Fioretti showing persnickety mindset in wanting to dump Daley Plaza name

During the time he served as an alderman, Robert Fioretti was one of the people willing to speak out and say whatever he thought – regardless of how contrary his thoughts were to the establishment that set policy for municipal government.

Fioretti takes political pot shots at Daley son … 

Not that he was someone who got things done. If anything, he was somebody that reporter-type people could turn to whenever they needed a quote saying how absurd the mayor or other officials were being in their actions. Not somebody who could talk about serious policy questions or details.

SO IT WASN’T a shock that city officials used their last redistricting process of ward boundaries to put Fioretti into a ward without many people who’d be inclined to support him.

And that when he tried running for mayor in 2015, he was viewed by the city’s political establishment as the guy they most wanted to see go down to defeat.

He was a loud-mouth who wouldn’t get anything accomplished, but would also make other people feel awkward and miserable while they tried to go about their actions.

And now that Fioretti is trying once again to run for mayor, it seems his temperament hasn’t changed one iota.

FOR FIORETTI DARED to make the most sacrilegious of suggestions – taking away the name of the ultimate Hizzoner, Richard J. Daley, from the Civic Center that serves as the Cook County courthouse.

… for suggesting Dan Ryan name change … 

What would the Daley Plaza be, other than a place with a half-century-old Picasso sculpture that most Chicagoans still can’t say exactly what it is.

Fioretti on Friday suggested that the Daley Center building be the Chicago structure that gets renamed to honor Barack Obama – the former president who made his adult life in the Hyde Park neighborhood.

Now in all honesty, Fioretti doesn’t expect anybody to take his suggestion seriously. He doesn’t really want to have the identity of the Big O himself become tied to our civil courthouse and future generations of lawsuits that get filed within the city of Chicago.

… to a tribute to Barack Obama

WHAT HE’S REALLY doing is taking pot shots at Daley’s son, William. Who’s also among the masses of candidates wishing to run for mayor, and who is the one who suggested that the Dan Ryan Expressway be renamed for Obama.

In short, he’s trying to p’ off the powers that be who still hold the name “Daley” as something sacrosanct and sacred.

Maybe he even thinks he’ll gain a few votes for his mayoral bid from the kind of people who were always eager to trash the Daley legacy and who view the idea of a third “Mayor Daley” as an absolutely abhorrent concept for Chicago to have.

It’s political trash talk; rancid rhetoric of the finest kind. It’s all about stirring up the partisan pot. Which may well be why Fioretti is a long-shot to actually become mayor, and probably wouldn’t be capable of competently serving as mayor even if he could win an election.

FOR EVEN WHEN he offers up a somewhat legitimate point, his rhetoric comes off as so antagonistic that it prevents anybody from taking him seriously in the least.

Richard J. isn't about to lose his namesake tribute

Yes, I actually think renaming the Dan Ryan is ridiculous. Then again, I tend to think we should try to avoid naming streets and buildings for people who will be forgotten a couple of generations from now. It only ensures that the few who bother to remember will take great offense.

Just think if we did name something now for Barack Obama, how much of a stink would develop some time around the year 2070 when someone suggests ditching the name to honor somebody who likely doesn’t even exist yet.

So it may be so that Bill Daley is being short-sighted in even suggesting the renaming of the Dan Ryan Expressway. But Fioretti’s willingness to go for the punchline as part of his own mayoral dreams may well show us why he’s no better qualified to work out of Richard J.’s one-time City Hall office.

  -30-

Chicago mayoral pack to whittle its way down to more manageable pack

The days of having 30 to 40 people claiming they’re candidates for the post of Mayor of the city of Chicago are soon to be through.

Chicago's next mayor will be, … who knows?

Next Monday is the deadline for candidates for the Feb. 26 municipal elections to file their nominating petitions to even get on the ballot, and we’re going to learn how many of those people were politically incompetent enough that they couldn’t get the 12,500 signatures of support needed to qualify.

WE’RE GOING TO see how many of the so-called candidates of earlier this year will not even be a factor in the final discussion over who should replace Rahm Emanuel in the mayor’s office.

If anything, I gained some respect earlier this week when I learned that Troy LaRaviere, head of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, was giving up his campaign before it even began.

He was honest enough to admit he couldn’t get a sufficient number of signatures of support, thereby making any effort to run for mayor an exercise in futility.

Of course, he’ll probably be remembered in this election cycle as the guy whose farewell to the campaign season was to take a pot shot at entertainer Kanye West – who apparently reached out early on to the LaRaviere camp with thoughts of publicly supporting him.

