* The biggest news over the holiday break was Danny Davis dropping out of the mayor’s race, which left Carol Moseley Braun as the only major black candidate…
Braun and Davis had met repeatedly behind closed doors in recent days amid pressure to emerge with a single, consensus black candidate. The decisive meeting came earlier Friday, after Meeks returned to town.
Davis’ departure clears the way for Braun to run as the only major African American candidate in a crowded field that also includes former presidential chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, former School Board President Gery Chico and City Clerk Miguel del Valle. […]
Davis called Braun “an outstanding woman” and introduced her as “the next mayor.”
A smiling Braun hugged both Davis and Meeks before saying their combined goal is to “reinvigorate our city.”
“We will create a city that works for all people in every neighborhood,” Braun said.
* Perhaps the second biggest story was Carol Mosely Braun’s mouth. Ms. Braun was the high-road candidate for US Senate back in 1992. Not any longer…
In response to a critical column, Chicago mayoral candidate Carol Mosley Braun lashed out [last week] against Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg.
“I’m just going to tell the truth about these things. He is a drunk and a wife beater, and he insulted the entire African-American community in Chicago. And the Sun-Times, particularly based on its demographic … ought to do better by Chicagoans than to give this man a continual platform for his divisive rantings in the newspaper,” said Braun at a news conference.
From Steinberg’s column…
Alas, after February we won’t have Carol Moseley Braun to kick around anymore, and I for one will feel the loss. She represents the egomaniacal muddle that Chicago black leadership has slid into, where calls for imaginary and self-destructive racial solidarity trump minor concerns like reason or history. […]
I hope some ambitious University of Chicago sociology graduate student does her masters thesis on the search for a so-called “consensus” candidate among the marginalized black power structure in Chicago; it would make for a fascinating study in magical thinking.
His follow-up…
That I’m a drunk is no denying — reformed, with years of sobriety under my belt. I never made a secret of it, indeed wrote a book about it and am proud of my progress. That she feels recovery is some kind of low indictment just shows how clueless she is. The second accusation is a bald lie, and if Braun ever runs into my wife, she can expect to receive an even worse earful than I’ve ever dished out. Then I guess Braun will picket our house.
* Braun also took a swing at Rahm Emanuel…
Braun also used the press conference as an opportunity to further question frontrunner Rahm Emanuel’s candidacy. After saying that “everybody in this room knows [Rahm] doesn’t live here,” she criticized former President Clinton’s endorsement of Emanuel.
“We know that Mr. Clinton and Emanuel have a relationship,” Braun said in a statement. “But if Rahm is going to invite his buddies to Chicago to campaign for him then he ought to invite his friend Bart Stupak, who along with Rahm took a woman’s right to choose out of the health care bill. He ought to invite his buddy Tom Tancredo who blocked the Dream Act. Or he can have his friend Leland Brendsel stop by. Brendsel was in charge of Freddie Mac and played a huge role in the mortgage meltdown, and was a major Rahm contributor.”
More…
Braun said Emanuel is an outsider because “for one thing, he doesn’t live here.” She was referring to questions about whether Emanuel meets residency eligibility requirements to run for mayor. The Chicago Board of Elections last week ruled Emanuel is a resident and ballot-eligible. That ruling has been appealed in court and could ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.
“Everybody in this room knows he doesn’t live here,” Braun told reporters. “He had to go search for wedding dresses hidden in the basement to even make the case he had a residence. I mean, come on.”
* And she dissed Police Superintendent Jody Weis…
“The superintendent, again, is not from here, doesn’t understand the city. [He had] to learn it [and] get a guide book out. You need to get somebody who knows Chicago to run the Chicago Police Department,” Carol Moseley Braun said at a press event to outline her own plans to reduce crime.
* But this tidbit should’ve received more attention…
Braun has allotted $5 million for the campaign, including a run-off if needed.
