A Tale of 2 Debs: Surprised to see Deb Graham ousted–happy to see Deb Frank Feinen elected Mayor of Champaign.
- Upon Further Review - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:09 am:
Statistics, Emanuel received fewer votes in April, 2015 than he did in February, 2011. So Hinz at Crain’s plays up the fact that Rahm increased his percentage: 2011 - 55%, 2015 - 56%.
I think that Emanuel’s vote declined by about 10,000 votes. This was despite an additional six weeks of campaigning and higher campaign expenditures.
As voter apathy continues, I find it less helpful when reports omit actual vote totals and only refer to percentages.
School consolidation was on the ballot in three Metro-East communities. Failed in 2010 by 12 votes. Failed yesterday by 7. Frustrating to say the least. I was also surprised to see Springfield Alderman Sam Cahnman lose by such a large margin.
- Upon Further Review - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:14 am:
I was just looking at voter registration numbers and comparing those to ballots cast. Approximately, 60% of eligible Chicagoans did not vote.
Second: Chuy didn’t get beat by Rahm’s $ or Rahm’s groundgame. He got beat because his campaign team didn’t bring in the right people to develop the policies, the themes, the talking points and the communication strategies that were needed to present Chuy as a solid alternative to Rahm. Case in point: The easily understood facts are there to show that Rahm has made a holy hash of the finances of Chicago and CPS — yet Chuy’s campaign never tagged Rahm with his gross malfeasance. Why? Because they didn’t bring on board the people who had the skills to do this (and who were knocking on the campaign doors saying over and over again, ‘We can help.’) So, no strong positions on finance; no strong positions on jobs creation; no regular and coherent themes to package Chuy’s campaign, his speeches, and his positions; no soaring rhetoric to unite more people; no clear and concise talking points; and no regular outreach via “new media” to all those people who get weekly (sometimes daily) emails from other candidates and organizations. It’s a sad and common occurence in campaigns: the people who get you through the primary can’t always get you through the general without bringing new and more precise talent on board (especially in a city-wide race). It takes maturity and experience to say, “We need help,” and a lot of campaign managers and top-staff don’t have that maturity.
- 100 Miles West - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:16 am:
Dan Proft’s Liberty Principles PAC paid for tv ads backing the winner of Dixon’s mayoral race. That was a bit of a surprise.
I’m interested to see the fallout of the Rahm win. Progressives have already started crooning about how by forcing him to the run off he will be moving to the left over the next 4 years.
Yet, all signs point to the opposite, he heavily campaigned in the northern (more white/affluent) part of the city, and GOP organizations and money flocked to him.
The next 3 years are going to be very interesting in Chicago.
Rahm winning wasn’t a shock to me. What was a shock was the $23 million Rahm had and $6 million Chuy had.
The Sachs still domating monies up to and including Election Day to Rahm and that Dopey PAC.
Bob Firoetti is the Owl equivalent to Ron Sandack. Bob, you have a debt, we all get it, but ya can’t bury the hatchet with the guy just a week earlier you took pride in being his staunchest critic, and… “take the money” and support him unconditionally and be seen as credible. I’m embarrassed for you.
The Aldermanic loses? Attention ILGOP GA members; if you don’t understand the blowback that the aldermanic loses were more about being with Rahm, and less about themselves, you aren’t paying attention. Gov. Rauner, $20 million or not, is hanging you all out like Rahm hung out his alderman, because, well, he could. Rahm and Rauner aren’t about building, but they are about what they can squeeze from you for them. Rahm treated aldermen like chattle, they aren’t coming back because of it. There is a reason for separation of powers. Rahm co-opted aldermen, how did that go? Rauner is co-opting caucuses. Beware.
Unions? “What are you prepared to do?!” For the life of me, I can’t understand why the political landscape in front of you, laid out as it usually is, the “late to the party” political movements that occur. This might hurt, but the inept way you all wait to mobilize for the large races, and “finish”…it isn’t scaring too many. Very good at the micro, disaster in the macro in understanding that waiting or timing or organizing or mobilizing needs to me more decisive and more driven, otherwise it’s wasted efforts to be relevant in the biggest races of the cycle. Learn from the micro “victories”, but try to recapture a macro presence.
Rauner and Rahm? If the Governor is counting on Rahm to “leverage” Dem GA members, the runoff, the $23 million “needed” to secure Rahm and the damage inflicted on Rahm will not help as well to “twistin’ arms” that Rauner may need. Cullerton and MJM can say “who do you trust with your future?” as they usually do anyway, and this Chicago election will buttress the Mushroom’s decision to not be one of the 23 votes Rauner needs, unless MJM or Cullerton say so first. It’s the micro; Wards, House seats, Senate seats. The leverage is with the GA Dem leaders, not Rahm, not Rauner.
Has anyone done a wellness check on William Kelly since Rahm won last night?
- Upon Further Review - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:25 am:
I agree with ChiTownSeven in that there was never a coherent narrative about how badly Emanuel governed during his first term. While his campaign hammered Garcia as inexperienced, only a handful of articles pointed up how often Emanuel deferred or delayed making decisions (continuing the policy of kicking the can down the road and hoping for better future developments). In those instances, where Emanuel did take action, some of his decisions were poor and wound up costing Chicago more money. All of those out of town fundraising junkets helped the mayor’s campaign fund, but the city did not benefit from his absenteeism. The city was in bad shape in 2011 and after 48 months on the job, there was not much progress from the 5th floor.