LaRAVIERE: First to see jolt of reality

WEST, OF COURSE, is one of several entertainers who are now backing the mayoral dreams of Amara Enyia, an experienced public policy professional who has never actually run for office herself.

LaRaviere let it be known he couldn’t accept West’s support because the man’s too friendly with President Donald Trump (remember that goofy Oval Office meeting between the two of a few weeks ago?).

The trick of anticipating the upcoming week is to figure out how many of the mayoral dreamers will come to their senses before the Nov. 26 deadline. Of course, people with political aspirations usually are delusional enough to think so highly of themselves they can’t see their own flaws.

So we may get a lot of them fighting for a ballot space, just so they can take 1 percent or so of the vote come the end of February.

FIORETTI: Latest with mayoral dreams

TAKE ROBERT FIORETTI – the one-time outspoken alderman who has since run for mayor and Cook County Board president. He let it be known this week he’s getting into the mayoral mix again.

I understand that having a political post is more interesting for a legal-minded person than having a mere law practice. Yet Fioretti comes across these days as somebody who runs for office because he needs a job! Not necessarily because he has ideas beneficial to our society at-large.

So Fioretti is working these days, as are other candidates, in gathering the necessary petition signatures to qualify. By Fioretti’s admission, he’s trying to gain some 30,000 signatures, because he knows the political powers-that-be are capable of having their people come up with ways to disqualify signatures so as to void them out.

Time for a new 'Mayor' Daley, … 

It may even turn out that some of those who do file their petitions next week will be unable to actually appear on the ballot.

PERSONALLY, I’M GOING to find it interesting how many of the candidates who have been talking up the mayor’s race for months on end will be amongst those who qualify. Will Rahm Emanuel turn out to be correct when he said upon his own announcement he would not seek re-election that Chicago’s next mayor wasn’t even in the race yet?

Implying that people like former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas were kidding themselves, and that the rest of the dozens of mayoral dreamers were truly delusional.

… or is Chicago ready for Mendoza's youth

Will this really become a campaign dominated by the big-time political names of Daley (as in William), Chico (as in Gery) and Preckwinkle (as in Toni)? With the real question becoming whether the kid (as in 46-year-old Susana Mendoza) can do enough to get herself taken seriously. Or whether Willie Wilson attracts any political support outside of a few select political precincts on the South and West sides?

There’s a lot of uncertainty be settled between now and April 2 – the date of the run-off election likely to be needed. I wonder if the only certainty now is the appropriateness of the election so close to April Fool’s Day. We may wind up feeling like the election results are a practical joke on all of us.

  -30-

How quirky can partisan politics be? Consider possible outcome for Toni P.

It was just a year ago that political speculation was wondering about how Toni Preckwinkle, the one-time alderman from Hyde Park and two-term Cook County Board president, was finished.

PRECKWINKLE: Changing from county to city seal?

The voters, these speculators claimed, were going to cash Preckwinkle out on her behind – all because she had the nerve to try to stabilize Cook County government finances with that pop tax of a penny per ounce that offended so many people who they felt compelled to purchase their carbonated beverages.

WHAT WOUND UP happening was that Preckwinkle won the primary to run for a third term with ease – largely because the opponent she had was Robert Fioretti, a former alderman of no particular skill who couldn’t give voters a reason to pick him instead of her.

That means she’s up for re-election come Nov. 6. Yet Preckwinkle won’t be focusing much attention on being in charge of Cook County government much longer.

For it seems that Preckwinkle plans to make a formal announcement – the creation of an exploratory committee. As in she’s going to study whether the voters of Chicago would love her so much that they’d take seriously her bid to become mayor.

Could Fioretti again challenge Preckwinkle?

Yes, I write that with a touch of sarcasm. Because creating such a committee usually is evidence that the candidate, in her own mind, wants to run for the higher office.

“MAYOR TONI PRECKWINKLE” is a concept that I’m sure will grossly offend certain people – the ones who really wanted her to go down to political defeat on account of the pop tax that boosted the overall cost of a bottle of Coke (or whatever other flavor one chose to drink) by about 21 cents.

Instead, she’s got the potential to become the city’s (and arguably, the state’s) most important government official. Because hardly anybody thinks the governor is more important than “da Mare,” no matter who occupies either office.

With Rahm Emanuel making it clear he no longer plans to seek re-election to a third term for himself, it creates an opening. One that none of the dozen or so people who for months have tossed about their names amidst the political speculation have been able to fill.

Could Toni P. make McCarthy dreams fizzle?