That ain’t much, particularly if there’s a runoff. And campaign contributions are now capped, so the cash won’t flood in if she wins the runoff like it would’ve in the past.
* Related…
* Long road to ‘consensus’ black candidate: Braun ramped up the pressure on Davis on Friday, sending out a news release that Meeks’ heaviest-hitting business backers, Com Ed executives Frank Clark and John Hooker, were joining her campaign. About 5 p.m., Meeks called Braun and told her to come to Davis’ office — he’d be pulling out to endorse her.
* Moseley Braun says she’s most qualified for mayor’s job: Chico instantly tried to portray both Braun and Emanuel as ” Washington, D.C., politicians” while saying he has worked for years in Chicago, serving on boards and as Daley’s chief of staff. “I succeeded in every public service position I held because I built coalitions across ethnic and racial lines,” Chico said in a statement.
* Moseley Braun tours Meeks’ church in show of African-American unity in Chicago mayoral contest: “Rev. Meeks decided that he was going to fight for his congregation and remain as pastor,” Braun said to thunderous applause. “Congressman Davis decided he was going to fight for the 7th Congressional District.”
* Chicago has changed, but black leaders playing old, racial games
* Teacher coalition calls for elected school board
* Top Mayoral candidates opposed to elected Chicago school board idea: Three candidates — former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, ex-U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun and Gery Chico, who once served as Chicago Board of Education president — each said they are opposed to the idea and argued it could further politicize public education in Chicago.
* Will Chicago think big after Daley?
* Candidate Del Valle wouldn’t defend parking meter contract
* Del Valle: Chicago’s parking meter contract is ‘crazy‘
* Rahm Emanuel’s White House experience cuts both ways in Chicago mayor’s race: Based on that philosophy, some of Emanuel’s mayoral foes say he obstructed comprehensive immigration reform because it would hurt Democrats at the polls. Some also hold him responsible for Congress’ failure to pass the DREAM Act, the residency bill for children of undocumented immigrants. Emanuel was noticeably silent on the issue. When asked where he stands, Emanuel reverted to his personal story as the “son and grandson of immigrants.” He also said that while he was in Congress, he sponsored or co-sponsored comprehensive immigration reform every year.
* 2011 brings battles over budgets, mayor
* City water revenues seeping away
* CHA boss has security detail, too
* Alderman of Madigan ward stepping down: The decisions by both [Alderman] Olivo and [Marty] Quinn to file nominating petitions raised eyebrows because both are so close to the speaker. But the 13th Ward Democrats last month told Sun-Times columnist Rich Miller, who also runs the Capitol Fax newsletter and blog, that Olivo was “awaiting final clearance from physicians” to seek another term. “Quinn filed as a precaution,” Miller reported.
* VIDEO: 53rd Ward Alderman Ed Bus makes a surprise appearance
- bored now - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 5:10 am:
is alloted like budgeted? or does it mean that she has $5M of her own money to spend?
somehow, i’m thinking if she was that aggressive in fund-raising, i’d have heard something…
- wordslinger - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 6:59 am:
Danny Davis and Meeks dropped out? Wow, I didn’t see that coming. So out of character. I guess anything under a sure 80% vote is too risky a race.
I’m not a big fan of Steinberg’s writing (navel-gazing, mostly), but Braun’s cheap shots were below the fold. The dude’s an admitted alcoholic and is working to go sober. Is that how they talk about folks seeking redemption at that church she was standing up at over the holidays?
- Skeeter - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 7:13 am:
The “drunk” comment was typical of CMB in that she speaks without thinking.
Would she prefer that he be locked up? Does she think a history of addiction should be a bar to a job?
Now, how would that play with the problems in certain Chicago communities? What is her solution to dealing with the problem of drugs?
- Skeeter - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 7:18 am:
And with regard to the money that CMB will “praise” — before this campaign started, her campaign committee was at about negative 250,000. Maybe she intends to SPEND that much, but not necessarily RAISE it.