All I’ll say is I was in the field all day for Alyx Pattison (who fought hard) and I give credit to the organization that Brian Hopkins fielded in the 2nd. They were good, very good, all day around the Mag Mile, hustling and being polite yet energetic in their canvassing. There were people coming in from all over the city for Brian, not just 2nd and 42nd, he had a deep bench. They were all very gracious to me as well but I’m figuring they pretty much knew it was in the bag. I was kind of laughing by the end, that within about the span of a mile’s radius depending on the precinct, he had three separate palm cards going. Speaking as someone who considers himself a not-bad election day canvasser, I take my hat off to his team, I don’t think given the margin that the race was decided on Election Day but they did not let up until the end.
Well, you all certainly work at your own pace out there in DuPage, lol.
What was the straw that broke the camel’s back? The 400th time the prez, board and cronies put on the old feedbag on your dime at your community college’s fine-dining establishment? The 500th time?
Didn’t you all get a little curious four years ago to discover your community college had an open wine cellar stocked to the gills for public officials?
The community college in my hometown had an old-timey vending machine with a choice of coffee, tea, hot chocolate or chicken soup that was all distributed through the same nozzle.
Selecting a coffee right after someone had just got the soup…. let’s just say, don’t expect Starbucks to launch a Chicken Latte anytime soon.
At the very local level, my local school board president who got tossed from the ballot and decided to run as a write in, forgot to inform the Aurora election commission he was running as a write-in…
Turnout was only up slightly in the runoff v the 1st rd, and Rahm in fact received fewer votes than in 2011 because of the lower turnout despite an increase in registration. This means that Rahm’s sway at the state level is diminished. He could not mobilize more votes in what was a surprisingly close race given the relatively slight stature of his challenger. The upshot is that he’s going to have a harder time w/ the state legislature at a time when Chicago needs more support.
I backed Chuy but his late campaign strategy was awful. He failed to outline a clear fiscal alternative to Rahm, and so gave many voters no reason to give him a chance because he could not articulate what he would do.
I was surprised by the margin in the New Two. Brian Hopkins ran a great campaign but I still thought Alyx would show better. Interesting that she did not connect with voters as much as I thought she would.
The other interesting thing about that race was that help from Jan and Dick did not translate to a strong field operation for Alyx. She ended up short of people, so she put people in Streeterville (considered Brian’s strong area) and ignored her own west side of that ward.
In contrast, Hopkins had people literally everywhere. Every precinct had at least person, many had two or more, and all of them had lawyers checking things out regularly.
Have to give credit to Brian, Mia Phifer and Brendan Reilly for an extremely strong election day operation.
Several downstate red counties voted for local tax increases to support needed infrastructure, despite being targeted by the Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity anti-tax mailings. Yay for common sense.
I posted this on last night’s election thread. I certainly have not changed my mind in an hour.
1. Springfield’s elections had some surprising results. Then again, when turnout sucks, I guess that anything is possible.
2. I really, really wish municipal, school board, park board, township and other similar elections would be moved to the same day as either a presidential or gubernatorial election. Just in Sangamon County - even with the Springfield mayoral race and all 10 alderman positions on the ballot - only 26.4% of all registered voters actually voted. And voting here is not quite that difficult: there are rarely any lines and the polling places are all easily accessible. For shame.
I must also add:
3. Do voters and the public in general understand how important local elections truly are?! In our fair capital city alone, we are facing issues involving: CWLP’s future; pensions; high speed rail; east side development; a potential new high school location; police outreach concerns; and the stench of internal affairs scandals. And yet only 27,000 voters bothered to cast a ballot for mayor. I would bet that a lot of people who failed to vote will complain loudly if something controversial happens with CWLP or if high speed rail comes unraveled.
Following up on ZC’s comment– I don’t think I’ve ever seen a race where the people in the field from the opposing campaigns got along as well as the Brian and Alyx people did.
In nearly every precinct they were all standing together and talking and in at least one precinct they were sharing cold weather gear.
After so many races where the exact opposite happens, this was nice.
Any information available on age group stats? I was early to vote and didn’t see anyone much under 40. Went after work to drop someone by to vote, and same thing.
Not necessarily surprising that Rahm won given his vast resources (money) & name recognition. I thought he came off as much more competent that Chuy.
Chuy not providing specifics on how he was going to accomplish stated goals (such as 1,000 more police & school funding) hurt him esp. coming off similar criticism of the Rauner campaign.
My own thought is that Preckwinkle probably would have won handily and Lewis would have lost by a smaller margin than Chuy had either been the alternative candidate. I heard this AM that Rahm captured every African-American ward in the city.
A lot of D firepower went behind Giarrante in Joliet. Knew the race would be close, but didn’t expect O’DeKirk to win by the margin he did. New day for Joliet…
“I want to thank you for putting me through my paces” is Humble Rahm’s genteel way of stabbing the table
- Upon Further Review - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 11:00 am:
On DVDs, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, short subject series “Crime Does Not Pay” is available for purchase. The short films are interesting because many young actors and actresses were groomed for bigger things in these movies. Ditto for writers and directors. One such film “You, the People” deals with elections and vote fraud. It faults voters who skip state and municipal elections. The unnamed city in the film looks suspiciously like Chicago or any other Machine dominated town.