Which could well lead to people like Preckwinkle, Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., and soon to be retired Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., getting into the mayoral campaign.

ALL HAVE SAID in recent days they are considering getting into the campaign mix (although soon-to-be former Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has specifically said she’s NOT thinking of running for mayor).

I guess the idea of a McCarthy/Vallas campaign for City Hall come 2019 just doesn’t sway anyone into being interested.

It will be interesting to see how quickly a new political presence can get themselves into the electoral mix. Particularly since there are some candidates who already are in the process of gathering the nominating petition signatures that would get their names on the ballot for the February election (which could lead to an April run-off if no one takes a clear-cut majority).

One thing that political people always get wary of is trying to do a rush job in piecing together those petition signatures. Because, all too often, the lack of time causes short-cuts to be taken that result in flawed petitions – which can get candidates kicked off the ballot even before Election Day.

SO AS FOR Preckwinkle, she could have the potential to bring an organized candidate to the Election Day mix. She could make the upcoming election cycle intriguing.

GUTIERREZ: Also may add to mix?R

Particularly if it means she has to address the issues that her critics wished they could have used against her in this year’s election cycle. Which they couldn’t because not only did she have a token Democratic opponent, the Republicans couldn’t even put up that much of a challenge.

Toni for Mayor? I’ve already heard the speculation about how Chicago could be one of nine cities in upcoming elections that choose to put African-American women in charge of their municipal government. A first – although one that I’m sure will grossly offend those kind of people who believe in this Age of Trump we’re now in.

Will they be the ones screaming “Pop Tax!!!” the loudest? While also screeching in the future about how much “Crook County” isn’t meeting its financial obligations due to a shortage of funds.

  -30-

Could Toni P. someday be head of local regular Democratic organization?

It was just one week ago that some people were convinced that Toni Preckwinkle was a political has-been.

PRECKWINKLE: Soon to be the new boss?

The Cook County Board president, after all, was the woman whom the electorate was going to revolt because of the “pop tax” – that penny-per-ounce fee on sweetened beverages that she lobbied for, but that the county commissioners eventually repealed.

IT SEEMS THAT Cook County residents weren’t as worked up about that tax as some ideologues wanted to believe. Either that, or the fact that she ran against a political mediocrity like Robert Fioretti gave her a victory in last week’s Democratic primary.

With her fate assured for the next four years (there isn’t a serious Republican challenger for the Nov. 6 general election), the long-time alderman from Hyde Park turned eight-years-and-running county president wants to strengthen her post.

Such as her public statement Friday that she wants to become the new chairwoman of the Cook County Democratic Party – a post that some local political watchers believe is more significant than that of the Illinois Democratic Party chairman (because local is ALWAYS more important than state).

The post is open because of another electoral result from Tuesday – the defeat of Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios. He’s the man who has been county Democratic boss since 2007.

BERRIOS: Will Toni friendship last?

BUT HIS DEFEAT as assessor undermines his ability to keep the Democratic Party post. Why should the Democratic Party’s local organization keep as its boss a guy who couldn’t even win re-election?

Which has Preckwinkle publicly saying she’s willing to challenge Berrios for the position that enhances his political party.

Consider Richard J. Daley, who may have committed many significant acts toward the long-term future of Chicago as mayor. But it was the fact that he doubled as the Democratic Chairman that gave him the power to keep getting re-elected as mayor, and also to have an influence that caused national Democrats to care what he thought.

In short, it wasn’t the “Mayor of Chicago” that John F. Kennedy sought out when he ran for the presidency in 1960 – it was the “Democratic chairman” who turned out all those hundreds of thousands of votes that resulted in Illinois’ electoral college going into the JFK column, rather than for Richard Nixon.

Would JFK have sought Daley if he weren't chair

HECK, IT CAN be argued that it was the fact that Edward R. Vrdolyak served as Democratic chairman from 1982-87 that gave him the power to influence a council majority to openly defy Harold Washington during much of his mayoral term.

Other significant names to serve as Democratic chairman for Cook County include George Dunne, Jacob Arvey, Edward J. Kelly and Anton Cermak – the latter of whom used the party chairman post to rise to being Chicago mayor.

This will be the class of politicos that Preckwinkle would elevate herself to – IF she can become the Democratic chairwoman for the county of Cook.

She’d be the first woman to hold the post, although she’d be replacing the man who was the first Latino to ever hold the post. Depending on how strongly Berrios would want to hang onto political power, this could become an ethnically-inspired political brawl.

