Rauner reaches out to deprive Quinn of black voter bloc in upcoming election

Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Rauner made a point earlier this year of touting the number of African-American ministers willing to publicly endorse him.

 

It’s not that large a number in terms of the totality of clergy ministering to black neighborhoods on the South and West sides. But it could impact the number of votes that turn out for Gov. Pat Quinn just enough that the hard-core GOPers of Illinois could be enough supporters to actually win a statewide election.

 

RAUNER IS CONTINUING to emphasize that theme of reaching out to black voters. On Friday, his campaign operation opened up a new office on 79^th Street in the Grand Crossing neighborhood.

 

It will be out of that South Side office that his operations to try to appeal to black voters (or at least discourage them from getting all worked up over Quinn come Nov. 4) will take place.

 

Which is unique because most Republican campaigns for higher office generally tend to ignore African-American oriented communities – they’d prefer to pretend that they don’t exist. Which is the real reason black voters can go 90 percent in favor of Democratic Party candidates for public office.

 

Rauner even went so far as to show up for the Saturday take on the Bud Billiken Day parade – the Chicago Defender-sponsored parade that is meant to mark the end of summer and get children excited about the start of a new school year.

 

POLITICIANS OFTEN SHOW up at the parade through the Bronzeville neighborhood, but they usually are of the Democratic persuasion. Most Republicans act as though they have never heard of the parade. Then again, these are the same types of people who in Naperville have a Labor Day weekend parade that they prefer to call an “end of summer” parade.

 

Celebrate labor and workers? Harumph! You might as well start waving about the hammer and sickle to those people.

 

Rauner’s presence actually created a side angle to the campaign story. For it seems on Saturday there was a shooting incident near the parade route (two men were wounded – one in the derriere) that caused parade-watchers to scatter for safety not far from where the candidate from suburban Winnetka was greeting voters.

 

For the record, Rauner aides say they don’t think the candidate was aware of what was going on, and that they didn’t hear gunshots.

 

BUT I’M SURE on a certain level, Rauner is going to try to claim some credit for showing up in “da hood” – although if this evolves into a story of him having his life and limbs on the line while campaigning for governor, THAT is something we ought to call him out on!

 

Some of you may be saying I’m exaggerating what could happen. Maybe so, but let’s also be honest and admit that “truthfulness” is not something that campaigns of any candidacy or political persuasion let get in the way of a storyline – particularly if it makes the opposition look bad.

 

So what should we think of Rauner’s recent efforts to get black voters to not think of him as the enemy? I noticed the statement he put out when he opened that new campaign field office included a raft of statistics (17 percent African-American unemployment rate, worse than for Latinos, Asians or white people) that were due to “Pat Quinn’s failed leadership.”

 

Yet no mention of what Rauner himself might do to try to bolster employment among African-American people; which some might say is enhanced by the desires of so many GOPers to ignore outright the concerns of that community.

 

  -30-

Does Trot mean more than Richard? Is Milhous merely a Simpsons character?

It has been 40 years since the date that Richard M. Nixon became the only U.S. president to voluntarily leave office – resigning the term that should have run through January 1977 so as to reduce the chance of criminal prosecution.

Because for those whose memories are too short (or who believe nothing occurred prior to Bill Clinton), the mood of the nation toward “Watergate” was ugly enough that Nixon likely would have been impeached by the House of Representatives, then convicted by the Senate.

HE BEAT THE partisans who were out for blood (and who would have loved nothing more than the sight of Nixon serving time in a federal correctional facility), then was spared the possibility of prosecution when – a month later – he was pardoned for anything he might have done by his successor.

But the passage of time, along with the ideologue atmosphere we now live in, makes me wonder if anybody comprehends what we went through back then.

I’ll be the first to admit not fully understanding the happenings back when they occurred. Although I was only 8 years old (6 back when the actual burglary at the Watergate building in Washington actually occurred).

My memory of 40 years ago today was the encyclopedia salesman who showed up at our home that night and made his pitch to my parents – with one of his selling points being that the book was so up-to-date that it included mention of Gerald R. Ford as our new president – which actually didn’t occur until the following day.

I ALSO HAVE memories of going to college (mid-1980s) with people who considered themselves politically-aware who were taught that the whole “Watergate” affair was little more than a plot by “liberals” to discredit a worthy president – with the actual actions not amounting to much!