What makes it interesting is the film details how “chain balloting” worked. The most effective method of Machine dominance included in the film is convincing voters that their individual votes are essentially meaningless and they may as well not vote. True then, true now.
=I agree with ChiTownSeven in that there was never a coherent narrative about how badly Emanuel governed during his first term.=
This election came down to the fact that Emanuel established that he had the ability to govern (even if unpopular). Garcia was never able to establish his ability to do so. He allowed Emanuel to dictate the tone and tenor of the race and as a result he was never a serious challenger.
Larry - that surprised me as well. She did quite well for a first time candidate.
Willy - I know this is apples to oranges, but the unions in Springfield really went all in on the mayor’s race for Jim Langfelder and it showed. It showed in terms of contributions, endorsements and work. They got behind Mayor-elect Langfelder early and they kept it up throughout the primary and general election. You are certainly correct that waiting until the last minute is certainly not a winning strategy.
No worries, successes need to be highlighted like that, that speak to the importance of seeing the landscape, picking a side, early, and reinforcing that a decision to support a candidate also means dragging them over the finish line, and being seen as a “dragger”, not a “drag” on a candidacy.
You learn more with loses, no doubt, but no one is reinventing the wheel. Learning from successes helps too.
Transitioning the micro to macro, that’s the ball game now, and procrastinating, that isn’t helping either.
Much respect.
- Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 11:16 am:
I was somewhat surprised that my alderman lost, Regner Sanchez, aka Ray Sanchez. I didn’t think Milly Santiago would beat him, but she did. She was like new Rep. Guzzardi in that she knocked on my door, and I spoke with her. Guzzardi had a great ground game and came to my home several times.
I never saw Sanchez, but I voted for him because my family and I had positive experiences with his staff and services we received.
=I backed Chuy but his late campaign strategy was awful. He failed to outline a clear fiscal alternative to Rahm, and so gave many voters no reason to give him a chance because he could not articulate what he would do.=
The thing I kept thinking of was the narrative that Chuy was a nice guy, but wouldn’t be tough enough to lead. The campaign never really addressed this ridiculous narrative. The man led a hunger strike to beat Daley, helped win the council wars with Washington, and was Rudy Lozanos campaign manager. They needed to do more pushing his resume, which is actually impressive and less pushing his mustache.
- Upon Further Review - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 11:47 am:
“Chuy was a nice guy, but wouldn’t be tough enough to lead.”
The only negative consequence that I envisioned about Garcia is that a few of the veteran alderman would try to roll him.
I do wonder if some African American voters stuck with Rahm because they worried that Chuy would have seated more Latinos at the table?
- From the 'Dale to HP - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 11:48 am:
Other issue for Rahm (and Chicago) moving forward: Rahm’s a lame duck and all but leaked it last night to Sneed. He’s not running in 2019 and probably won’t even be around to say he isn’t running since he’ll be in DC in 21 months.
So how does this play out in the Wards? In the City Council? In Springfield?
I agree with ChiTownSeven. Arroyo has built himself an amazing base of power on the near northwest side. I’m curious to know who his next targets will be in 2016.
It’s a very premature theory, but I’m thinking that the significant number of incumbent aldermen losing this election cycle has less to do with purely simple affiliation with Rahm but more so the lack of resources both political and governmental Rahm and his administration has provided back to the wards during the last four years. This not like in the Daley years when services and jobs were awarded to aldermen nearly guaranteeing success in elections. The strength of the anti-Rahm caucus is that they could run on the fact that they never received any support from city hall. I could be wrong though.
- Joe Biden Was Here - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 11:59 am:
In my sleepy suburb my guy won reelection to the village board so I’m a happy camper today. Turnout was a rumor. Only about 750 votes total.
The COD Board will be interesting. Elected boards should not be rubber stamps to administration. At the same time, elected ‘reformers’ tend to be micromanagers of administration, resulting in a low morale to the lower managers and faculty. Had a similar situation at Hinsdale District 86 - the election last night will hopefully swing the pendulum to the middle.
Chuy could be an important ambassador to the people in the wards. I hope Rahm gives that some thought and maybe finds an important position for him. People who liked Chuy still voted for Rahm. Like it or not, running a city of this size with a history like it has takes gravitas. Chuy just never had a chance because he just doesn’t project that kind of image. In the end, you need a guy who can manage this behemoth.
Need to correct my comment. Turnout was actually up substantially, 18% more (88,114 more votes cast in mayor’s race) in the runoff than the 1st rd, but mayoral turnout was still below 2011 in % voting and absolute #s despite higher registration (35,600 more people registered in run-off 2015 v. 2011 but 24,039 fewer voted for mayor in 2015 v. 2011.)
As others say above, voter apathy or indifference between the two was considerable, and Rahm’s vote total was below 2011.
Chuy’s campaign manager, Andrew Sharp, was everything but. Abrasive, stubborn and an absolute jerk to volunteers.
- Upon Further Review - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 2:08 pm:
Not much Rahm Love outside today. The victory lap must have been quite short as many residents who were asked to place campaign signs promptly removed the same. I am referring to private property owners. I guess that these city workers held their noses and voted for Rahm and then pulled the signs as soon as possible.
Gossip Girl Sneed has Rahm looking for an appointment in Hillary’s administration in 2017.
