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* Chicago PR guru Marilyn Katz was on The Daily Line’s podcast show this week. Among the topics she discussed was whether her longtime friend and ally Valerie Jarrett might run for mayor or governor. Jarrett has been one of President Obama’s closest advisors for a decade…

I think there’s a lot of interest. Valerie is an extraordinary woman. She came to government in Harold Washington’s era, worked all the way through Daley’s era, left government… and I think there’s a huge following. And people looking around the political landscape, watching how she has guided Barack’s campaign, but also his conduct in office and where she stood on the issues in the Obama administration that were most contentious, abortion, insurance issues, immigration - on which she was on the side of abortion coverage, reproductive rights coverage, taking on Obamacare and taking on the immigration issue, think that she would be a great candidate to come home and run for mayor or for governor.

She’s got leadership. She’s young enough. She knows the city like the back of her hand, has the requisite governmental experience and the relationships nationwide to make her an incredible asset.

When we look at what we need out of a governor and mayor, one is really a sense of the city and a vision of where it needs to go and how to get there. And also the infrastructure of contacts and experience that allows you to not only to have the vision, but also to fulfill it. Valerie can do anything she wants.

That sounds more like she’s pushing Jarrett for a mayoral bid.

* So, would Jarrett really run statewide?…

I’ve made a case for her. Before she decided to go to the White House, I made a case to her and for her that she should run for the Senate.

Now, Barack convinced her not to and said, “Well think about it this way, would you rather be eating a chicken dinner in Dubuque or wherever, Des Moines (oh, those are in Iowa) or Cairo, or would you rather be eating a state dinner and hanging out with me?” So, she made that choice, but I’ve always thought Valerie would be a tremendous candidate.

Um, OK. Again, there seems to be more of a case being made here for mayor than governor.

* And then Katz asked this rhetorical question…

So if she wanted to run for governor, and spend her life in Springfield, after DC…?

Yeah, that doesn’t make it sound like it’s gonna happen.

* Also…

I think she’s considering what to do after six months. She’s considering taking a rest… She’s going to take a vacation and think about putting herself at the center and where she wants to go. She has lived for Barack these last ten years, and her whole life has been determined by his career, his needs.

As has been reported by multiple outlets, there’s a real sense of urgency behind the scenes to coalesce as soon as possible behind a 2018 candidate. If Jarrett waits until June to start making a decision, the campaign may have already passed her by.

* And here’s Katz on the self-funders…

I believe that in this age of social media, that in fact while money counts, voters are actually smarter than that and will, in the end, vote for a better candidate, someone like Valerie. You need somebody with charisma. You need somebody who’s going to master social media, who’s got enough money to run the race, to get the name recognition. I believe that self-funders are fine, but really, I think people are really sick in this state of billionaires…

I think Chris, of the billionaires running, I think Chris Kennedy has the best chance among them… partly not because he’s a self-funder only, but because he’s got the name of Kennedy, which goes a long way towards recognition among older voters, particularly older voters in the African-American, the white Jewish community stands for liberalism and all that is good.

You can subscribe to the show’s podcast on iTunes or Android.

I’ll open comments on this post Monday morning.