- lakeview - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 8:31 am:
I thought it was interesting that one of Meeks’ concerns was the financial disclosure form. No vow of poverty for clergy at Salem!
And CMB? Oh, my. She squandered so much good will from the voters way back when. I suppose it’s good that she changed, but it would be nice if she had changed for the better. Steinberg has been brutally honest about all of his problems and his hard work to overcome them. Maybe CMB should follow suit.
- Walter Sobchak - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 9:24 am:
What great fun! At least Carol is injecting some life into a race that was a preordained stitch up for Rahm. Some of her broadsides are on target and a dust up between she and the ponderous pontificating Neil Steinberg is of Onion quality material. It will even be further fun as the racial fault lines within the Democratic Party are laid bare.
- Loop Lady - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 9:39 am:
Carol took a totally cheap shot at Steinberg…prop yourself up by knocking someone else’s behavior of several years past is a true sign of a classy candidate and campaign…hey Carol, have you paid off your previous campaign debts yet and gone to Jenny Craig to drop 50? Don’t dish it out if ya can’t take it…
- Alas.... - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 9:40 am:
alas for CMB - we won’t get fooled again.
- centrist - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 9:54 am:
Chico just announced that he has raised $2.5 million through the end of the year. That probably puts him on pace to raise about $4-$4.5 million for the first round. Far less than Rahm but adequate to get his message out to the whole electorate. I doubt if CMB can raise anywhere closet to $5 million, even if she does get into the runoff. I’m guessing she’ll have substantially less than $2 million for the first round. But she might get into the runoff (if there is one) anyway.
- Plutocrat03 - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 10:08 am:
How does someone who owes a boatload of money from the last time she ran for public office ‘budget’ to spend $5 mil?
Who are the puppet-masters behind pushing the most unqualified candidate on the mayoral list forward?
- PPHS - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 10:10 am:
I wonder how hard Bill Clinton laughed when he heard that Danny Davis was out?
This whole Chicago election season is so strange (already) that it wouldn’t be believable in a novel.
- hammer - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 10:21 am:
While I do find the Steinberg/Braun beef deplorable I have to mention the article where Steinberg started this fight, teasing Braun that she’d never win and that he might write future articles about how she would’ve screwed up if she were mayor. As well he dismissed the black community on the whole as a viable electoral body.
I dislike what Braun said and the manner in which it was said (in the process, she proved her detractors correct that she isn’t ready for primetime), but something needed to be said.
- Skeptic - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 10:32 am:
Carol will be toast once the ads start coming out detailing her senate record and ethical challenges.
- cermak_rd - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 10:35 am:
The Steinberg Mosley-Braun tussle is fascinating in a sort of aliens v. zombies way–I don’t really care who wins it’s just fun to see what tricks they can get up to.
I found her dig at Weis to be off target. Yes. He’s not from here and that’s part of the point of hiring the man. He has at least managed to shake up the CPD and get patrols to rough spots of town and stopped some of the cozy beats for seniority type of nonsense that has gone on in the past. The boys in blue may not like it, but many of us don’t like our bosses.
- Capitol View - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 10:39 am:
Of the three Af-Am community candidates, I hold Carol Mosley Braun in the least regard. I had some dealings with Congress back when she served in the Senate, and she was known for not making it to meetings,showing up late for events, thinking that she could charm or smile her way through anything. If I remember correctly, she was considered the least influential member of the Senate in the annual anonymous rating by fellow legislators and staff. I cannot imagine that she can handle the detail work necessarily part of being mayor of a major city.
Republicans say that they want to nominate the most winnable of their conservatives to run against Obama in 2012. Is Carol Mosley Braun really the most winnable of the entire Chicago Af-Am community? Isn’t there respect for competence, accomplishment, and demonstrated leadership among her core base?
Or is the old saw still holding that Cook County government belongs to the Af-Ams community, and City Hall to the rest of the city voters?
