38 Comments - Anon0091 - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 11:31 am: So after Kennedy loses the primary for governor will he announce his candidacy for assessor? That seems to be the office he’s really running for. - PJ - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 11:33 am: The Governor who probably pays someone 6 figures to manage social media can’t get more than 1 or 2 retweets per post? - Almost the Weekend - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 11:34 am: The best thing that can happen in this case is Berrios loses the primary. Be one less talking point to spew at the Dems come general election season. I know this a huge long shot, but how funny would it be Republicans in Cook County pull a D primary ballot to defeat Berrios and Ives sneaks in. Would be truly so Illinois. - Arsenal - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 11:34 am: I still can’t stop laughing at a Kennedy railing against “the establishment”. - DuPage Bard - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 11:34 am: Kennedy and Rauner teaming up, well done Chris. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 11:42 am: Kennedy is small minded to the big picture of Berrios vs. Rauner. The more Kennedy and Biss continue to think going after Rauner should be secondary to other things, the more Kennedy and Biss will both be fishing off the same pier for the same voters, and still be double digits behind Pritzker. Are Kennedy and Biss helping their own campaigns… or helping Bruce Rauner more? They’re hoping to unseat a governor polling at 30% approval, and their worried about things Rauner wants all voters to blame Democrats for, in hopes of ignoring his (Rauner’s) own failures? Some run for Governor, others are consumed with Madigan, Berrios, and small thinking to a greater end. Good luck with that. - Arsenal - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 11:44 am: ==Are Kennedy and Biss helping their own campaigns… or helping Bruce Rauner more?== The truth is neither, since no one’s paying attention to them. - PJ - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 11:49 am: OW - I guess I just don’t understand what you think the Biss campaign plan should be. If all he does is go after Rauner, he loses. He’s gonna lose anyway, yeah, but his job as a candidate is to try and actually win the primary. That means peeling off votes from JB. It isn’t often reflected in the politico types on this blog, but there’s a pretty large segment of Chicago Democrats who are pretty sick of the Berrios/Madigan types, and who don’t want to be told to settle for the candidate with the most money. Primaries aren’t coronations. If JB can’t handle flack in a primary, good luck in a general against a vicious opponent. If you must, consider this a dry run for him. But Biss is a qualified candidate who deserves a chance to actually campaign. If we didn’t have all the ultra-rich folks in this race, he’d probably be a favorite. - State Assessor of Cook County - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 11:53 am: =there’s a pretty large segment of Chicago Democrats who are pretty sick of the Berrios/Madigan types,= Maybe they should start voting in district and county elections. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 11:54 am: ===…He’s gonna lose anyway, yeah, but…=== The point of Rich’s post yesterday “Stop Whining” is really just that. If Biss thinks, as I do for him, that his best shot is to be like a Bernie-type candidate, understand Biss hasn’t made the financial inroads necessary like Bernie was able to generate, even at the state-level mirroring to scale, of the crowds and press type groundswell that Bernie used to mushroom and build out of control. So, the counter to those challenges that seem to be the way Biss sees to win is “Madigan”? Um, ok. Like I said. Good luck with that. - Jocko - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 11:55 am: I like how Chris (#endtheracket) Kennedy is running as an outsider…after having received a 1.5 million dollar tax break from Berrios. - Honeybear - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 11:55 am: You know I’m more convinced than ever that dueling media/press battles are just going to cancel each other out. It’s door to door ground action that will Pursuade and motivate Hand to hand Door to door I just think the battle in the sky Looks incomprehensible from the ground Necessary but no longer decisive It’s your friend, neighbor or even Someone from your community Personal reach out is the ballgame My labor Marines Are already inbound For the beachhead. But hoooweee is there a dog fight over head. - Bissocracy - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 12:00 pm: =his best shot is to be like a Bernie-type candidate= Did Bernie also set aside his oath of office to go after worker pensions? - Responsa - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 12:01 pm: To be sure it’s only one of many issues in play but like it or not, Kennedy’s winning this battle of the Berrios fracus. JB has at least one very big tangible Achilles heel and it centers around toilets, assessments and special treatment. It may or may not matter to downstaters and upstaters but it does matter to voters in Cook County where there are a whole lot of votes to be cast and where Joe B. is increasingly toxic. Smart Dems ignore this at their own peril. - Ghost - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 12:02 pm: Kennedy who has no political experience or real on his own big boy accomplishments and is running purley on his politically established family name, is anti establishment? This is like chik-fil-a heading up the anti cow eating movement - JS Mill - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 12:06 pm: =The people in power, Madigan and his machine, they like the status quo. = States the man that gave more than $20 million in no-bid contracts to a heavily connected consulting firm. