Can Lightfoot, Preckwinkle connect? Or will the women be political rivals!

It was an intriguing political theory put forth by some – the notion that a Lightfoot political victory for mayor benefits African-American political empowerment by boosting the number of black people in the top government positions.

Lightfoot gets 5th floor office suite; Preckwinkle stays put in her half of city/county municipal building.. Photo by Gregory Tejeda

The way it was described by some, there were those people who wanted Toni Preckwinkle to not bother running for anything in this election cycle.

SHE WAS SUPPOSED to accept the Cook County Board presidency that she was re-elected to back in November – thereby leaving the mayoral post open for another black person to hold. Chicago’s local government structure would literally have its two highest-ranking positions held by African-Americans.

But that didn’t happen, as Preckwinkle insisted on running for mayor. Which creates the potentially awkward position of Preckwinkle and Lightfoot fighting it out for who is the more prominent black woman in our local politics.

Considering that Preckwinkle also holds the post of Cook County Democratic chairwoman, it means that Toni will be in a position where she could theoretically make life difficult for Lori Lightfoot.

She could decide to use the political party structure to thwart a “Mayor Lightfoot” from being able to accomplish much of anything – if she so wishes. Although admittedly, some people will dismiss her as petty and ignorant if she behaves that way,

The mayor 'elect' for a month

IS THIS WHAT is destined to happen, now that Election Day has come and gone – Lori Lightfoot having managed to come sweeping in and usurping the niche that Preckwinkle had planned on playing this cycle?

That of the “good government” type who engages in high-minded talk about the betterment of our society. Instead of the niche that Lightfoot wound up tagging Preckwinkle with – that of a political hack!

The question essentially becomes whether or not Preckwinkle and Lightfoot can “play nice” with each other and figure out ways in which the two can co-exist within the Chicago political structure for the betterment of our city.

Remains as 'mayor' of Cook County

Or are we destined to have the next three-and-a-half years become a period in which the Preckwinkle/Lightfoot rivalry takes on ugly overtones. Will Preckwinkle decide she needs to show us just how big a political “Boss!” she can be.

HERE’S ACTUALLY THE intriguing question, for those people who want to view this now-complete election cycle as one for the betterment of African-American political interests in Chicago.

Would those interests have been boosted more by having both a black mayor and black county board president? Or would they have been boosted had Preckwinkle prevailed and become the first person since Richard J. Daley himself to serve as both mayor and county Democratic chairman?

Would an all-powerful Preckwinkle have been a nice prize for black political interests? Or was it sexism that wound up making some people think that the two positions were simply too much power to put in the hands of a lone woman. Along with the notion that a “Mayor Preckwinkle” also would have created the chance for a “Cook County Board President John Daley” – a notion some black activists would find abhorrent.

How different scenario could be with Wilson win

Keep in mind that back when black political operatives were suggesting that Preckwinkle defer to another black candidate for mayor, the likely favorite was Willie Wilson. Considering how she managed to qualify for the Tuesday run-off while Wilson fell short by merely finishing fourth in the 14-candidate field, it’s not surprising she felt no need to defer to him.

THE RESULT OF all this political scheming is that we now have a mayor-elect who doesn’t come from the current political set-up. Lightfoot has been a corporate attorney and a federal prosecutor, in addition to a one-time member of the Police Accountability Task Force.

Daley remains as county finance chair

In short, the kind of person who might arouse suspicion from incumbent politicos.

But keep in mind that several people bearing the polical label of “Democratic Socialists” managed to get themselves elected to the City Council. There’s going to be an assortment of aldermen anxious to assert the fact that the city technically has a “weak mayor” system of government.

Lightfoot may get the title of “mayor,” but there will be many individuals anxious to tell her just how little she can do while in office. We’ll have to wait and see whether Preckwinkle will be their leader?

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Are we really at a point where we don’t care if Lightfoot is lesbian? Fat chance!

A recent discussion I overheard – it doesn’t matter that mayoral hopeful Lori Lightfoot is a lesbian who actually is married to another woman.

LIGHTFOOT: Is her marriage an issue?

Because we in Chicago are supposedly so sophisticated that no one would openly admit to voting against her because of sexual orientation. It won’t be an issue. Particularly since the kind of people determined to dump Toni Preckwinkle from office can rant about that pop tax she touted while leading Cook County government.