Since then, we have had many more generations of young people come along. I wonder how many of them think of Cynthia (“Miranda” from “Sex and the City”) or Trot (of the Boston Red Sox) first when they hear the name “Nixon.”

And as for “Milhous,” wasn’t that Bart Simpson’s animated friend?

I wonder how many people are reading all the 40-year anniversary pieces about Nixon’s resignation and are viewing it as more evidence of old farts who can’t move on with their lives. Perhaps they think a real story with lingering interest is whether or not Tupac Shakur is really dead?

IF THEY THINK of Gordon Liddy at all, he’s that bald guy who goes around saying things like President Barack Obama is an “illegal alien born in Kenya” (he really said that on MSNBC). Not as the one-time FBI agent who wound up doing the most prison time of anyone for his Watergate involvement.

The simple fact is that “Watergate” (as in the burglary and attempt to install an illegal wiretap at the Democratic National Headquarters located back then in the Watergate building in southwestern D.C.) was a stupid incident that should have been a one-day story – if not for the fact that the Nixon administration’s reaction to the embarrassment they would have felt for being involved in such an act was to plot the cover-up – with the president personally getting involved.

It created an administration that believed it could break the law for its own benefit.

For those who go about these days screeching “Impeachment” in connection with Obama and who rant about his talk of executive orders to get certain things done (seriously, I have a distant cousin who at a recent family gathering couldn’t shut up about all the “illegal executive orders” that Obama was allegedly issuing), it’s not even close.

NOT JUST BECAUSE the Obama talk is a reaction to the refusal of Republican partisans in Congress to do anything. The difference between wanting to admit refugee children from Latin American nations into the United States and wanting illegal wiretaps so as to listen in on the political opposition is just so grand.

As for Nixon himself, I’ll be the first to concede great actions such as the normalization of relations with China and creation of federal regulations in areas such as the environment – actions that the ideologues would love to dismantle, if given the chance.

But he’s also the man whose “Southern Strategy” of the 1968 campaign cycle (so soon after the Civil Rights Act of 1964) made it clear that some political people were more than willing to work with the segregationists of old.

And as for the break-in that resulted in Nixon’s televised resignation speech 40 years ago today (Chicago Cubs fans probably think it more important that 26 years ago, they tried to play the first night game at Wrigley Field, only to have it cancelled due to inclement weather), the pettiness of the act shows that the nation probably did need to get beyond the “Nixon years” sooner, rather than later.

  -30-                                                     

To listen to the business-oriented types, Walgreen’s should have left Illinois

I’m always suspicious of people who rant and rage about our local governments being anti-business.


They have an attitude that at times seems to think government is to be subservient to business. Whereas I have always viewed its purpose as to maintain a balance between the interests of government and others in our society.


SO WHAT SHOULD we make of the recent decision by Walgreens, which recently purchased a significant interest in a British pharmaceuticals company, to keep its corporate headquarters in suburban Deerfield rather than shift it to the United Kingdom – a move that would have significantly reduced the new, larger company’s tax burden.


The move created a lot of political hostility. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., was leading efforts to penalize the company if they made the move, and both President Barack Obama and Gov. Pat Quinn both made it clear they supported Durbin.


But when the decision became publicly known this week, Wall Street reacted negatively. Word that the company wasn’t going to move and seek lower tax obligations caused the stock market to plunge.


The value of shares of stock in Walgreens began to drop Tuesday afternoon, then fell by 14 percent Wednesday morning. Stock traders had it valued at $59.62 per share on Wednesday – significantly lower than the $76.39 per share all-time high the stock hit back in mid-June.


THOSE PEOPLE WOULD have considered the company to have made the smart move by literally making the overseas move.


Now I don’t know that I buy into the Durbin rhetoric about Walgreens losing its customers by making the overseas move because we’re “too patriotic” to support a British company.


Despite the people who spew “Buy American” rhetoric, I often sense that people will go for whoever will give them the cheapest price on any particular good or service they desire.


CVS probably would mop the floor with Walgreens if they could undercut the competition at the cash register – regardless of where Walgreens is located.