- amalia - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 10:41 am:
“I’m not paid $110,00 to think.” Ed Bus wow, this quote could have come from a number of aldercreatures! very amusing video. anyone know who “Ed Bus” is?
- wordslinger - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 10:52 am:
I thought the Weis shot was cheap, and wink to the required-to-live-in-the-city command that folks would be moving up if she got the job.
By the way, when Braun was calling out Weis, the Trib was reporting Chicago finished the year with fewest murders since 1965 and that the overall crime rate was down, again.
- titan - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 11:02 am:
hammer - “While I do find the Steinberg/Braun beef deplorable I have to mention the article where Steinberg started this fight …. As well he dismissed the black community on the whole as a viable electoral body.”
One of the realities of public service is that the press gets to throw bricks at you, and you don’t get to throw them back.
As to dismissing the ethnic block, it would seem that the people having only one such as Braun as their ’standard bearer’ does that, the writer merely called attention to the fact of it.
- Fed-Up - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 11:05 am:
CMB is not the sharpest tool in the shed but it looks as if she will inject some fun into the primary!
- Cheryl44 - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 11:19 am:
CMB made me realize I shouldn’t vote for women just because they’re women.
- Loop Lady - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 11:22 am:
hammer,
you and I know that CMB is not the best candidate
from the field of all eligible candidates in the African American community for this offic…the best are wisely sitting this one out, because they know that this race is Rahm’s to lose…none of the AA candidates including Carol have a shot at it like Harold Washington did…CMB also was the first to accuse Emmanuel of abandoning the President by running for Mayor, and Davis threatened Clinton not to come to Chicago and campaign for Rahm, lest he alienate all the AA in Chicago…sorry, the race baiters in this race thus far have been the AA candidates, who should know better and be ashamed of themselves…once again, I have a hard time beleiving all AA citizens think and vote alike…
- Loop Lady - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 11:24 am:
BTW, my new years resolution is to take a typing class….!!
- shore - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 11:38 am:
was going to note what wordslinger said. Not often anymore you see a news headline where they note that government is doing the best job at something they’ve done in 45 years, but the chicago police department is apparently doing it. I don’t know the budget well enough to know what if any cuts they’ve experienced or if they’ve had their budget increased at all, but given all that government is up against they deserve a lot of credit for that.
I feel bad for the black community that they have that woman as their only elected female us senator ever. She could have been a role model to a lot of people in that community and all communities, period, and it says an awful lot about it that she’s the best some of them can come up with.
- Chicago Moderate - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 11:53 am:
Although many will say what they want about CMB, I think for Steinberg to come out and single out and lambaste CMB was wrong. The media continues to toe the line between opinions and insults. And though it is Rahm’s race to lose, would he please act like he cares?? I mean Thailand, L.A., not attending one mayoral forum yet?? and all the while people are questioning whether you are truly from Chicago? Then the topper, let’s not bring in local alderman or leadership to show support, let’s bring in a former president of the United States to prove we can handle a very racial diverse municipality… can you do Chicagoans a favor and try to not rub it on our faces that you think you should just be crowned mayor?
- corvax - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 11:54 am:
I’m not sure that any African American could have been competitive against Rahm either, but i sure thought Meeks, with money man Mckenna at his announcement, offered the most interesting possible approach. so I’m a little bitter with Meeks for leaving that part of the field to one of two underachieving has-beens. with his apparent willingness to tackle head-on the most important education issue and entrenched interests and his positions on social issues, he couldn’t recreate the Washington coalition, but he might have gone to the parishes of the white areas of the northwest and southwest sides and found resonance running against Rahm, a candidate with lots of money but no natural constituency.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 12:04 pm:
===I think for Steinberg to come out and single out and lambaste CMB was wrong. ===
Columnists do that every day.