I’LL HAVE TO admit I was kind of hoping there’d be a touch of truth to such thoughts. I would have liked it if I could have made it through the month of the election run-off without having to get into anyone’s marital status.

But that didn’t happen. The issue has sprung up. And the part that bothers me – it seems that it’s Lightfoot herself who seems determined to make an issue of it.

Or maybe she just seems determined to think of herself as the victimized one and wants to be able to claim she’s the one being picked upon. Which makes me wonder how a “Mayor Lightfoot” is going to handle herself against all the interests who will not be inclined to support her on oh so many issues.

But seriously, this election cycle took an ugly turn that would have been so nice if we could have avoided it.

THE ISSUE CAME up when the two candidates faced off in debate last week, and the question was put forth for the two candidates being asked to say something nice about their opponent – as in what did they most respect about their challenger.

That led Preckwinkle to offer up some public praise about the way Lightfoot is public about her sexual orientation.

Or as she put it, “that (Lightfoot is) open and honest about her LGBTQ orientation. You know, I think it’s really important in this country that we be respectful of differences and that we understand that all of us matter and that there is dignity in each and every one of us. And there has been so much discrimination and prejudice and homophobia in our country, it’s very important that particularly prominent people declare their sexual orientation and do it with pride.”

PRECKWINKLE: Sympathetic? Or cruel?

She insists her praise was sincere.

YET LIGHTFOOT LET it be known she took offense. As in she thinks the sole purpose of Preckwinkle saying anything at all was to put a reminder in the minds of voters that “Lori’s gay.”

Which might create just enough doubt in the minds of people with a homophobic streak to let it become an issue in the way they cast their ballot for mayor come April 2.

What’s sort of interesting is that just over a week ago, there were gay rights activists who were saying this was a unique election cycle because Preckwinkle has a record as a government official of being supportive of gay rights issues and causes.

Could it be that Lightfoot absolutely feels the need to have people vote for her because of her orientation? And that Preckwinkle has to be demonized in order to fit her niche in Lightfoot’s world?

OR DID LIGHTFOOT have a point in trying to get the support of those voters, particularly those of African-American descent whose religious attitudes make them hostile to the very concept of homosexuality, whom Lightfoot is counting on Willie Wilson’s endorsement to win over?

WILSON: Will his endorsement make a difference?

Anything’s possible. In fact, I’m inclined to believe there’s an element of truth in what both of them are spewing these days.

It would have been so nice if we could have made it through this election cycle without making an issue of this issue. What if we could seriously consider the qualifications of the individual candidates without getting into the personal nonsense?

Then again, that’s probably an attitude we’ll have to wait a few more decades to achieve. As in the day will come when we realize just how ridiculous we all truly are!

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EDITOR’S NOTE: For those who care, Lightfoot is married to Amy Eshleman, and they live together with a 10-year-old daughter. Preckwinkle was married to Zeus Preckwinkle for 44 years, until their divorce in 2013. They have two grown children.

What kind of ‘first’ are we going to see come the April 2 run-off election?

It’s the angle we’re being played over and over again with regards to Chicago’s municipal elections; the Second City is going to get a black woman elected as our mayor – regardless of who manages to prevail in the April 2 run-off.

The way we'll remember Tuesday. Photo by Gregory Tejeda

It’s true! Both Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle, who came in first and second amongst the 14 candidates running for mayor on Tuesday, qualify as African-Americans of the female persuasion.

WE’VE NEVER HAD that particular combination amongst our city’s mayors. Although we’ve had two black men as mayors and one woman, so I’m sure there will be some people who claim it’s wrong to make a big deal out of this particular mixture.

Of course, it’s very likely that people expressing this attitude are of the belief that picking the “best qualified” person to be mayor invariably means going with a white man.

For all I know, the people most bothered by the ongoing emphasis about a black woman being elected are the ones who also are pointing out how William Daley (with his 14.69 percent, third place finish) would have actually finished first if the 7.3 percent of the vote cast for Jerry Joyce had actually gone to Bill.

We’d have the likelihood of Daley III as mayor, with Preckwinkle reduced to third and the constant speculation about how it was her ties to embattled alderman Edward M. Burke who took her down to mayoral defeat.

I KNOW SOME are getting excited about the prospects of having a black person in the mayor’s office at City Hall. Some even like the notion of Lightfoot being lesbian and in a gay marriage. Something for everyone to pick from when they go about making a choice for mayor in the run-off election.