ALTHOUGH IT COULD wind up that the political elements wishing to elevate the number of women holding political posts could rise up to fight for Preckwinkle. It would be something of an achievement if the el jefe of Cook County Democrats became a la jefa.

CERMAK: Used post to become mayor

Kind of odd, since Preckwinkle herself was a Berrios backer. She constantly spoke out on behalf of retaining Joe as county assessor; even when others were bashing him about for all the family members on his government payroll and allegations that he gave tax breaks to his political donors.

So now, by saying she wants to replace Joe Berrios, Toni Preckwinkle is turning on him at his lowest moment. Which may illustrate a reality of electoral politics.

Political allies are friends so long as they can do something for your – and no longer! Not bad for somebody who some people wanted to believe would be political history by now.

  -30-

EXTRA: Oops! I almost skipped casting my vote for Toni Preckwinkle

I went to an Early Voting Center on Monday to cast my ballot for the upcoming March 20 primaries and I almost made a gaffe.

When I thought I had completed my ballot, I was informed that I managed to skip over one post – I somehow had left the position of Cook County Board president blank!

I WENT BACK and filled in the blank, making it for the record that I support the re-election of Toni Preckwinkle to a third term in the position. Even though her support of the pop tax last year was supposedly going to be the issue of outrage that would cause Chicago and the inner suburbs to revolt against her.

Remember all that?!?

People were so worked up over the sweetened beverage tax that they were making significantly-inconvenient trips to Lake County (either the Illinois or Indiana versions) to buy their cases of pop and avoid paying the penny per ounce tax rate.

Perhaps it’s because the gubernatorial primaries of both major political parties have caused enough scandal and outrage that people are focusing their attention on those issues.

MAYBE THE OUTRAGE of the electorate is more focused these days on the re-election chances of Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios and trying to dump the political insider in favor of a governmental amateur. Or maybe it’s just because Preckwinkle’s opponent, former Chicago alderman Robert Fioretti, is one step above a fringe candidate like gubernatorial dreamer Robert Marshall.

But when was the last time you heard anyone rant or rage about the pop tax; except for maybe the political crackpot-types who are determined to complain about something no matter what happens.

Is our political attention-span that limited? Most likely!

  -30-

Make up your mind, Todd

I’m sure some political watchers choked on their own phlegm when Todd Stroger, the one-time Cook County Board president who has become the ultimate example of someone who got into politics due to family connections, said he plans to seek re-election to the post that he lost some seven years ago.

STROGER: Changing his mind

Stroger, who also served as a state legislator before becoming the county’s chief executive, told WFLD-TV he will challenge incumbent Toni Preckwinkle come the March 20 primary.

IF STROGER REALLY does take such actions, he will be one of three people in the Democratic primary next year. Since one-time Alderman Robert Fioretti also has said he wants to run for the post.

And like Fioretti, Stroger indicates he plans to beat up on Preckwinkle over her effort to impose a “pop tax” that caused a massive public stink. The tax that will cease to exist at the end of next week was capable of boosting the price of a can of Coca-Cola by a notable amount.

Yet Stroger is the guy whose own political unpopularity rose to ridiculously high levels when he tried balancing the Cook County budget many years ago with a sales tax increase – the one that when piled on with all the sales taxes that local governments charge rose the overall tax to over 10 percent in Chicago.

It will be interesting to see just how capable either Fioretti or Stroger will be in terms of challenging Preckwinkle.

BOTH OF THEM are convinced that she is so unpopular because of the pop tax that anybody can beat up on her.

I don’t doubt that Toni could be defeated by the right challenger. But I’m skeptical that either of these guys is capable of filling that role.

In the case of Stroger, his unpopularity is so intense even now. The thought of Stroger running for any government post is usually enough to outrage political watchers – particularly if they have their hang-ups over the way that Todd got into office to begin with.

PRECKWINKLE: Seeking a third term

His father, John Stroger (the namesake of the Cook County Hospital) was the county board president when his own health took a turn and he had to step down. He orchestrated his son being chosen to replace him in a way that made many feel Todd was forced down their throat.

OF COURSE, IT should be noted that the Chicago political scene has had so many multi-generation families holding elective office so that it shouldn’t have been strange that John would turn to Todd to replace him.

I don’t doubt that for some people, the fact that John Stroger was a black public official somehow aroused their ire. As though white pols can get away with semi-sleazy behavior while we expect our black pols to be on the straight-and-narrow.

But that’s the situation we’re going to be in – that is, if Stroger really winds up getting himself on the ballot to run for Cook County Board president. I’ll be curious to see if he can get the necessary nominating petitions filed by the Dec. 4 deadline.