I missed some of the news, but did Rahm ever have to field the “full term” question? Some politicians catch that question, but usually it is someone like Christie or Walker.
Clean Slate for COD is destined to be a disaster. Tea party darling Kathy Hamilton is about to find out that governing is hard. Brueder has to go but if they pull the deal away from him he will surely sue. And win.
Nick Sposato was a huge winner. They tried to kick him out of the Ciry Council with the remap. Not only did he win in 38 in February, he strongly backed candidates in 3 neighboring runoffs - Taliaferro in 29, Villegas in 36, and Napolitano in 41 - and he got a clean sweep.
So not only is Nick Sposato back, 3 rubberstamps are gone - Deborah Graham, Tim Cullerton, and Mary O’Connor.
Isn’t Karma beautiful?
- Upon Further Review - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 3:07 pm:
Sorry Gooner, but for those of us who like politics these events only come at four year intervals.
The polls closed, so we all need to change the subject? The newspapers were full of election coverage and analysis today. Should I ignore that?
Judging from the voter turnout, interest in politics is in decline much like baseball.
I think that you missed my point. I was commenting have never seen the political signs removed so fast. I can recall times when local papers printed post election editorials ragging on pols to remove their signs. Obviously, things may look different in areas of the city where there were still aldermanic races yesterday.
Upon Further Review, there is a difference between “discussing” and “whining.”
Your comment “not much Rahm love today”? Again, that seems contrary to the results from yesterday. Your guy lost. Deal with it.
- Upon Further Review - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 3:32 pm:
Sorry to be such a bother. I thought that the people visiting this site were interest in politics.
I was also following a suburban park district race too, but I did not think that would be much of a topic for posting. Let’s declare a moratorium on the Chicago mayoralty until 2019.
Oddly, I would have to say John Kass was a big loser yesterday. Kass’s hatred of all things Rahm was never more evident when he went “all in” for Chuy Garcia.
Kass pushed hard for Chuy Garcia: aka “the reformer”, “man-of-the-people”, the same Chuy who so willingly took advice and counsel from the “father of the Illinois Combine” Jeremiah Joyce and his son Mike “Pickle” Joyce. Kass would rather kiss the ring of Jerry Joyce, and harken us back to the greased “duty free” shops and McDonald’s franchises at O’Hare than to see Rahm spend one more day on the 5th Floor.
John Kass has no credibility because of this. What little credibility he had left was shredded when he went “all in” for Chuy and the Joyces.
- Louis G Atsaves - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 9:59 am:
College of DuPage results sent a strong message: “No more golden parachutes in education.”
- ABC Lawyer - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:02 am:
Love how Dan Proft’s Liberty PAC dumped late money into the College of DuPage race to go after Dave Carlin. All politics is personal.
- A guy - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:02 am:
Amen Louis. A huge victory for that group and a testament to the voters who said they had enough!
Otherwise, a few surprises among Chicago Alderman. Chuy closer than I thought he might be. Downers Grove Muni sent some strong messages there as well.
- Larry - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:03 am:
Who the heck is Misty Buscher and how did she get more votes than Jim Langfelder?
- Ravenswood Right Winger - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:05 am:
Can someone do the math on how much Amy Crawford spent per vote in the 46th Ward?
- Wordslinger - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:05 am:
Humble Rahm? Won’t see him no more…..
- Downtown Joliet = Detroit - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:06 am:
Incumbent mayor Tom Giarrante lost despite backing from Bill Foster, the Firefighters Union and Tax Hike Mike. He got beat badly.
- SAP - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:07 am:
A Tale of 2 Debs: Surprised to see Deb Graham ousted–happy to see Deb Frank Feinen elected Mayor of Champaign.
- Upon Further Review - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:09 am:
Statistics, Emanuel received fewer votes in April, 2015 than he did in February, 2011. So Hinz at Crain’s plays up the fact that Rahm increased his percentage: 2011 - 55%, 2015 - 56%.
I think that Emanuel’s vote declined by about 10,000 votes. This was despite an additional six weeks of campaigning and higher campaign expenditures.
As voter apathy continues, I find it less helpful when reports omit actual vote totals and only refer to percentages.
- ??? - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:09 am:
Ravenswood Right Winger, based on the amount of literature I received in the last month, I’d say she spent about 5 trees per vote.
- exbricklayer - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:10 am:
I should have taken the under on Tim Johnson getting back into politics.
- Plutocrat03 - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:12 am:
Only 565000 vote for Mayor of Chicago? Really?
- HDO - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:12 am:
Chuy has a shot at knocking off some south side Latino incumbents such as Acevedo and Munoz.
- 6184life - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:13 am:
School consolidation was on the ballot in three Metro-East communities. Failed in 2010 by 12 votes. Failed yesterday by 7. Frustrating to say the least. I was also surprised to see Springfield Alderman Sam Cahnman lose by such a large margin.
- Upon Further Review - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:14 am:
I was just looking at voter registration numbers and comparing those to ballots cast. Approximately, 60% of eligible Chicagoans did not vote.
- walker - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:15 am:
Chuy claimed 5000 motivated volunteers getting out the vote. Did they get distracted cheerleading at rallies?
He moved few undecideds his way, didn’t appear to get new voters out, and finished about where he was the first round.
- ChiTownSeven - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:15 am:
First: Wow! Look at Luis Arroyo go!