Did Joyce decide electoral outcome in unintended way?

But I have to admit, I think the fact that they’re women plays more of a factor into determining the strengths of each candidate.

Because in looking at the city ward maps that detail which candidates did best in each ward, I couldn’t help but notice the strong resemblance between the voter support in majority-black wards that existed back in the days of Harold Washington and that exists now for the millionaire black candidate Willie Wilson.

I don’t doubt that people who made their choice Tuesday for a mayor based on the idea of having a black person in the mayor’s office ultimately decided against either Lightfoot or Preckwinkle and were amongst the 10.77 percent who liked the idea of Wilson’s charitable cash hand-outs to the less-fortunate.

WHILE MUCH OF Lightfoot’s support seems to come in the wards that comprise the north lakefront. With Preckwinkle being predominant in the south lakefront wards.

Could this come down to something of a baseball-themed election run-off? With Lori getting the backing of Cubs fans, with Toni getting the preference of Chicagoans who realize that “real” baseball is played by the White Sox?

How weak was Latino vote? Mendoza lost … 

It might well be that the historical figure we ought to be paying attention to is that of Jane Byrne – who served her one term as mayor from 1979-83 and who was the woman who campaigned on the idea that she was going to smash “the Machine,” but wound up making her accommodations with it in order to survive politically.

Which could mean that this election cycle will most likely be decided by those individuals who went into Tuesday’s voting casting ballots for either Daley or Joyce. In short, the people who probably have their hang-ups about what is happening.

WILL THIS ELECTION wind up being decided by how many of THOSE people decide they can’t bring themselves to vote for either Lightfoot or Preckwinkle? Thereby allowing their existing support to remain significant?

… but Burke didn't

Or will this really become an election cycle decided by people casting their ballots while pinching their noses shut at the very thought of what they’re doing?

Personally, I’m somewhat saddened by the 9.02 percent voter support that Susana Mendoza’s mayoral bid received. If anything, I’d consider a “first Latina” mayor a more significant achievement than the one we’re going to get. But that will have to be a goal for a future election cycle, since we're still in an era where Mendoza couldn't win -- but Ed Burke as alderman could with 53.8 percent voter support in a ward that is about 80 percent Latino.

And I’m also amused by the 6.23 percent support achieved by candidate Gery Chico – with much of it crammed into the 10^th Ward (my own birthplace and home of many of my cousins and other relatives); making it the lone ward in Chicago that thought the one-time Chicago Education Board President would make a fit mayor for our city.

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Chicago gets to see what real electoral competition looks like come Tuesday

Tuesday is Election Day, and we’re finally going to get a clue as to whom our city’s next mayor will be.

MENDOZA: A mayoral preference

This is a particularly unusual election cycle (“the most important election cycle in decades,” says the Chicago Tribune) in that we have real competitive candidates. We don’t have a clue as to who will win.

BECAUSE WE USUALLY GET a case of a frontrunner who is so clearly the establishment favorite running against another person or two – one of whom may be the choice of idealists but who really doesn’t have a chance of achieving political victory.

It’s almost like our municipal elections are a done deal before the candidates even file for slots on the ballot.

This time is different!

It’s all about the 14 candidates who are of varying levels of qualifications. I’m sure there are some people who think the real problem is that we’re letting just anybody get on the ballot, creating such a mass of candidates that even now, some people still don’t have a clue who they’ll vote for.

IT MAY WELL be that some people won’t make up their minds until they literally set foot in the voting booth. There also will be many who will make their choice – then wind up regretting it as the stupidest thing they ever did.

Will Cook Co. 'mayor' become 'Boss Toni?'

So who’s going to win? I really don’t have a clue.

I’m really not comfortable saying who the “top two” candidates will be who would qualify for an April 2 run-off election – which will have the feel of a more conventional election in that the number of choices are limited.

Even the pundit predictions are all over the place. I know I’ve already written that the campaigns of one-time White House chief of staff William Daley and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle could wind up as the “top two” picks, creating a brawl giving an establishment and a progressive-leaning candidate a chance to face off.

BUT THEN AGAIN, this election fight could turn out to be so bizarre that the predictable top two will manage to fall short.

Could we get Mayor Daley III?