- hammer - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 12:10 pm:
Thanks Chicago Moderate, that’s the point I was trying to make. Perhaps it’s indicative of the lack of leadership in the black community that there’s no one else to respond but Steinberg’s comments were very personal attacks that I and many others felt were beyond simple political prognosticating.
I hate that it’s turning me into a Braun simpatico (because I’m certainly not in support of the concept of a “consensus black candidate or her as a potential mayor) but she was well within her rights to strike back. Again, I don’t admire the words or sentiment she used, and I believe that at best she got a pyrrhic victory but something needed to be said, in public, and I’d imagine that in the race for “consensus” (snark) she felt she had to show some teeth.
- Irish - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 12:11 pm:
Given her past history and questionable actions CMB shouldn’t be tossing bricks. As Skeptic has commented soon her history will become the fodder for campaign ads from her opponents.
I wonder sometimes how some of the leaders from the Chicago African American community can get it wrong so often. I would have thought that Danny Davis would have been the better consensus candidate.
Maybe CMB is getting her shots in early before Rahm tears her up.
- Cook County Commoner - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 12:12 pm:
Someone above called it right. It looks like the people behind Emanuel are orchestrating a first vote coronation. I feel sorry for the kids in neighborhoods like Englewood. It seems like no one is in their corner. It looks like business and government employee pensions first, and everything else last.
- Dr Kilovolt - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 12:30 pm:
With Sani Abacha long since deceased, I wonder what other characters a Mayor CMB might pal around with.
- amalia - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 12:34 pm:
ugh. CMB just writes her campaign slogan with her statement on why she won’t release her tax returns….”Because I don’t want to.”
- justbabs - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 12:35 pm:
That homicide rate figure is something that I think should be getting much more notice. Weis is not from here, and that’s the good thing. Remember not that long ago, every news report involving a Chicago cop included torture, abuse, drinking, cops gone wild. There is none of that now and the lowest homicide rate in 45 years. And, the candidates want to get rid of him? What the heck is wrong here?
- Gregor - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 12:38 pm:
Braun got elected as a protest vote over the Anita Hill scandal. We sent her to D.C. with every good intention, and she turned out to be a disaster, ethically and operationally. Ever since then, she’s traded down to made-up jobs that were given to her as consolation prizes. She’s so popular, she’s millions in debt, still. THIS is the great record she’s going to run for mayor on? For Detroit, maybe, not Chicago.
Secondly, there is no solid African-American voting bloc for her to command. Meeks, Rush, Davis, Burris, et al saw to that, by playing the game of threatening to run, just to get some kind of pork back in exchange for handing over their bloc of voters. The bloc is as fractured as the Republicans are. Bloc voting by race is overridden in this economy by voter’s self-interest, and the perception of who really can get things accomplished like creating jobs and bringing in investment dollars. Braun projects no such ability. Everything Rahm is projecting is about just that. You have to remember that in Chicago, they don’t much care that the government is corrupt as long as it isn’t too blatant, and most importantly, that all city services are running well, and there are plenty of jobs. There is no other grand issue for this election but keeping Chicago working and working better. The job is selling the voters on who will be a strong mayor that gets bleep done.
- wordslinger - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 12:48 pm:
–Braun got elected as a protest vote over the Anita Hill scandal.–
Don’t forget Al Hofeld’s brutal negative campaign against Al the Pal in the primary. Even with Anita and Dixon’s Thomas vote, I doubt very much that Braun wins that primary in a one-on-one matchup.
- Because I say so - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 12:49 pm:
=Of the three Af-Am community candidates, I hold Carol Mosley Braun in the least regard. I had some dealings with Congress back when she served in the Senate, and she was known for not making it to meetings,showing up late for events, thinking that she could charm or smile her way through anything.=
Very, very well said and right on target.
Maybe Meeks and Davis came to the realization that they can’t beat Rahm and are letting CMB be the sacrifical lamb. I can’t imagine the black community getting behind her in this race. She has a proven track record of being a very bad candidate.