Second: Chuy didn’t get beat by Rahm’s $ or Rahm’s groundgame. He got beat because his campaign team didn’t bring in the right people to develop the policies, the themes, the talking points and the communication strategies that were needed to present Chuy as a solid alternative to Rahm. Case in point: The easily understood facts are there to show that Rahm has made a holy hash of the finances of Chicago and CPS — yet Chuy’s campaign never tagged Rahm with his gross malfeasance. Why? Because they didn’t bring on board the people who had the skills to do this (and who were knocking on the campaign doors saying over and over again, ‘We can help.’) So, no strong positions on finance; no strong positions on jobs creation; no regular and coherent themes to package Chuy’s campaign, his speeches, and his positions; no soaring rhetoric to unite more people; no clear and concise talking points; and no regular outreach via “new media” to all those people who get weekly (sometimes daily) emails from other candidates and organizations. It’s a sad and common occurence in campaigns: the people who get you through the primary can’t always get you through the general without bringing new and more precise talent on board (especially in a city-wide race). It takes maturity and experience to say, “We need help,” and a lot of campaign managers and top-staff don’t have that maturity.
- 100 Miles West - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:16 am:
Dan Proft’s Liberty Principles PAC paid for tv ads backing the winner of Dixon’s mayoral race. That was a bit of a surprise.
- Sam I am - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:20 am:
Cahnman goes down, again.
- sleepysol - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:25 am:
I’m interested to see the fallout of the Rahm win. Progressives have already started crooning about how by forcing him to the run off he will be moving to the left over the next 4 years.
Yet, all signs point to the opposite, he heavily campaigned in the northern (more white/affluent) part of the city, and GOP organizations and money flocked to him.
The next 3 years are going to be very interesting in Chicago.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:25 am:
Couple thoughts;
Rahm winning wasn’t a shock to me. What was a shock was the $23 million Rahm had and $6 million Chuy had.
The Sachs still domating monies up to and including Election Day to Rahm and that Dopey PAC.
Bob Firoetti is the Owl equivalent to Ron Sandack. Bob, you have a debt, we all get it, but ya can’t bury the hatchet with the guy just a week earlier you took pride in being his staunchest critic, and… “take the money” and support him unconditionally and be seen as credible. I’m embarrassed for you.
The Aldermanic loses? Attention ILGOP GA members; if you don’t understand the blowback that the aldermanic loses were more about being with Rahm, and less about themselves, you aren’t paying attention. Gov. Rauner, $20 million or not, is hanging you all out like Rahm hung out his alderman, because, well, he could. Rahm and Rauner aren’t about building, but they are about what they can squeeze from you for them. Rahm treated aldermen like chattle, they aren’t coming back because of it. There is a reason for separation of powers. Rahm co-opted aldermen, how did that go? Rauner is co-opting caucuses. Beware.
Unions? “What are you prepared to do?!” For the life of me, I can’t understand why the political landscape in front of you, laid out as it usually is, the “late to the party” political movements that occur. This might hurt, but the inept way you all wait to mobilize for the large races, and “finish”…it isn’t scaring too many. Very good at the micro, disaster in the macro in understanding that waiting or timing or organizing or mobilizing needs to me more decisive and more driven, otherwise it’s wasted efforts to be relevant in the biggest races of the cycle. Learn from the micro “victories”, but try to recapture a macro presence.
Rauner and Rahm? If the Governor is counting on Rahm to “leverage” Dem GA members, the runoff, the $23 million “needed” to secure Rahm and the damage inflicted on Rahm will not help as well to “twistin’ arms” that Rauner may need. Cullerton and MJM can say “who do you trust with your future?” as they usually do anyway, and this Chicago election will buttress the Mushroom’s decision to not be one of the 23 votes Rauner needs, unless MJM or Cullerton say so first. It’s the micro; Wards, House seats, Senate seats. The leverage is with the GA Dem leaders, not Rahm, not Rauner.
…
- walker - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:25 am:
===It takes maturity and experience to say, “We need help,” and a lot of campaign managers and top-staff don’t have that maturity.===
You got it ChiTown7
- Anonymoiis - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:25 am:
==Cahnman goes down, again.==
Not really sure how to read that…
Has anyone done a wellness check on William Kelly since Rahm won last night?
- Upon Further Review - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:25 am:
I agree with ChiTownSeven in that there was never a coherent narrative about how badly Emanuel governed during his first term. While his campaign hammered Garcia as inexperienced, only a handful of articles pointed up how often Emanuel deferred or delayed making decisions (continuing the policy of kicking the can down the road and hoping for better future developments). In those instances, where Emanuel did take action, some of his decisions were poor and wound up costing Chicago more money. All of those out of town fundraising junkets helped the mayor’s campaign fund, but the city did not benefit from his absenteeism. The city was in bad shape in 2011 and after 48 months on the job, there was not much progress from the 5th floor.
- ZC - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:27 am:
All I’ll say is I was in the field all day for Alyx Pattison (who fought hard) and I give credit to the organization that Brian Hopkins fielded in the 2nd. They were good, very good, all day around the Mag Mile, hustling and being polite yet energetic in their canvassing. There were people coming in from all over the city for Brian, not just 2nd and 42nd, he had a deep bench. They were all very gracious to me as well but I’m figuring they pretty much knew it was in the bag. I was kind of laughing by the end, that within about the span of a mile’s radius depending on the precinct, he had three separate palm cards going. Speaking as someone who considers himself a not-bad election day canvasser, I take my hat off to his team, I don’t think given the margin that the race was decided on Election Day but they did not let up until the end.