What happens if the candidacy of former federal prosecutor Lori Lightfoot manages to catch on just enough that she can overcome what some originally thought would be the inevitable ascension of Preckwinkle to the mayoral post?

Then again, there also once were people who thought that this would be a year of politically powerful women – with Preckwinkle and Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza managing to create a historic brawl. While knocking the third coming of a “Mayor Daley” out of the race altogether.

We also have those people who think that Willie Wilson (who turned ownership of McDonald’s franchises in inner city neighborhoods into a financial fortune) is a colorful enough character that they’d like to see him remain in the running after Tuesday.

PERSONALLY, I’D BE inclined to support the Mendoza candidacy – in part as a gesture of increased political empowerment of the growing Latino population in Chicago. I think it would be an excellent “up yours” gesture for Chicago to pick her at a time when the supporters of this Age of Trump would want us to think that people of Latino ethnic origins (she’s of Mexican-American background) as the ultimate political losers.

LIGHTFOOT: Upset in the making?

We’ll see, however, what happens once the votes are counted Tuesday and we have to figure out how long it will take to count the absentee ballots to see if the election is so close that it literally will come down to counting EVERY SINGLE VOTE.

Something that I’m sure many political watchers in Chicago will find to be a bizarre experience. It ain’t supposed to be that close – they’ll think.

While they’re probably wondering why all municipal elections can’t be like the one for city clerk – where incumbent Anna Valencia managed to get all of her challengers knocked off the ballot outright!

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Does anybody think a 14-candidate forum works – except to create chaos?

I’m usually of the sort when it comes to candidate forums and debates that it’s wrong to think in terms of fringe candidates and paring down the field to only certain political aspirants.

Can we 'decide' amongst mayoral candidates if we don't see them side by side? Or would such a forum be little more than political chaos?

If a candidate manages to get a spot on a ballot and will be an option come Election Day, I say its downright reckless to try to exclude them. People have a right to know exactly who the ding-dongs are whose names are before them when they make choices for political office.

BUT I HAVE to admit; that viewpoint of mine is being tested by the upcoming election cycle for Chicago municipal government – particularly for that of mayor.

I’m talking about the cycle that’s going to ask voters to pick from amongst 14 candidates who managed to make it past the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners’ process for putting together the Feb. 26 ballot.

WFLD-TV (as in Channel 32) is planning a pair of candidate forums they will televise, come Thursday and Friday.

The Thursday program will feature the campaigns of Toni Preckwinkle, Susana Mendoza, Gery Chico, Bill Daley and Willie Wilson. Friday’s forum will be for everybody else – as in the candidates who are not considered as having as strong of support as the Big Five.

OR, AS CANDIDATE Paul Vallas put it, “we get invited to the children’s table.”

It doesn’t surprise me that judgment calls are being made as to which of the 14 candidates ought to be taken seriously and are worthy of news coverage. It would be kind of ridiculous to equate former Alderman Robert Fioretti’s mayoral campaign with that of Preckwinkle.

But it also means feelings are being hurt by the candidates who are finding out they’re not going to be taken as seriously as the Big Five! Both Vallas and Amara Enyia both complained publicly about their exclusion, with Enyia taking the stance that this is the political establishment trying to pre-determine the Election Day outcome. She’d even be correct in saying that the polls showing the Big Five in the lead actually show no one has a ridiculously-large lead and the “children’s table” candidates aren’t that far behind the leaders.

It almost seems like everybody wants to work out of the Fifth Floor office at City Hall for the next four years

Of course, she’s also getting hammered these days by the Chicago Tribune for the moments of ineptitude she has had in her personal finances and in government posts she has held in the suburbs.

IF ANYTHING, IT would be interesting to have a candidate forum of sorts so that we could see Enyia side-by-side with the bigger names so we could see for ourselves just how much she is lacking by comparison. Although I expect the kind of people who back her because she has a rap music star on her side will not care much.

But I’m not optimistic that such a forum could occur.

Mostly because I don’t have a clue how you’d stage such an event. How could you have a credible debate program with 14 people each trying to respond to each other, and come up with smart-aleck retorts to each other’s insults?

Is this the inevitable outcome … 

When you consider that a debate is likely to be an hour-long event – at most – trying to include everybody would most likely result in everybody getting one question. There wouldn’t be enough time to ask anything more and expect everybody to answer.

