama made for Del Valle’s 2007 campaign for city clerk.
“‘Miguel Del Valle is an exemplary public servant. He was someone who I immediately latched onto when I arrived in Springfield,’ said the president in the ad.
“‘I could use portions of this tape the same way. But I would not do that because it would be dishonest,’ said Del Valle.”
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I could bring this tape to your attention and try to pretend that Obama could just as well be supporting me, but to do that would be wrong!
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And to reporters who felt forced to write that Obama gave Rahm a “near-endorsement” or didn’t “officially” endorse him, you are supposed to cut through the artifice and report reality.
Reality doesn’t need a pseudo-event like a press conference or “statement” to become true. Rahm would not have used that video of the president without his permission, and it’s as certain as the laws of gravity that Obama knew when he made those statements they would show up in a campaign commercial later.
To convey that somehow the president wasn’t involved in this election in any way is to convey a falsehood to readers.
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“Emanuel even enlisted some old White House help,” the Tribune reported. “Alyssa Mastromonaco, deputy chief of staff, and Stephanie Cutter, a top aide to senior presidential adviser David Plouffe, flew in to lend a hand.”
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And the biggest presence in this story isn’t even Rahm – it’s David Axelrod.
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Finally, it’s also folly to pretend that Rahm wasn’t Richard M. Daley’s man.
“Emanuel could have had the Daley endorsement if he had wanted it,” John Kass noted. “But he didn’t want it. The mayor had become toxic with that parking meter mess, with motorists paying quarters and quarters and more quarters, reportedly enriching investors in Abu Dhabi. Rahm wisely didn’t want Tuesday’s election to become a referendum on Daley.
“So Rahm had the best of both worlds. He received the Daley support, meaning establishment Chicago support, after behind-the-scenes discussions brought the elites to Rahm’s side. And he received Obama’s tacit endorsement, undercutting black support for former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, to avoid a runoff with Gery Chico.”
With Cloaking Device
In its endorsement of 1st Ward Ald. Joe Moreno, the Tribune said that “He has implemented a free trolley along Milwaukee Avenue.”
I’m not saying the trolley doesn’t exist, but I am saying that no one I know who lives in the ward has ever seen it.
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Maybe the Trib, in their haste to pretend they know what’s going on in the wards, got ahead of itself:
“Moreno also supports plans for a free trolley that will shuttle patrons to stops along Milwaukee Ave. from the parking garage [across from Irazu] to as far east as Ashland Ave.,” Streets of Wicker reports.
Absentee Alderman
“But Jackson, who helped lay the groundwork for a $4 billion plan to redevelop the U.S. Steel South Works plant, said her time in the nation’s capital is an advantage to her ward’s residents,” the Tribune reported.
“I have access to an audience out there that I wouldn’t be able to speak to otherwise,” she said.
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And that helps her ward how?
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And FYI – and this isn’t sexist, it’s just a fact – Jesse Jackson Jr. laid the groundwork for the U.S. Steel site long before Sandi became alderman.
First Ward, Second Thoughts
“The 1st Ward was the first organization to endorse Gery Chico for Mayor and Susana Mendoza for City Clerk,” Moreno repeatedly reminded his constituents in e-mail alerts during the campaign.
And yet:
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Comments welcome.
Posted on February 24, 2011