And let’s not forget that Stroger for a while was the guy talking about a political comeback by running for a seat on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. Not the most public of posts, but it would put Stroger on a public payroll and give him a title that would allow him to think of himself as a government official again.

WE’LL SEE WHICH post Stroger winds up running for. Will we really get a three-way fight for the Cook County Board’s boss?

FIORETTI: Seeking a political comeback

And if so, will it be truly competitive? Because a part of me wonders if Fioretti and Stroger will be the long-shot guys who take votes from the Anybody But Toni voters, while a plurality of more sensible people will wind up picking Preckwinkle – who until the pop tax came along was regarded rather highly by the electorate.

Largely, of course, because she wasn’t Todd Stroger. Does anybody seriously think that voters would return to Todd to replace Toni?

  -30-

Fioretti may be longer-shot political comeback than that of Pat Quinn

Robert Fioretti is ambitious, we’ll have to give him that much.

FIORETTI: Wants to be county boss

The one-time alderman of Chicago’s 2^nd Ward was among the people who tried challenging Rahm Emanuel for his mayoral post in the 2015 election cycle – finishing fourth with just over 7 percent of the non-partisan election that year.

NOW, HIS DESIRE to be able to call himself a prominent political person is being resurrected with his talk that he’ll run for the Democratic nomination for Cook County Board president.

In short, he’s willing to challenge Toni Preckwinkle – gambling on the fact that people so upset over the pop tax that will cease to exist in a couple of weeks will remain so peeved that they’ll vote for Anybody But Toni.

Maybe even Bob.

It’s obvious that Fioretti has no intention of letting this issue go. He kicked off his active campaigning for county board president with an appearance Monday at the Lansing Municipal Airport.

THE AIR STRIP in that south suburb literally has as its eastern boundary the Illinois/Indiana state line. Making it possible for Fioretti to engage in a lot of political trash talk about how the people of neighboring Dyer, Ind., have lesser tax rates than those who live in Lansing and Cook County proper.

PRECKWINKLE: Won't be unopposed

Ignoring the fact that Indiana-based municipal governments usually offer far less in the way of services to their residents than the ones in Cook County do. Which basically means you get what you pay for – and I view that as one of Illinois’ and the Chicago-area’s strengths.

But back to the voter choice coming up March 20 in Cook County as to who should be our county board president (the Republican Party structure is too weak to come up with a credible challenger, meaning the primary likely will be the election).

Maybe it’s because I remember Fioretti’s time as an alderman as being one where he was one of the most-outspoken of the aldermanic creatures in the City Council. It meant he got quoted in the news reports far more often than many of his colleagues – and it gave him a prominent name on the political scene.

EMANUEL: Beat Bob badly in 2015

BUT TO BE honest, a lot of his talk just came across as cheap. As though it was someone talking just for the sake of hearing himself speak. Not because he necessarily had much of anything worth saying.

Reporter-type people who cover government bodies at all levels learn to deal with such people. You learn to tell the difference between the people who actually have some comprehension of what government does and which ones are merely good for a quote that helps fill out space in the many stories that get written about government activity.

So was I shocked that Fioretti would be the type with the bloated-enough ego to think that all of Chicago (and not just the residents of the Second Ward) was ready for his feisty rhetoric about how fouled up Emanuel and everybody else was?

Let’s remember that when the City Council district boundaries were redrawn the last time, Fioretti was the one whose home suddenly wound up in a new district. He lost his supporters. He has to try to run for something different – or else face irrelevance.

SO WHEN HE couldn’t become mayor or even make it into a runoff election (the Anybody But Rahm voters preferred Jesus “Chuy” Garcia instead), he needs to pick another post so as to avoid irrelevance.

 

GARCIA: Rahm critics preferred Chuy to Bob

So now, he’s going for the county board, where without him it seems that Preckwinkle would be unopposed for the post she has held since 2010. Not that I think Toni is entitled to run unchallenged – competition is always good.

But it’s best if it is a serious challenger who has a vision for why we should vote for them – and not just “Dump Toni!” because she tried to plug a hole in the county financial picture that Fioretti himself might wind up having to concoct some sort of tax hike to fill if he were somehow capable of getting himself elected.

We’ll get to see for ourselves just how petty our electorate is capable of being come the 2018 election cycle – and whether Fioretti gets to become the Chicago version of Pat Quinn; the former governor who has run for so many offices throughout the years and will be making his own political comeback bid next year for state Attorney General.