AND BEFORE YOU say the forum could be lengthened, I’d retort that, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Trying to stage several hours of political blather (which is what many political debates devolve into) would insure that nobody sits through and sees the whole thing.

… for an April 2 run-off election?

The tedium would cause so many channels to be changed in mid-debate.

It might well be that this freak-show of an election cycle with so many candidates is just the type of thing that makes for bad television. It certainly wouldn’t be possible to do much of a debate – no matter how much political people try to follow the usual conventions to do so.

Unless you’re really that eager to see and hear La Shawn Ford and Jeremiah Joyce exchange retorts, while Daley sighs at the sight of other people trying to seek the political post that certain types of Chicagoans may regard as his birthright.

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Second choice likely to be important in upcoming mayoral campaign

Will April 2 be a runoff between Preckwinkle … 

The 2019 election cycle – the one in which Chicagoans will be asked to pick a new mayor – is truly going to be unique. Because for most would-be voters, it’s going to be more likely that one’s second choice is the one that ultimately will prevail.

The candidate field is now down to 14 people with dreams that they someday will be the one who gets to call themselves “Mr. (or Madame) Mayor.”

… and Mayor Daley III?

WHICH MAKES IT oh so likely that no one will take a majority vote come Feb. 26. It will result in a run-off election between the top two vote getters come April 2.

Heck, a most recent poll by the We Ask America group (and paid for by the Chicago Sun-Times) says no one has more than 13 percent support, and there are several candidates who barely show up at 2 or 3 percent support.

It means that when people go to their polling place at the end of February (or to their early voting center), they’d better have a good idea of a backup candidate. The person they can bring themselves to support even if their fantasy mayoral hopeful winds up being one of the schmoes who finishes too low to qualify for the run-off.

CHICO: Does Gery have momentum?

Which also means the key factor in determining who will prevail may well be which candidates have such intense voter support bases that they’re convinced it has to be their guy (or gal), or nobody at all!

WILL THE KIND of people who want Willie Wilson, the black millionaire, to be mayor (only 9 percent support for a fourth place finish, according to the poll) find the thought of anybody else winning to be so repulsive that they wind up not voting in the April run-off?

WILSON: Will his supporters consider anyone else?

Or go to the other extreme. Are the kind of people who want to envision some law-and-order type candidate who’d cast votes for former police Superintendent Garry McCarthy (3.7 percent for a seventh place finish, the poll says) willing to bother voting at all?

MENDOZA:Can she beat only Toni?

Anything is possible, particularly since there already are a significant number of people who haven’t made up their minds yet who to cast a ballot for.

Literally, the poll shows just over one-quarter of potential voters don’t know yet who they’ll vote for. And they are going to decide the outcome. Because right now, it’s really too close to call.

THIS WE ASK America poll has a 3.88 percent margin of error – with the Toni Preckwinkle and Bill Daley campaigns on top, but with only a 0.6 percent difference between them.

And Gery Chico, along with Wilson, also fall within that margin of error compared to Preckwinkle.

Meaning we essentially have a four-way tie for the top slot, with Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s mayoral bid being only slightly behind.

The same poll went so far as to say that if a run-off somehow comes down to a Preckwinkle/Mendoza brawl (the one that many political geeks deep down are hoping for), it becomes a Mendoza “victory.

BUT THE LONG-SHOT could be if Mendoza even finishes first or second come Feb. 26.

LIGHTFOOT: Lingering near the bottom

My original guess was that all the infighting that is now taking place will result in candidates knocking each other out of the running – and that we could wind up with a third incarnation of “Mayor Daley” in charge of Chicago municipal government.

Even though Chico, at 9.3 percent and third place, is going around spewing thoughts that he has the momentum that will see him be the guy who ultimately prevails.

Then, there’s Lori Lightfoot, the former Assistant U.S. Attorney and head of the Chicago Police Board, who has tried to claim her candidacy deserves respect because she got in the running way back before Rahm Emanuel decided not to try for re-election. Lightfoot is ninth, with 2.8 percent voter support – which is better than the 0.9 percent support that former Alderman Robert Fioretti is drawing these days.

  -30-

Sour grapes? Or just downright truthful!

Mayoral hopeful Ja’Mal Green is one of the fringe candidates in next year’s municipal cycle – in fact, there’s a good chance he won’t even be on the ballot come Feb. 26.

Will people believe Wilson really a Republican?