- Wordslinger - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:27 am:
– a testament to voters who said they had enough–
Well, you all certainly work at your own pace out there in DuPage, lol.
What was the straw that broke the camel’s back? The 400th time the prez, board and cronies put on the old feedbag on your dime at your community college’s fine-dining establishment? The 500th time?
Didn’t you all get a little curious four years ago to discover your community college had an open wine cellar stocked to the gills for public officials?
The community college in my hometown had an old-timey vending machine with a choice of coffee, tea, hot chocolate or chicken soup that was all distributed through the same nozzle.
Selecting a coffee right after someone had just got the soup…. let’s just say, don’t expect Starbucks to launch a Chicken Latte anytime soon.
- OneMan - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:29 am:
At the very local level, my local school board president who got tossed from the ballot and decided to run as a write in, forgot to inform the Aurora election commission he was running as a write-in…
Oops….
- Christopher Ball - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:33 am:
Turnout was only up slightly in the runoff v the 1st rd, and Rahm in fact received fewer votes than in 2011 because of the lower turnout despite an increase in registration. This means that Rahm’s sway at the state level is diminished. He could not mobilize more votes in what was a surprisingly close race given the relatively slight stature of his challenger. The upshot is that he’s going to have a harder time w/ the state legislature at a time when Chicago needs more support.
I backed Chuy but his late campaign strategy was awful. He failed to outline a clear fiscal alternative to Rahm, and so gave many voters no reason to give him a chance because he could not articulate what he would do.
- Gooner - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:34 am:
I was surprised by the margin in the New Two. Brian Hopkins ran a great campaign but I still thought Alyx would show better. Interesting that she did not connect with voters as much as I thought she would.
The other interesting thing about that race was that help from Jan and Dick did not translate to a strong field operation for Alyx. She ended up short of people, so she put people in Streeterville (considered Brian’s strong area) and ignored her own west side of that ward.
In contrast, Hopkins had people literally everywhere. Every precinct had at least person, many had two or more, and all of them had lawyers checking things out regularly.
Have to give credit to Brian, Mia Phifer and Brendan Reilly for an extremely strong election day operation.
- Scamp640 - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:37 am:
Several downstate red counties voted for local tax increases to support needed infrastructure, despite being targeted by the Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity anti-tax mailings. Yay for common sense.
- Team Sleep - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:38 am:
I posted this on last night’s election thread. I certainly have not changed my mind in an hour.
1. Springfield’s elections had some surprising results. Then again, when turnout sucks, I guess that anything is possible.
2. I really, really wish municipal, school board, park board, township and other similar elections would be moved to the same day as either a presidential or gubernatorial election. Just in Sangamon County - even with the Springfield mayoral race and all 10 alderman positions on the ballot - only 26.4% of all registered voters actually voted. And voting here is not quite that difficult: there are rarely any lines and the polling places are all easily accessible. For shame.
I must also add:
3. Do voters and the public in general understand how important local elections truly are?! In our fair capital city alone, we are facing issues involving: CWLP’s future; pensions; high speed rail; east side development; a potential new high school location; police outreach concerns; and the stench of internal affairs scandals. And yet only 27,000 voters bothered to cast a ballot for mayor. I would bet that a lot of people who failed to vote will complain loudly if something controversial happens with CWLP or if high speed rail comes unraveled.
- Gooner - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:42 am:
Following up on ZC’s comment– I don’t think I’ve ever seen a race where the people in the field from the opposing campaigns got along as well as the Brian and Alyx people did.
In nearly every precinct they were all standing together and talking and in at least one precinct they were sharing cold weather gear.
After so many races where the exact opposite happens, this was nice.
- Sunshine - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:44 am:
Any information available on age group stats? I was early to vote and didn’t see anyone much under 40. Went after work to drop someone by to vote, and same thing.
- Stones - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:45 am:
Not necessarily surprising that Rahm won given his vast resources (money) & name recognition. I thought he came off as much more competent that Chuy.
Chuy not providing specifics on how he was going to accomplish stated goals (such as 1,000 more police & school funding) hurt him esp. coming off similar criticism of the Rauner campaign.
My own thought is that Preckwinkle probably would have won handily and Lewis would have lost by a smaller margin than Chuy had either been the alternative candidate. I heard this AM that Rahm captured every African-American ward in the city.
- Pierce & Pierce - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:50 am:
A lot of D firepower went behind Giarrante in Joliet. Knew the race would be close, but didn’t expect O’DeKirk to win by the margin he did. New day for Joliet…
- LizPhairTax - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 10:52 am:
“I want to thank you for putting me through my paces” is Humble Rahm’s genteel way of stabbing the table
- Upon Further Review - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 11:00 am:
On DVDs, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, short subject series “Crime Does Not Pay” is available for purchase. The short films are interesting because many young actors and actresses were groomed for bigger things in these movies. Ditto for writers and directors. One such film “You, the People” deals with elections and vote fraud. It faults voters who skip state and municipal elections. The unnamed city in the film looks suspiciously like Chicago or any other Machine dominated town.