BUT I DID think that the decision to remain in the Chicago area was a positive one, and not just because I can’t keep count of all the times I have made a Walgreens purchase during my lifetime.


It is one of those companies that has become an innocuous part of what it means to be a Chicagoan. Yet those who only view the bottom line would have wished for a move.

What should we think of the political ramifications of this move? After all, our top political officials were all ready to crucify Walgreens for wanting to make an overseas move for financial reasons.

All except for Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., who to the best of my knowledge never said anything about the issue, and likely would have kept quiet if the move had taken place.


HELPING TO KEEP a corporate presence in Illinois ought to be something we think a government official ought to do. Perhaps it is something we ought to take into account as a positive when trying to figure if Quinn is worthy of another term in office.


It will be interesting to see if Republican challenger Bruce Rauner somehow tries to use this against the governor in the weeks leading up to Election Day. Because Durbin's Senate challenger, James Oberweis, on Wednesday said Dick deserves "scorn, not praise," for taking his Walgreens-related stance. Will Rauner feel compelled to say the same about Pat? Or will he have the sense to keep his mouth shut on this issue?


I’m sure from the perspective of those people whose business orientation overtakes all other sense of our society, they can come up with a way to justify blasting Quinn for his viewpoint on the Walgreens issue.


But perhaps the rest of us ought to take this set of circumstances and keep it in mind as evidence that perhaps the rhetoric of Quinn being “anti-business” isn’t as simple-minded as they’d have us believe and that perhaps he’s doing a few things right!

  -30-

Can rural really prevail over Chicago?

I remember my first college roommate, a native of downstate Normal, explaining to me the downstate perception of Chicago by telling me a large part of the complication is that many residents of the "rest of Illinois" think on a different scale and do not comprehend just how much larger the Second City is compared to other Illinois municipalities.


I also once had a professional counterpart (a Southern Illinois native) who seriously believed the Illinois Legislature should be split into 102 districts -- one for each county. That would allow for one legislator per area.


I COULDN'T HELP but be reminded of them when I learned Wednesday of the interview that state Sen. William Brady, R-Bloomington, gave to the major radio station in his home city.


He said that the key to a Rauner victory is for that campaign to build upon the fact that when Brady ran for governor in 2010, he wound up winning 98 of the 102 counties.


As though one more rural county would have pushed Brady over the top, and sent Pat Quinn to political retirement some four years ago.


Not quite. There are rural counties whose entire populations are dinkier than our smallest of suburbs.


ACTUALLY, WHAT RAUNER has been trying to achieve is to avoid doing what Brady did -- becoming so identified with downstate Illinois (yes, I know Rockford is actually north of Chicago, but arguing over the label's legitimacy is an issue for a future commentary) that it actually motivated Chicagoans who otherwise wouldn't have cared about governor to actually vote.


We didn't want the 'bumpkin' in office working against us Chicagoans, so we voted against them. Thus far, Quinn's attempts to make Rauner out to be the "rich" guy with nothing in common with 99.99999 percent of us  is not anywhere near as effective.


Hence, the various polls showing Rauner with leads of different sizes.


The key to this gubernatorial election is going to be which people actually bother to vote -- always a complicated factor for state government elections because many Chicago people who consider themselves politically aware are so focused on the City Hall scene that they just don't get worked up over their state legislator; whom they view either as an alderman-in-training or some knucklehead not qualified for a post at the Hall.


TURN THIS INTO a debate about economic issues, as perceived by the wealthy amongst us who view government as not favoring their interests enough, and Rauner may well win.


If people keep in mind the fact that we'd be more like Indiana on the social issues if not for the efforts of Quinn in recent years, then he may wind up with enough votes on Election Day for another four years.


At which time we'll get to see if Quinn was being honest when he said earlier this year that he would consider this his last run for electoral office -- and would finally bring his time in public life to an end come January of 2019.


  -30-

We're lucky that Lake Michigan water isn’t all “Erie” like that in Toledo

I experienced a sense of relief Monday morning when I learned that local officials once again proclaimed their water supply safe for drinking.


Let’s face it. The home of the Mudhens baseball team (who this season may well be better than either of our allegedly “Major League” franchises) experienced a problem this weekend that could just as easily occur in Chicago.