  -30-

A “Battle of the Mayoral Rejects?” Or is Bob Fioretti that desperate for a job?

Believe it or not, the residents of the Illinois Senate 5^th District (based on the city’s West Side) has the potential to be a battle between candidates who once tried – and failed – to become Chicago’s mayor.

FIORETTI: He needs a job!

Robert Fioretti, the one-time 2^nd Ward alderman, got his share of city-wide attention when he was one of the dreamers who tried to depose Rahm Emanuel as mayor in last year’s election cycle.

BECAUSE HE DOESN’T like the idea of being just a former alderman with no current political post, Fioretti has decided to run for a seat in the Illinois Legislature.

VAN PELT-WATKINS: Wants to keep hers

I guess he figures serving in Springfield is better than being a political nobody – even though most people view the Statehouse Scene as the place where you go to get some training and experience before running for higher office in Chicago proper.

In Fioretti’s case, he’s decided to run in this year’s election cycle for an Illinois Senate seat – making him one of the people who votes “aye” to the idea of keeping John Cullerton in his position of authority by supporting him for another bid as Senate president.

To do that, he has to take on the incumbent legislator, who happens to be state Sen. Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins, D-Chicago, a woman who got elected to that post in 2012 – one year after losing her own bid for Chicago mayor in the 2011 election cycle.

YES, SHE WAS one of the half-dozen people who had dreams of replacing Richard M. Daley when he decided not to seek re-election to a seventh term in the post.

Yes, she got her clock cleaned in that election cycle. Then again, Fioretti didn’t exactly inspire voters when he decided to take on Emanuel last year.

He may have had fantasies of capturing the support of those people whose passion was aroused into anger against Emanuel. But he couldn’t even qualify for a run-off election. Jesus Garcia was the legitimate opposition candidate to Rahm. Fioretti was barely more credible than Willie Wilson.

Actually, that’s probably an insult to the reputation of Wilson, for which I owe HIM an apology – not Fioretti.

FIORETTI IS TRYING to make an issue out of what appears to be a Van Pelt-Watkins gaffe – one in which she implied she supports the idea of “right to work” laws being enacted in Illinois. She now says she mis-spoke, and I’m actually inclined to believe her.

Because there have been many instances in my time as a reporter-type person writing about government when I suspected the public officials themselves didn’t truly comprehend what it was they were doing while passing or rejecting new laws.

There’s also the fact that my own memories of Fioretti as an alderman consist of a public official who liked the sound of his own voice.

I really wonder if much of the rants he used to go on about Daley, then Emanuel, were more inspired by the fact that he liked to hear himself talk. Many of his opposition tirades seemed a little too knee-jerk, as in he knew his answer was “no” but wasn’t always sure about why he was in opposition.

THE ONE-TIME LEGISLATIVE correspondent in me thinks the absolute last thing the General Assembly needs is another political blowhard.

It actually reminds me of Rickey Hendon, the one-time West Side alderman who later served several terms in the Illinois Senate. He developed a reputation as an outspoken goof, and we’d jokingly wonder how long it would be until then-Senate Democrat leader Emil Jones would try to have him whacked for his many outbursts.

Is that really the fate that Fioretti aspires to? Because he really comes across as one who is eager to have a government post – any post – to run, just so he can think of himself as a public servant and have a place to go during the day.

Either that, or perhaps his spouse Nicki, wants him out of the house more often.

  -30-

What happens to opponents following the Tuesday municipal elections?

Jesus Garcia may wind up being the “big” winner of this election cycle, even if he doesn’t wind up winning a mayoral election either Tuesday or in April.

Garcia has been on the local political scene off-and-on for the past three decades, and has served at City Hall, the Statehouse in Springfield and at the County Building.

THE LATTER IS his current place of political occupancy – he’s been a county board member for the past four years and just got himself re-elected to another four-year term back in the November election cycle.

Which means he doesn’t face political oblivion if he doesn’t win on April 7, or finishes lower than second place on Tuesday.  If anything, he’s now a county board member with a bit of the public spotlight glowing off him.

He has a chance to be one of the power players on the county board; and definitely one of the more significant of the 17 commissioners.

He’s probably not going to become the equivalent of Commissioner John Daley, D-Chicago, in terms of being significant in the way Cook County government does its business (the Daley brother is the county board’s finance committee chair).

BUT HE’S CERTAINLY going to draw more attention than someone like Gregg Goslin, R-Glenview, whom I wonder if even northwest suburban residents are aware of who he is.

A return to the county board following the municipal elections could give Garcia the chance to have so many political observer eyes focused on him that he becomes someone significant.

