Meeks beat
Monday, May 1, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
The Star’s columnist David Johnson points out that the south suburbs are playing a key role in the governor’s race so far.
The southern suburbs of Chicago will prove to be pivotal in determining who will be governor of Illinois in the next election. Two of Chicago’s most dynamic political figures, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. and state Sen. James Meeks, are spending huge amounts of political capital in an attempt to get Gov. Rod Blagojevich to move in the right direction.
For Congressman Jackson, it is getting the governor to merely live up to his word. The governor said he supports the Jackson proposal for a privately funded airport in unincorporated Will County.
All the governor has to do, according the congressman, is lease the land to ALNAC. The governor’s position is he will not do so until there is a consensus in the region. It is not clear how that consensus will be built.
Sen. Meeks wants to see the governor step up to plate and provide the requisite dollars to fund high-quality education in Illinois. Meeks has threatened to launch a run for the governor’s mansion if his friend does not do the right thing.
This past week the leader of one of Chicago’s mega-churches expressed his displeasure with a recent conversation with the governor. In other words, the governor has placed the ball back in the court of preacher-politician Meeks.
- Lovie's Leather - Monday, May 1, 06 @ 9:49 am:
If Meeks is still in late July, I will start to believe he actually will run… until then… just more media dogma….
- VanillaMan - Monday, May 1, 06 @ 10:28 am:
Meeks and Jackson want their district to receive it’s due after years of neglect. Blagojevich isn’t delivering, and feels that he doesn’t need to. This region has voted locked-step for Democrats as lousy as Savage or Mel Reynolds, so Blagojevich doesn’t see a reason to deal.
Although Meeks could ruin Blagojevich’s re-election chances, Blagojevich has called Meeks’ bluff. Now Meeks has no other choice but to squalk and roll over, or squalk and run against him. Why is Blagojevich ignoring Meeks and Jackson?
Because he wants to show them who is boss. He recognizes that you cannot threaten his re-election when you sit in a district that votes 80% Democratic. Blagojevich is proving the adage that dependable voter districts are ignored voter districts. After a generation of blindly voting Democratic, these Democratic voters are learning a hard truth: you have to be competative politically, to get political benefits. Jackson and Meeks is trying to get their lemming voters politically competative.
Blagojevich is playing footsie with Farrakan for a reason. He is also supporting white Democratic voters in the region through Debbie Halverson. Blagojevich is working the region without going through Jackson or Meeks in an effort to isolate them.
There is a reason why Chicago is hurting. It is because no new ideas are coming from competative political parties. If you look at single party cities, you see stagnant economies and corruption. You can play this game for a generation, but you cannot let one party rule a city for 70 years without it falling apart.
There is only one game in this town. Jackson, Meeks, Halverson, Blagojevich, Mell and Daley all got where they are playing it. Unless Meeks and Jackson are willing to declare a civil war within the Democratic party, they needed to continue letting their district rot and vote party-line, or cut and run.
This is a poker game. Blagojevich has successfully called Meeks’ bluff by pretending to be open minded regarding Meeks’ education issue. Then Rod washed his hands of any responsibilities for education funding and started pointing fingers, throwing the hot potato back to Meeks. Blagojevich is using Halverson to keep Jackson from getting an airport deal, knowing that there is no consensus in the district with Halverson blocking Jackson’s proposals.
Meeks has the wild card, and Jackson’s financial backing. Blagojevich is betting Meeks folds before using them.
- Anonymous - Monday, May 1, 06 @ 12:00 pm:
Meeks and Jackson want their district to receive it’s due after years of neglect.
VanillaMan
What is due to the district?
How has that district, as opposed to all the others, been neglected for years?
- VanillaMan - Monday, May 1, 06 @ 3:13 pm:
For the past 40 years, this district has been used as a dumping ground for the poor. Because of it’s location in Cook County, the district has been used to warehouse poor Chicagoans. This region has the lowest real estate value, yet power brokers like Jackson continue to push for “affordable housing” in cities like Harvey, Chicago Heights and surrounding suburbs. The poorest suburb in the US is found here - Ford Heights. Jackson and Meeks represent a region of Illinois similar in some ways to Haiti.
After the 1968 riots, this district became a lab for government social welfare programs. Businesses moved out as local governments focused on providing social services over business services. This region became the land of housing projects, Section 8 housing, fatherless families, gangs, crime, and failing schools. White flight has caused a housing boom in Indiana, where Merrillville, Sherrillville, Dyer, and Crown Point have undergone trememdous population explosions of working families searching for safe affordable housing.
This region has been hit by the 21st Century. Steel mills, manufacturing plants, and blue collar jobs have been leaving since 1979. With a generation of Republican leadership in Springfield, this Democratic region was ignored. Now that the Democrats finally have the governorship and the General Assembly, these dependable Democratic voters are looking for their chance to fix their schools, mend their roads, clean up their toxic neighborhood slag piles, tear down vacant squalor, and get the funds to build a future.
The reason we have seen the rise of Reverend Meeks and Louis Farrakan is due to the vaccuum created over the past 40 years. The reason we saw Prince Jesse Jr move into town was to claim a congressional district without political leadership. This district has definately been ignored for far too long and is demanding it’s due for 40 years of Democratic political support.
We are witnesses to what happens when a region is only supported by welfare checks and ignored by both political parties. It creates independant power players without party ties like Farrakan and Meeks.
Now that they are demanding attention, they are discovering that they cannot demand political dues when their voters have shown for so long a blind willingness to support anyone with a (D) next to their name on the ballot. Republicans write it off, and Democrats don’t need to patronize them.
- Merlin - Monday, May 1, 06 @ 4:22 pm:
Meeks has put Blago in a no win situation. If he does not buckle to his money demands he will run against him and take away votes. If he does cave in and sell the tollway he will be branded a wimp who was extorted by the preacher and sold off assets to appease him. Not a good way of getting votes either.
- Levois - Monday, May 1, 06 @ 11:46 pm:
Blago is starting to look more like he got lucky and Blago doesn’t even know it.