BOTH CITIES RELY on the Great Lakes for their fresh water drinking supply. We may make jokes about Lake Erie. But it really isn’t all that different from Lake Michigan from which we take.

The algae bloom that developed near a structure used by Toledo to draw water from Lake Erie to plants where it is treated before being put into the system where it eventually comes out of the faucets in peoples’ residences is something that could happen here.

It could easily be us someday experiencing a stretch of time when we’re alerted to NOT drink the water or cook with it, or even try to bathe in it if it turns out we’re particularly sensitive physically.

If Mayor Rahm Emanuel has any sense, he’ll do whatever it takes to reduce the odds that any such incident were ever to occur on the southwestern shores of Lake Michigan.

WE CLAIM MICHAEL Bilandic got dumped as mayor because his city let a heavy winter storm get out of control. Just envision how we’d demonize a mayor who let the lake get tainted – even for a few days.

That might well be the only circumstances under which Robert Shaw could actually win the mayoral election cycle coming up next year.

The fact is that the algae bloom that caused the problem in Toledo is a part of nature – or at least nature interacting with the human species.

A notice issued by Toledo city officials during the weekend said such bloom is caused by runoff from over-fertilized farm fields, livestock pens or malfunctioning septic systems.

WE COULD EASILY have similar circumstances occur in Chicago if we’re not careful.

In fact, there are times I think it is miraculous that the water from the Chicago River – which at one time was toxic but is now merely polluted – doesn’t routinely cause problems for the Lake Michigan water supply that the city relies on both in terms of a drinking supply and a source of revenue for the hundreds of suburbs it sells water access to.

It often is called one of the engineering marvels of modern-day society that the flow of the Chicago River was reversed so that the pollution flows downstate across Illinois and ultimately to the Mississippi River.

It is a good part of the reason why I am skeptical of those people who fear the concept of Asian Carp getting into Lake Michigan, who try to blame the river’s reversal as some sort of unnatural act that caused the potential problem, and want it reversed back to the way Mother Nature had it before there was a “Chicago” on the shores of Lake Michigan.

THEY’D HAVE A heck of a lot of contaminates wind up in our city’s drinking water supply. To such a degree that we’d be an even bigger news story than what occurred in Toledo this weekend – and which seems to have come to an end Monday morning.

The people of Toledo will soon be back to turning on their faucet if they want a drink of water. While we ought to hope we never experience such a state of affairs.

Because the levels needed to contaminate water aren’t that large – CNN reported Monday morning that one drop would be sufficient to taint a swimming pool. The part of Lake Michigan that Chicago draws water from may be much larger, but could still be tainted.

Just think how unpleasant a place Chicago would become if we had to go for a stretch of time without showering? Particularly in the midst of summer? Peee-yoooo!

  -30-

BRADY & CALLAHAN: Blasts from political past, or our present loss?

The Illinois political scene lost a pair of individuals who provided a sense of institutional memory in the form of officials who went on to be significant in federal government, while never forgetting just where they came from.


The death of James Brady, the one-time Reagan-era White House press secretary turned into an avid gun control activist after being shot in that 1981 assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan himself, came the same day as the death of Gene Callahan.


FOR THOSE WHOSE memories aren’t quite as deep, he was a one-time advisor to Paul Simon when he was Illinois lieutenant governor, then became an advisor to the recently-departed Alan Dixon when he served in the U.S. Senate.


Callahan, who was 80, had just as active a post-government payroll life. For a time, he was the Washington-based lobbyist for Major League baseball. His political spirit will live on in a sense through Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., who in addition to being the member of Congress from the Quad Cities is also his daughter.


I remember encountering both Brady and Callahan during my 1990s stint as a reporter-type person at the Statehouse in Springfield when they would return to the capital city to promote their causes and/or keep up their contacts.


What was always clear about both was that although their lives had taken them far from the rural Illinois communities where they were raised (Brady from Centralia, Callahan from Milford), neither had forgotten where they came from and how they got their starts here.


CALLAHAN WAS A columnist with what is now the Springfield-based Journal-Register newspaper when he became a political operative with Simon back when he was our local guy rather than any national figure.


Brady, who was73, had a whole laundry list of political officials he worked for prior to becoming part of the Nixon and Ford administrations in the White House. But the first of them was Everett McKinley Dirksen of Pekin.