If he handles himself right, he could become a political powerbroker in his own right. People could wind up benefitting in the key issues and the constituency that he claims to represent during his mayoral campaign.

If anything, I wonder if he could wind up being one of the most successful mayoral also-rans on the local political scene.

CURRENTLY, I’D HAVE to say that niche is filled by Timothy Evans.

Remember when he challenged Richard M. Daley back in the late 1980s when the future mayor was trying to win his first term (actually, the right to finish what was left of the late Harold Washington’s mayoral stint)?

Evans was a significant part of Washington’s allies in the City Council, and he managed to dominate the African-American vote the same way Harold did. Only he couldn’t take any significant white or Latino vote like Washington, so he wound up losing.

Yet Evans is now the chief justice of the Cook County court system. Which isn’t a bad post to have. I can think of a lot of political people whose over-bloated egos would be thoroughly satisfied if they could wind up with such a position some day!

IT’S NOT LIKE some of the other Daley challengers throughout the years, such as Danny Davis or Bobby Rush – who remain in Congress but clearly have shown they will never advance any further than their own particular neighborhoods in terms of being taken seriously.

Garcia, if he conducts himself properly in coming weeks, could provide himself a chance to move up in authority. Or else he could be the guy who quickly gets forgotten except for the confines of his home Little Village neighborhood.

We’ll have to wait and see.

As for the other mayoral challengers, I’m not sure what to think. Second Ward Ald. Robert Fioretti had to give up a chance to keep his City Council post in order to run for mayor, and I suspect his outspoken demeanor as an alderman will ensure the powerbrokers will go out of their way to keep him outside the political structure.

IS HE THE new member of the “ancient history” club that now includes people such as Richard Phelan and Jack O’Malley -- the one-time county board president and state's attorney, for those who have forgotten?

Willie Wilson likely also will not have much of a political future. Although I’ll admit it would be interesting if whoever does wind up winning the mayoral post were to consider making the one-time McDonald’s franchise operator-turned-millionaire into some sort of adviser to government.

He does have some ideas worth considering (albeit not his suggestions of doing away with the police superintendent’s post) and he speaks for a constituency that does not get listened to often enough.

And as for William “Dock” Walls? We’ll likely see him again in 2019 when he again tries running a token bid for mayor and takes 2 percent of the vote – making him the 21^st Century equivalent of Lar “America First” Daly, who ran for mayor and so many other political posts during his life without ever winning a thing!

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Just keeping the establishment going

I don’t think many people will read the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and Crain’s Chicago Business endorsements for Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s re-election that were published on the internet on Friday and rush right out to cast their ballots for “four more years.”

I have always viewed news media endorsements as being more significant in displaying what potential biases a news organization’s business end potentially exerts over the coverage.

WE GET A more blunt glimpse of what the priorities are for the publications in how they view the world and the issues. That can emphasize what they consider to be important when they put together news stories about the issues impacting us all.

So in reading the three endorsements for the Feb. 24 mayoral election (early voting starts Monday), it becomes clear that the major metro newspapers and the significant business-oriented publication are satisfied with the direction that Chicago has been taking.

Because the prominent angle emphasized by all three publications in their endorsements (that likely will be in those not-quite-so-fat-as-they-used-to-be Sunday editions) is that Emanuel is taking the city in the right direction.

And as for those people who are miffed for whatever reason about his actions – including the closing of some 50 schools in the Chicago Public Schools system – well they just need to get over themselves!

THEIR COMPLAINTS THAT Emanuel is too business-oriented to represent the peoples’ interests just aren’t all that significant.

It is an attitude I find amusing in a warped sort of way because of all the times we hear the rancid rhetoric from the conservative ideologues about the “liberal media” that is causing great harm to our society with all their distortions.

If we really had a “liberal” news media, there probably would have been someone willing to take on the Emanuel campaign and give backing to the campaigns either of Jesus “Chuy” Garcia or Robert Fioretti.

Instead, all the newspapers dismissed all the challengers’ complaints and proposals by calling them unrealistic or not all that well thought out.

NOT THAT IT means the editorial writers are all that enthused about what city government has done since Emanuel became mayor in 2011. Some of the incumbent aldermen had their challengers formally endorsed because of the perception that they were too closely aligned with Rahm’s rhetoric!

Now insofar as I’m concerned, I’m intrigued by the thought of Garcia’s mayoral campaign. I think he’d represent a segment of Chicago that has often been ignored in the past. Although watching his campaign, he comes across as an earnest public official – but also one who is just a little too soft-spoken to reach out to all of Chicago.