So perhaps it only makes sense that Green is bitter about the person who is supporting work to get him kicked off the ballot – which would be mayoral hopeful Willie Wilson.

KEEP IN MIND that Wilson himself did not file challenges to anybody. In fact, Wilson is good about spewing rhetoric saying he does not believe in the concept of ballot challenges – he thinks everybody should be permitted a ballot slot, if they’re interested in running for office.

Which is why it was Rickey Hendon, a one-time alderman and state senator who now regards himself as a political operative who supports Wilson’s mayoral dreams, who actually filed the challenges on Wilson’s behalf.

It allows Wilson to claim some high-minded principle, while also having political dirty work done on his behalf.

Of course, this is the way all political challenges are done – the candidates are allowed to remain above the fray of such nasty business, while still benefitting from it.

THE POINT OF all this is that Green is now in a process where he has to be prepared to fight for his political existence – and he may not be capable of surviving the process.

He definitely isn’t going to be capable of campaigning seriously for office. All of his time and money will be spent on fighting the process by which electoral officials will kick him off the ballot.

Green fighting back against challenge ...

Even if he somehow survives the ballot challenge process, he isn’t going to have a lot of time or campaign funds left to campaign. Attorneys fighting on his behalf will manage to eat up any campaign money he ever had.

Which is also the strategy being employed against Susana Mendoza’s mayoral campaign. She’d be capable of running a serious campaign, except she’s going to have to fight just to stay on the ballot.

BUT BACK TO Green, who seems to have engaged in his own unique tactic for fighting back against Wilson – a campaign ad trashing Wilson. Since Green doesn’t have a lot of campaign cash, he’s putting the spot on YouTube and other sites on the Internet.

… by Hendon on Wilson's behalf

Hoping that people interested in casting ballots for the mayoral race manage to stumble across it while searching the Internet for whatever sports scores, cutesy video snippets of puppy dogs and (when they think nobody’s paying attention) pornography they are interested in viewing.

Green seems determined to take down Wilson’s reputation by reminding us that he viewed soon-to-be-former Gov. Bruce Rauner as a political friend – even though Rauner is a Republican.

It goes so far as to imply that Wilson is a closet Republican – which may as well be the kiss of death for a Chicago municipal election. Seeing we haven’t had a Republican as mayor since the late 1920s days of William Hale Thompson, and even Bernard Epton’s political ties were too much for him to overcome in that 1983 race he ran against Harold Washington.

MENDOZA: Also fighting for political life

IT MAY NOT help Green fight off the ballot challenge he faces. But it may well stir up enough hostility to Wilson that Willie will have next to no chance of being eligible to appear in a run-off election come April 2.

Which would be the real goal – political payback for not putting a leash on Wilson’s operatives to keep them from playing hardball politics.

This may actually be typical of this electoral cycle – with no incumbent and so many dreamers, nobody is going to get a large share of the Feb. 26 vote. It also may turn out that the two run-off qualifiers will have built up so many enemies amongst the people who get kicked off that the idea of unifying behind anybody will be hard to achieve.

Will Daley prevail by default?

It’s why I wonder if we’re destined to get another “Mayor Daley” (as in William) because the vast majority of voters who would be appalled by such an idea won’t be able to get behind any other candidate in large-enough numbers to top the kind of people who'd be totally pleased by the idea of "Daley III."

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EXTRA: Did Joyce just have most-significant electoral accomplishment?

Jerry Joyce is the mayoral candidate whose most significant personal fact about himself is that he is from a family that has long been associated politically with the Daley family.

JOYCE: Number One (for a day)

Joyce’s father, Jeremiah, in fact was one of those behind-the-scenes guys who served as a significant adviser to Mayors Daley – both the elder and the younger.

THERE ISN’T MUCH else to say about him – other than the fact that he’s going to have his name atop the list of mayoral candidates on the ballot for the Feb. 26 election.

Joyce won the lottery, which gives him the ballot spot in the prime place. There are those who say some people are clueless enough they merely vote for the first name they see – and could get some 1 or 1 percent of the votes for that reason alone.

In a campaign where even after candidates get kicked off the ballot for insufficient support, there are still doing to be at least a dozen or so candidates in the running. Any advantage in gaining votes could mean something.

Except that it might turn out that Joyce is just too obscure politically to be able to take full advantage of this political perk.