What makes it interesting is the film details how “chain balloting” worked. The most effective method of Machine dominance included in the film is convincing voters that their individual votes are essentially meaningless and they may as well not vote. True then, true now.
- pundent - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 11:05 am:
=I agree with ChiTownSeven in that there was never a coherent narrative about how badly Emanuel governed during his first term.=
This election came down to the fact that Emanuel established that he had the ability to govern (even if unpopular). Garcia was never able to establish his ability to do so. He allowed Emanuel to dictate the tone and tenor of the race and as a result he was never a serious challenger.
- Team Sleep - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 11:07 am:
Larry - that surprised me as well. She did quite well for a first time candidate.
Willy - I know this is apples to oranges, but the unions in Springfield really went all in on the mayor’s race for Jim Langfelder and it showed. It showed in terms of contributions, endorsements and work. They got behind Mayor-elect Langfelder early and they kept it up throughout the primary and general election. You are certainly correct that waiting until the last minute is certainly not a winning strategy.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 11:13 am:
- Team Sleep -,
No worries, successes need to be highlighted like that, that speak to the importance of seeing the landscape, picking a side, early, and reinforcing that a decision to support a candidate also means dragging them over the finish line, and being seen as a “dragger”, not a “drag” on a candidacy.
You learn more with loses, no doubt, but no one is reinventing the wheel. Learning from successes helps too.
Transitioning the micro to macro, that’s the ball game now, and procrastinating, that isn’t helping either.
Much respect.
- Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 11:16 am:
I was somewhat surprised that my alderman lost, Regner Sanchez, aka Ray Sanchez. I didn’t think Milly Santiago would beat him, but she did. She was like new Rep. Guzzardi in that she knocked on my door, and I spoke with her. Guzzardi had a great ground game and came to my home several times.
I never saw Sanchez, but I voted for him because my family and I had positive experiences with his staff and services we received.
I went 1-1 yesterday.
- Soccermom - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 11:24 am:
Alyx is so smart and talented. I hope this experience doesn’t dissuade her from running again in the future.
- Jerry 101 - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 11:37 am:
Elections have consequences.
4 more years of Rahm’s disasterous tenure.
Can’t say how Chuy would have done, but Rahm’s just going to run things deeper down the hole.
- Carhartt Representative - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 11:40 am:
=I backed Chuy but his late campaign strategy was awful. He failed to outline a clear fiscal alternative to Rahm, and so gave many voters no reason to give him a chance because he could not articulate what he would do.=
The thing I kept thinking of was the narrative that Chuy was a nice guy, but wouldn’t be tough enough to lead. The campaign never really addressed this ridiculous narrative. The man led a hunger strike to beat Daley, helped win the council wars with Washington, and was Rudy Lozanos campaign manager. They needed to do more pushing his resume, which is actually impressive and less pushing his mustache.
- Upon Further Review - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 11:47 am:
“Chuy was a nice guy, but wouldn’t be tough enough to lead.”
The only negative consequence that I envisioned about Garcia is that a few of the veteran alderman would try to roll him.
I do wonder if some African American voters stuck with Rahm because they worried that Chuy would have seated more Latinos at the table?
- From the 'Dale to HP - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 11:48 am:
Other issue for Rahm (and Chicago) moving forward: Rahm’s a lame duck and all but leaked it last night to Sneed. He’s not running in 2019 and probably won’t even be around to say he isn’t running since he’ll be in DC in 21 months.
So how does this play out in the Wards? In the City Council? In Springfield?
- IntheBurbs - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 11:54 am:
When are the Feds going to crackdown on the crook who is Harvey Mayor Kellogg..?
- CLJ - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 11:58 am:
I agree with ChiTownSeven. Arroyo has built himself an amazing base of power on the near northwest side. I’m curious to know who his next targets will be in 2016.
It’s a very premature theory, but I’m thinking that the significant number of incumbent aldermen losing this election cycle has less to do with purely simple affiliation with Rahm but more so the lack of resources both political and governmental Rahm and his administration has provided back to the wards during the last four years. This not like in the Daley years when services and jobs were awarded to aldermen nearly guaranteeing success in elections. The strength of the anti-Rahm caucus is that they could run on the fact that they never received any support from city hall. I could be wrong though.
- Joe Biden Was Here - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 11:59 am:
In my sleepy suburb my guy won reelection to the village board so I’m a happy camper today. Turnout was a rumor. Only about 750 votes total.
- Bogey Golfer - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 12:05 pm:
The COD Board will be interesting. Elected boards should not be rubber stamps to administration. At the same time, elected ‘reformers’ tend to be micromanagers of administration, resulting in a low morale to the lower managers and faculty. Had a similar situation at Hinsdale District 86 - the election last night will hopefully swing the pendulum to the middle.
- Wumpus - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 12:12 pm:
Surprised ChiMayor was that close. My 9 year old is still talking about Chuey’s Fuzzy Math.
- Gooner - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 12:16 pm:
Ron Sandack’s crew lost in Downers Grove.
Yet another loss for Ron.
He had a bright future at one time.
- Belle - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 12:39 pm:
Money can buy you anything…at least in the case of elections.
- Cheryl44 - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 12:48 pm:
~Progressives have already started crooning..~
I have no doubt he will continue his neoliberal ways. The man didn’t even let his opponent finish his concession speech last night.
- Rapscallion - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 12:49 pm:
So the people of Chicaguh chose a tough Rahm over a Chewey Garcia.