I can see where he dominates the vote in the wards where the Latino population is overwhelming, but becomes irrelevant to the rest of Chicago. Perhaps he’s not doing a good enough job of reaching out to all the electorate?

As for the other would-be candidates, I can’t say any of them comes across as somebody who should be in charge of city government. They come across as people who are too reliant on voters voting solely for Anybody But Rahm.

THEY DON’T REALLY give us reasons why we should specifically want them to be working in the old office haunted by the ghost of Richard J. Daley.

Which is why I have braced myself for the likely reality that Emanuel will get a second term in office; although there are times it feels like he will merely fill the office until the next generation of the Daley family feels he (or she) is ready to run for the post.

It makes it seem like an endorsement for Emanuel is the “safe” pick politically; one meant to avoid making enemies of the administration right off the bat, although I’m sure the newspapers will come up with stories that will offend Mayor Rahm in the future.

And we, the people of Chicago, will see what direction a business-oriented pairing of Emanuel and Rauner (as in Gov. Bruce) will take us for the next few years!

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Hizzoner hopefuls to debate each other

Defining a debate can be tricky. But we’re approaching that point in the mayoral campaign cycle in which the five people with desires to work on the Fifth Floor of City Hall will actually face off – trying to show the public that they’re not inept and praying that their opponents commit a major gaffe that erases their chances of electoral victory.

By tricky, it becomes important to consider whether an alleged debate actually includes the significant candidates, or is merely a chance for a lone candidate to show themselves off without any pesky opposition to challenge them.

I BRING UP this point because the Center for Working Class Studies at the University of Illinois – Chicago is having a “debate” on Friday.

Yet the only two candidates who are expected to show up are Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, D-Chicago, and 2^nd Ward Alderman Robert Fioretti.

Which means the people who bother to watch the event on Chicago Access Network will have a chance to see if one of the two can create the perception of themselves as the legitimate challenger to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and the image of the other as a political bumpkin in over his head.

Emanuel himself will not be there. Neither will Willie Wilson, who is hoping that the millions of his own money he plans to spend on his campaign will help him be so dominant among African-American voters that both Fioretti and Garcia wind up becoming the bumpkins who don’t deserve to be taken seriously come the Feb. 24 municipal elections.

FOR THE RECORD, Emanuel’s campaign has said he is participating in five debates – although only two of those are traditional debate formats where candidates face questions and rigidly-timed periods in which to answer them.

Those debates will be the League of Women Voters event to be held Feb. 5 and a Feb. 10 event by the Chicago Urban League.

Other events that could wind up having all the major mayoral hopefuls include a Feb. 4 broadcast of “Chicago Tonight” on WTTW-TV, and appearances before the editorial boards of the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times.

Admittedly, those newspapers likely will put video of those interviews on their websites for political geeks to ponder over. But their real purpose is to provide the quotes and other information that the newspapers will use when preparing their editorials in mid-to-late February about how enthusiastically they wind up backing the re-election of Rahm Emanuel.

DOES ANYBODY DOUBT that the two major newspapers will take such a stance? Particularly when one regards just how enthusiastic they were in offering their official support for Bruce Rauner to replace Pat Quinn as governor in last year’s statewide election cycle.

I’m likely to try to watch all of these events in some form or another, even though all they usually wind up doing is reinforcing the beliefs of the hard-core supporters of each candidate.

The people who want Anybody But Rahm probably already have the talking points drafted in their minds about how inept Emanuel will be during the upcoming debates.

For all I know, they’re probably also going to claim he is behaving in a cowardly manner by not showing up on Friday and at other events being sponsored by organizations that wish they could get the public attention that is derived from sponsoring a political debate.

I NOTICED THAT Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis told the Chicago Sun-Times on Thursday how Garcia will overcome his “mild-mannered sweetheart” temperament to ravage Rahm’s reputation and make him out to be completely inept at representing the needs of the “average” Chicagoan.

I’m sure the Emanuel backers are ready to claim how all the other candidates don’t have what it takes to address the diverse set of problems that confront Chicago and other urban areas in the United States.

And as for Wilson, the man who already is attracting derision for the fact that responded to a Chicago Tribune candidate questionnaire by saying on many issues that he can’t develop specific solutions until after he is put into office. We’re supposed to trust that he’ll figure things out!

I’m sure that Wilson’s campaign guru, outspoken former alderman and state senator Rickey “Hollywood” Hendon, is counting on reaching out to voters who despise all the other mayoral candidates that they won’t care what Wilson actually says during a debate.

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