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 12:06 pm: ===Primaries aren’t coronations. If JB can’t handle flack in a primary, good luck in a general against a vicious opponent. If you must, consider this a dry run for him. But Biss is a qualified candidate who deserves a chance to actually campaign. If we didn’t have all the ultra-rich folks in this race, he’d probably be a favorite.=== And… ===It isn’t often reflected in the politico types on this blog, but there’s a pretty large segment of Chicago Democrats who are pretty sick of the Berrios/Madigan types, and who don’t want to be told to settle for the candidate with the most money.=== Whew… To this first… “It isn’t often reflected in the politico types on this blog, but there’s a pretty large segment of Chicago Democrats who are pretty sick of the Berrios/Madigan types” Biss and Kennedy are fishing off that same pier. If you combine Kennedy and Biss to Pritzker in Rich’s polling, they collectively are still trailing. Stop with the “you people here on this blog” nonsense when I can read polling and two candidates with a similar messsge, even collectively, trail a single candidate, it’s not “us”, it’s the campaigns that seem to think if they wish to be true, it is “Primaries aren’t coronations.” For the 675th time, I’ve said, “run them all”. Anyone wants to run. Run. Ugh. “If JB can’t handle flack in a primary, good luck in a general against a vicious opponent.” They are still leading over there. They are handling it fine, polling says so. Rauner you’d think would be a breeze foil to compare and contrast, then shine above other opponents, but… “If you must, consider this a dry run for him.” Yep. So? “But Biss is a qualified candidate who deserves a chance to actually campaign.” Who’s stopping him? Discussing strategy or how to win is different than… “stop running” “If we didn’t have all the ultra-rich folks in this race, he’d probably be a favorite.” The ole “but” argument. “It we didn’t have the sun, we’d havd night all the time” We have the sun. We have rich folks running. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 12:08 pm: ===Did Bernie also set aside his oath of office to go after worker pensions?=== Did I miss labor endorsing Biss? (Sigh) - BDF - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 12:10 pm: Also, PJ’s initial comment on this post totally nails what I’ve been trying to put to words for a few months now. Hats off. - Thomas Stepp - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 12:11 pm: Kennedy’s record doesn’t really match up too well with his “anti-establishment” rhetoric. - Ghost - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 12:16 pm: jB is self funding, so all the wealthy donors are free to be scooped up by Biss. His failure to bring in money is his failure to sell himself. Other non rich dems have raked in money in the last. So lack of money is a Biss failure on his ability to lead and persuade. - anon2 - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 12:25 pm: Will Kennedy pledge to support the winner of the primary? How about Biss? === I know this a huge long shot, but how funny would it be Republicans in Cook County pull a D primary ballot to defeat Berrios === I’m waiting for the GOP to urge Cook County Republicans to take a Democratic ballot to defeat Berrios. There’s no chance, after all, that a Republican would defeat him in November. - anon2 - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 12:26 pm: I guess Senators Durbin and Duckworth are now part of the “corrupt” cabal. - Ducky LaMoore - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 12:46 pm: ===The people in power, Madigan and his machine, they like the status quo.=== He’s right. Madigan and his machine absolutely love the status quo of having a republican governor who doesn’t know how to govern that they can easily foil at every single turn. - Lucky Pierre Bot - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 1:05 pm: Outside of property tax lawyers and their wealthy clients how many middle class voters actually like the status quo highest property taxes in America? Cook County Democrats arrogant defense of this corrupt system is tone deaf - 42nd - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 1:25 pm: As bad as Rauner’s approval ratings are, the Speaker’s are much worse (at least they are amongst all Illinoisans, not just dems admittedly). By blasting Berrios and Madigan, Kennedy isn’t siding with Rauner. He is doing something that a governor has not done in quite a while in this state: he is leading. He is showing people that the status quo is beyond absurd. He is exactly right and I am convinced this will pay off for him in the long run. I have no idea why JB decided to go in hook line and sinker with the speaker but it was unnecessary and is going to hurt him. Anyone defending Berrios (and by defending I mean “not actively calling for him to be removed from office/supporting his opponent”) cannot possibly call themselves a reformer or someone deserving of leadership. It pains me that JB doesn’t take a hard line here because he has the resources to do so without repercussions. There are a great many democrats in Illinois (and Cook County) that literally despise Joe Berrios but you have to leave the echo chamber to hear it. - Molly Maguire - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 1:34 pm: Great work, Chris. Thanks! /s - Bissocracy - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 1:40 pm: =Did I miss labor endorsing Biss? (Sigh)= Poor answer OW. Your posting quality posting has been suffering in inverse proportion to your quantity. You’re off base with your suggested comparison of a Danny-come-lately faux populist with a long-time populist. lol Willy gets in his tangential last word in 3, 2, 1… - Oswego Willy - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 1:48 pm: ===Your posting quality posting=== … and you’re critiquing me? Oh boy, lol Let’s revisit… === =his best shot is to be like a Bernie-type candidate= Did Bernie also set aside his oath of office to go after worker pensions?