Either way they’ll wind up with a bad case of political indigestion!
- elginkevin - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 12:56 pm:
More conservatives than I thought made it onto the U-46 Board of Education. Should make for some interesting meetings.
- kj - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 1:31 pm:
The fireworks should really begin with President Breuder of C.O.D. (Cash on Departure) and the new board. A lawsuit is certainly likely to come.
- A guy - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 1:39 pm:
Chuy could be an important ambassador to the people in the wards. I hope Rahm gives that some thought and maybe finds an important position for him. People who liked Chuy still voted for Rahm. Like it or not, running a city of this size with a history like it has takes gravitas. Chuy just never had a chance because he just doesn’t project that kind of image. In the end, you need a guy who can manage this behemoth.
- Wordslinger - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 2:00 pm:
“Gravitas ” according to Websters: Dignity, seriousness, solemnity of manner.
Who does that describe, again? And it applies to running a city, how?
Or are you just parroting some silly, meaningless thing Kirk said?
- Christopher Ball - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 2:07 pm:
Need to correct my comment. Turnout was actually up substantially, 18% more (88,114 more votes cast in mayor’s race) in the runoff than the 1st rd, but mayoral turnout was still below 2011 in % voting and absolute #s despite higher registration (35,600 more people registered in run-off 2015 v. 2011 but 24,039 fewer voted for mayor in 2015 v. 2011.)
As others say above, voter apathy or indifference between the two was considerable, and Rahm’s vote total was below 2011.
- Namaste - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 2:07 pm:
Chuy’s campaign manager, Andrew Sharp, was everything but. Abrasive, stubborn and an absolute jerk to volunteers.
- Upon Further Review - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 2:08 pm:
Not much Rahm Love outside today. The victory lap must have been quite short as many residents who were asked to place campaign signs promptly removed the same. I am referring to private property owners. I guess that these city workers held their noses and voted for Rahm and then pulled the signs as soon as possible.
Gossip Girl Sneed has Rahm looking for an appointment in Hillary’s administration in 2017.
I missed some of the news, but did Rahm ever have to field the “full term” question? Some politicians catch that question, but usually it is someone like Christie or Walker.
- Big Muddy - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 2:26 pm:
Clean Slate for COD is destined to be a disaster. Tea party darling Kathy Hamilton is about to find out that governing is hard. Brueder has to go but if they pull the deal away from him he will surely sue. And win.
- Gooner - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 2:29 pm:
“Not much Rahm Love outside today.”
Well, then it is good thing for the mayor that the election was held yesterday and not today.
But seriously, isn’t it time to give it up? The mayor won. Deal with reality.
- MrJM - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 2:32 pm:
“Gravitas”?
Well, at least people have stopped sayin’ “wet”…
– MrJM
- Been There - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 2:40 pm:
Rauner gets to make another appointment. This time for Pat Thompson’s Water Rec seat.
- 29th Ward Lawyer - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 2:53 pm:
Nick Sposato was a huge winner. They tried to kick him out of the Ciry Council with the remap. Not only did he win in 38 in February, he strongly backed candidates in 3 neighboring runoffs - Taliaferro in 29, Villegas in 36, and Napolitano in 41 - and he got a clean sweep.
So not only is Nick Sposato back, 3 rubberstamps are gone - Deborah Graham, Tim Cullerton, and Mary O’Connor.
Isn’t Karma beautiful?
- Upon Further Review - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 3:07 pm:
Sorry Gooner, but for those of us who like politics these events only come at four year intervals.
The polls closed, so we all need to change the subject? The newspapers were full of election coverage and analysis today. Should I ignore that?
Judging from the voter turnout, interest in politics is in decline much like baseball.
I think that you missed my point. I was commenting have never seen the political signs removed so fast. I can recall times when local papers printed post election editorials ragging on pols to remove their signs. Obviously, things may look different in areas of the city where there were still aldermanic races yesterday.
- Gooner - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 3:23 pm:
Upon Further Review, there is a difference between “discussing” and “whining.”
Your comment “not much Rahm love today”? Again, that seems contrary to the results from yesterday. Your guy lost. Deal with it.
- Upon Further Review - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 3:32 pm:
Sorry to be such a bother. I thought that the people visiting this site were interest in politics.
I was also following a suburban park district race too, but I did not think that would be much of a topic for posting. Let’s declare a moratorium on the Chicago mayoralty until 2019.
- Nick Naylor - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 3:58 pm:
Oddly, I would have to say John Kass was a big loser yesterday. Kass’s hatred of all things Rahm was never more evident when he went “all in” for Chuy Garcia.
Kass pushed hard for Chuy Garcia: aka “the reformer”, “man-of-the-people”, the same Chuy who so willingly took advice and counsel from the “father of the Illinois Combine” Jeremiah Joyce and his son Mike “Pickle” Joyce. Kass would rather kiss the ring of Jerry Joyce, and harken us back to the greased “duty free” shops and McDonald’s franchises at O’Hare than to see Rahm spend one more day on the 5th Floor.
John Kass has no credibility because of this. What little credibility he had left was shredded when he went “all in” for Chuy and the Joyces.
- Camera Watch - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 4:18 pm:
Grandson of Man, don’t you mean Suarez, not Sanchez? Sure you know this guy?
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 4:29 pm:
Sad very sad
I voted for Chuy.