LEARNING THIS WEEK of Joyce getting the top ballot spot actually reminded me of a past election cycle – as in the Democratic primary for governor in 1994.

That election cycle saw state Attorney General Roland Burris, Comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch and Cook County Board President Richard Phelan challenge each other for governor – yet the top ballot spot went by lottery to Jim Gierach – a suburban Palos Park attorney who has spent much of his public life campaigning for less-draconian laws related to drugs.

I remember being a reporter-type person speaking with Gierach that day; knowing there was a good chance it would be the last time I’d give his campaign for governor any significant attention. Is that the same for Joyce for mayor this week?

GIERACH: Won 'No. 1' slot in '94

Then again, I also remember the Netsch campaign’s response, which gained the Second ballot spot from the lottery. They contended that voters would ignore the little-known “Gierach” name on top and look to the second slot.

IT’S LIKE THEY really won the ballot lottery. Or at least that’s the political “spin” they put on the issue.

Would that make one-time Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas the big winner; since he is the one who gained the second ballot slot out of the list of 21 candidates who currently are in the running for mayor?

Putting him ahead of Number three Willie Wilson and Number four Toni Preckwinkle? Or is this all a batch of political hooey intended to try to get us to think something significant is happening – when in reality we’re still just over two months away from Election Day.

And some four months from the likely run-off election April 2 that will actually decide who will be taking the oath of office as Chicago’s new mayor come the city’s Inauguration Day in May.

THERE IS ONE part of the Joyce campaign, however, that continues to intrigue me. For it seems that the alleged Daley family ally is actually the guy who filed the legal challenge to the mayoral nominating petitions of William Daley.

DALEY: Tense times with Joyce?

Could Joyce think that, if only, he could get a Daley name off the ballot, he might actually have a chance of achieving political victory? For many of the challenges that have been filed have been done with the “logic” of kicking off the candidate who most closely resembles one’s own (such as Preckwinkle allies being behind the effort to remove Susana Mendoza from the mayoral running).

“Mayor Joyce?” I don’t know how much of a ring it has to it. Would the type of Chicagoans who think the “Daley” name is synonymous with City Hall be willing to accept it? Will the Christmas holiday greetings between the two political families be particularly tense this season?

Or could all of this merely be evidence of how inane our political procedures are capable of being?

  -30-

Green resorting to age-old tactic to gain political backers – free holiday food

‘Twas Willie Wilson, the rich guy with political aspirations (now he wants to be mayor) who got in trouble earlier this year what with his willingness to hand out cash willy-nilly to gain the goodwill of potential voters.

GREEN: Helping Altgeld Gardens

There were those (myself included) who said his actions weren’t all that different from the political people of old who would give away the free turkeys to poor people around holiday season – so as to gain their good-will (and potential votes) on Election Day.

SUCH AS JA’MAL Green, who is one of the dozens who has hinted at running for mayor in the Feb. 26 municipal elections.

It seems that Green reached out to the people who live in the city’ Altgeld Gardens public housing complex (at the city’s far southernmost tip) to help them ensure they’ll have something to eat for a Thanksgiving holiday meal.

Specifically, he helped arrange for Cornish hens to be given away to those residents. It’s not turkey – but it is something that can make for a full meal and I’m sure there are those who will appreciate the idea of being given something they can prepare themselves; rather than being asked to settle for something served on a tray at a “soup kitchen” that is serving up a few turkeys to the needy to appease their own desire to appear helpful to the needy.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported how Green made the arrangements for people to get the food, and also have an event that created something of a festive mood within Altgeld Gardens on Wednesday.

IT SHOULD BE noted that Green isn’t paying for this. Although part of his event will include checking the participants to see if they’re properly registered to vote – and helping those who aren’t to fill out the paperwork so that they will be capable of legally casting a ballot come the February election (and April 2 run-off, if it becomes necessary).

But Green found business interests in and around the 130^th Street area neighborhood who kicked in financial perks to make it possible to stage the event --- including finding a suburban automobile dealership willing to kick in a car for a raffle.

I’m sure there are those who think Green is merely buying the good will of potential voters so that they’ll keep his name in mind when they cast ballots.

WILSON: Created a stink earlier this year

Or I’m sure others will prefer to think of it as Green showing off the kind of organizational skills one would need to have if they’re truly qualified to hold an electoral office such as mayor.