While Brady was a life-long Republican and Callahan tended to work for Democrats, what I remember hearing from both of them was the need for a bipartisan cooperation.


I haven’t heard from either man in years, but somehow I suspect they were among the dismayed officials who couldn’t help but wonder where we went wrong in electing officials to government posts who were more determined to create stalemates as their lasting legacy.


NOTHING GETS ACCOMPLISHED. Whoopee!!!!


Heck, Brady eventually was able to persuade Reagan himself to accept the idea that some legal restrictions on firearms was not a national surrender to the “Commies” – the way some ideologues want to perceive it.


It’s really a shame that both men are now gone. Because I wonder if what our political culture really needs these days is a good healthy dose of more people just like them.


  -30-

Rauner leads Quinn; is that shocking at this stage of Ill. electoral game?

I do believe one bit of truth is coming out of the assorted results of polls commissioned for the Illinois governor’s race – Republican challenger Bruce Rauner probably does have more supporters at this moment than does Gov. Pat Quinn.

But does that mean I’m convinced this campaign cycle is effectively over? Or that Quinn ought to hang his head in shame and failure for the next three months?

OF COURSE NOT!

My gut feeling says that the poll released Monday by the We Ask America organization (whose results often tend to lean toward GOP candidates, no matter who commissions the studies) is considerably off, and that anybody who’s taking its results seriously is going to be disappointed.

You know which poll I’m talking about – the one that had Rauner leading Quinn by a 14-point margin. As in 47 percent for Rauner and 33 percent for Quinn. A sitting governor in a state whose population leans toward his party only gets 33 percent voter support?!?

That’s so laughable a concept that it ought to discredit the results right away.

SO WHEN I learned of a poll commissioned by the Illinois Education Association that gives Rauner only a 4 point lead (46 percent for Rauner to 42 percent for Quinn), somehow that seemed more realistic.

Now I’ll be the first to concede that the teachers’ union that represents many suburban school districts has already thrown its endorsement lot in with Quinn. So they have a stake in making him look as strong as possible.

Just as the people who are all too eager to want to believe a 14-point lead are ones who have a stake in making Quinn look ineffectual. Polling data is the ultimate evidence that numbers can be used to tell just about any story imaginable.

Numbers can tell stinkin’ lies, if used in certain ways.

PERSONALLY, I’M ALWAYS most interested in checking out the “undecided” category when it comes to electoral polls. How many people can’t make up their mind about who they want.

It just seems that this election cycle is one where the undecided factor is higher than usual. Although we have just over 90 days to go prior to Election Day. People are going to change their mind.

Which makes these numbers all so uncertain and unreliable.

It also fits in with the anecdotal evidence I have seen in talking with people who are capable of voting on Nov. 4 (or earlier if they use one of the Early Voting Centers to cast a ballot).

I HONESTLY BELIEVE that Rauner already has every single supporter he’s going to get on Election Day. Anybody who hasn’t already decided they’re voting for him isn’t going to do so, and nothing is going to change their minds.

And yet even in that 14-point lead poll, Rauner has 47 percent voter support. Which isn’t enough to win – unless you believe that any of the fringe candidates running for governor will actually catch on amongst the electorate and come close to taking more than 1 percent of the vote.

Those undecideds, if they get off their duffs and cast votes, may well wind up going for Quinn. Unless they decide that they could care less about either candidate, and they wind up voting for nobody.

Which is a real possibility, and is the basis of the Rauner campaign strategy to discourage votes amongst certain people. Quinn has to motivate them to think that they should care about his campaign, even though many of these people are psyching themselves up for the February 2015 mayoral election (and potential April 2015 runoff) to try to get Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, or anybody else, to beat Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

THIS IS WHY I remain convinced this is Quinn’s election to lose, even though long-time political observer Larry Sabato this week shifted his analysis saying Illinois has gone from being a “toss-up” to “leans Republican” when it comes to governor.

If Quinn can get his supporters to care enough to get out to the polls and vote as he did in 2010 against Republican William Brady then he’s going to give us evidence to the old adage that, “The only poll that matters is the one on Election Day.”

And if he can’t, then his campaign has no one else to blame for their failure than themselves.

  -30-