- Lincoln Parker - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 12:54 pm:
Wow, great idea for dealing with the parking meters:
===”We might not have been saddled with such a rotten deal,” she said, adding Chicago was “snookered.”
Reporters asked how that would work, since the city signed its rights away after hiring its own adviser. “You sue them all,” she said.===
- amalia - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 12:56 pm:
IVI IPO makes picks in City elections. they list “Susanna Mendrano” as their pick for City Clerk. perhaps they mean Susanna Mendoza, but there is no S Mendrano on the list. this mistake is indicative of the level of importance of the group, a good endorsement for clerk aside. that is, if they meant that!
- S - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 1:13 pm:
Apparently CMB just said this afternoon she won’t release her tax returns before Feb. 22nd because, “I don’t want to”.
Seriously, CMB?!? Could you at least dignify the masses with a plausible excuse or claim about individual privacy? Sheesh.
- hammer - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 1:37 pm:
Say what you will. CMB will make this cycle interesting. Between the Steinberg flap and “I don’t want to” she certainly is feeling bold these days.
- Anonymous - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 1:51 pm:
By not releasing her tax returns, CMB leaves it open to our imaginations as to why. Maybe she really, really needs a job?
- Rushed out the door - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 2:14 pm:
IVI-IPO endorsed Susana Mendoza. The spelling mistake was probably caused by a rush to evacuate their building as it caught on fire Friday morning. I belive that the mistake on the website was corrected.
- Northsider - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 3:22 pm:
Steinberg did nothing wrong in either column. He’s a columnist. He’s paid to pontificate in print. He made fun of a woman whose delusions of grandeur led her to believe she could be president and a group of people who claim leadership of an entire community. His shots were mild compared to the hits Royko threw at Richard J. Daley and aldermen back in the day.
CMB’s thin-skinned, overreaction proves she is unfit to be mayor (like any more was needed).
- GetOverIt - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 4:36 pm:
Bill Daley as Obama’s Chief-of-Staff (Suntimes reporting)…Happy New Year everyone! And it looks like the stars are really aligning for Rahm…hmmm, “et tu Supreme Court?”
- Anonymous - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 5:14 pm:
Is CMB gonna bring Kgosie Matthews back to run her campaign? The news articles are gonna write themselves over this Rahm/Carol/Geri election cycle. I will be watching from the next county over - not really a safe distance, I fear.
- dupage dan - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 5:15 pm:
That last post was mine - lost my nickname again.
- Eric Zorn - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 5:19 pm:
@amalia - Ed Bus is played by Justin Kaufmann of the Schadenfreude comedy troupe (his day job is web content guru at WBEZ-FM) I link to the mockumentary on his candidacy here http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2010/12/no-residency-issues-with-this-mayoral-hopeful.html
- anon - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 5:41 pm:
Braun should learn how to take a punch, especially from Steinberg. I can see how she got angry though. It’s pretty obvious that he was very dismissive of the black community.
- Statesman - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 6:16 pm:
CMB’s comments shows she is cut from the same generational cloth as Al Sharpton, JJ and Ricky Hendon. The consolidation approach much like the ‘fresh ideas’ that CMB and the rest of the black candidates bring to the table is akin to the time warp approach they bring to the elections.
CMB, Davis and the lot have ideas that are ‘fresh’ if you were wearing a beehive hair do and standing in line at an A&P store in 1963. One thing Steinberg said that was accurate- come Feb- CMB won’t be long for this political world.
- Statesman - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 6:19 pm:
CMB’s tax returns. Let’s see, she started this escapade -$250K+ so she doesn’t want to share her returns because….. She’s broke?
- amalia - Monday, Jan 3, 11 @ 6:23 pm:
@Eric Zorn: thanks so much for the info and the link. I think that he is very funny, and, in these times of insane elections and public officials, he is eerily right on!