IF ANYTHING, IT’S all too similar to the kind of tactics that political people have always used to try to gain support from the elements of our society who are not as financially well-off as some of us.

It shows just how cheaply a vote can be bought for.

The 2018 going rate is $7.68 each. At least that’s what Wal-mart was charging as of Wednesday for a pair of Cornish hens.

Perhaps Wilson was being overly generous earlier this year when he was handing out cash in increments of up to $100 each to people who came to him saying they had emergency bills that had to be paid off.

FOR GREEN, I’M not sure how much all of this helps. Although it did get his name in the newspaper yet again, and I’m sure his political aspirations of the future will benefit if he can create the impression that he’s a somebody.

The cost of some 21st Century votes?

He lives in the Pullman neighborhood, and I’m sure he thinks he’s merely helping the needy in a neighborhood not far from his own.

There’s nothing unusual about political people trying to publicize themselves, and get their names out. Choosing to spend a little bit of money for the public relations benefit is to be expected.

It’s when people begin to think that it’s all about the Cornish hens, or whatever other products they choose to give away, that we then have to start worrying about whether our politics are becoming too tainted.

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Campaign tactics meant to gain whatever edge candidates can get

We’re at that stage of the mayoral election cycle in which candidates are desperately trying to game the process in ways they desperately hope will give them an edge on Election Day.

The four mayoral hopefuls …

Even though many of the things they’re now going are really trivial and superficial and not likely to make one bit of difference in terms of turning out votes.

THIS IS THE election cycle in which there are no incumbents seeking a return as mayor, meaning every political dreamer with delusions of grandeur is putting themselves in the running.

Monday was the first day in which candidates could file nominating petitions, and it should be noted that aides to four people showed up at City Hall to make their claim to a ballot spot.

Jerry Joyce (a long-time Daley family friend, is he really running against William?), Toni Preckwinkle, Paul Vallas and Willie Wilson were those people, and they’re now likely to go about making claims they’re the only candidates who deserve to be taken seriously. After all, they’re dedicated enough to file early – which may give them the chance of having their names listed at the top of the list of candidates on the Feb. 26 ballot.

With the political theory being that some people are clueless and confused enough that when they cast their ballots, they vote for whoever’s name is atop the list.

… with dreams of getting … 

PRECKWINKLE, THE FORMER alderman from Hyde Park turned Cook County Board president, herself claims getting that top spot on the ballot could account for a percent or two of the vote – which in this year’s electoral mess could be enough to prevail.

Kind of scary, if you think about it.

The municipal election cycle’s most prominent post being resolved by the ballots cast by people who didn’t put any thought into WHO they were voting for – but merely cast a vote for a ballot slot!

You may have noticed that many more names have tossed themselves out for mayoral contemplation beyond the four individuals who filed early Monday morning.

… the number one mayoral spot … 

OF COURSE, THERE’S the fact that the deadline for filing is the end of business next Monday. And yes, there will be those people eager to have their names listed last on the ballot.

Because names are put on the ballot in the order that candidates file their petitions, there are bound to be a few candidates who will want to show up just before 5 p.m. so they can be absolutely last. A Dec. 5 lottery will break any ties that develop.

With the line of logic being that having one’s name at the end of a lengthy list of political dreamers is better than being stuck in the middle of the pack. Just think being seventh on a list of 13 or so candidates for mayor?

Geez, you might as well wear a millstone around your neck. Because you’re actually going to have to campaign completely on the issues and the merits of what kind of candidate you would make. And yes, that line is meant to reek heavily of sarcasm.

THERE ALWAYS IS the chance someone will show up late Thursday, only to have someone else manage to slip in just behind them. Or the risk of having someone show up at City Hall at 5:02 p.m., just a moment or so too late to file the nominating petitions you struggled to put together.

… on the Feb. 26 Election Day ballot

Which brings your political aspirations for Election ’19 coming to a crashing halt not because you were defeated at the polling place, but because your campaign dreams became irrelevant to the process.

All of which makes the activity of Monday morning running trough next Monday night an intriguing part of the process for politically geeky observers.

Because a lot of people are engaging in actions now that will seem downright trivial and irrelevant come May when one of these people takes the oath of office promising not to totally embarrass themselves as mayor – and everybody else will have their heads filled with fantasies about how much better qualified they would have been IF ONLY the voters had come to their senses.

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