=== I made a critique of the “Bernie-type” candidate. You decided to say… ===Did Bernie also set aside his oath of office to go after worker pensions?=== Which I replied… ===Did I miss labor endorsing Biss? (Sigh)=== Bernie-type and “being Brenie” are two different things. Your “concern” for labor is… swell, but labor apparently is with Pritzker not Biss, so Biss needs to be a “Bernie-type” candidate, less labor, as I’ve said before, and you seem to forget or want to make it about “me”… ===Poor answer…=== And… ===Willy gets in his tangential last word=== K? K. - Honeybadger - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 1:57 pm: I think it comes down to this in the either primary,number 1, who is has the best plan that will convince voters to vote for them? Tell us what you are going to do and how to improve the lives of all Illinoisans. Number 2, who will have the ground troops (and I know JB is working across the entire state to build an infrastructure of supporters)to go out and canvass and knock on doors and get the voters out for their chosen candidate. Right now, I don’t see Biss or Kennedy doing any of that and I am okay with that, because I will be supporting JB. As far as I am concerned, JB is our billionaire who has the best chance of competing and defeating Rauner (assuming he wins the primary-come on Jeanne Ives). - Arsenal - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 2:01 pm: ==(and by defending I mean “not actively calling for him to be removed from office/supporting his opponent”)== When you have to mangle the meaning of words that much, you should consider revisions to your statement. - Arsenal - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 2:06 pm: ==he is leading== He’s punching down. Berrios isn’t his opponent, nor is he someone he can do anything about once in office. - Rabid - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 2:09 pm: govenor it would be nice if you fought for property tax reform in the other hundred an one countys - Oswego Willy - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 2:12 pm: ===As bad as Rauner’s approval ratings are, the Speaker’s are much worse (at least they are amongst all Illinoisans, not just dems admittedly).=== Much worse = 3 points worse in polls with an MOE greater than 3. ===He is showing people that the status quo is beyond absurd. He is exactly right and I am convinced this will pay off for him in the long run.=== With what money, field operations, and polling significantly behind Pritzker with both money and operations lacking with a burn rate of monies, by the by, that’s as bas as I can remember Geez, Louise… you like Kennedy, but factual and unbiased honesty to the race… yikes. - Iamthepita - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 2:30 pm: For the governor who spends a little bit too much time on Twitter is definitely “not in charge”… - Lester Holt’s Mustache - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 2:46 pm: Outside of a major criminal scandal, any one of these dems (except Tio) has a very good chance to beat Gov Junk in the first election post-trump since turnout will most likely be much higher than usual next fall. Unfortunately for Biss and Kennedy, neither of them have been able to point to anything that indicates they’d be a better opponent against Rauner. The only thing either can point to with Pritzker so far are rich guy money issues, which is one of the many problems Rauner also has. Maybe he’ll be a mediocre candidate, but have Biss or Kennedy shown anything that says they’d be a much better alternative to Rauner? That’s before we even get to the financial advantage. With either Biss or Kennedy, the state dem party and the DGA will have to shovel money at them just to keep up with Rauner. This leaves less money for every other dem running for office in the state next year. Given this situation, why in the world would state dem officials NOT support Pritzker? It would be sheer malfeasance for them to say “No thank you Mr. Billionaire, we’d rather have this other candidate with no money that we’re going to support instead” unless there was a much better alternative - like when Blair Hull ran for office. Chris and Daniel have three months to prove they are that much better alternative. - Arsenal - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 2:50 pm: ==Given this situation, why in the world would state dem officials NOT support Pritzker?== It’d be one thing if he had the money but didn’t know how to use it, but so far he’s spending it on a pretty good campaign. His comms team is solid, field is very good, and he nailed his first, most important decision (running mate). - wordslinger - Friday, Dec 8, 17 @ 4:43 pm: Tough to run as a credible outsider with one of the most iconic names in American political history. Kennedys have been insiders since FDR (although he gave Grandpa Joe the heave-ho for wanting to make a deal with Hitler). Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.