What Steve Rhodes said
Monday, Apr 1, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
“I don’t care what the polls say, we cannot leave a stone unturned,” U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly said in South Shore, with her endorsed candidate Lightfoot by her side. “We have to do everything we can do. We have to run like we are behind. Don’t take anything for granted.”
Meanwhile, Preckwinkle’s top allies kept encouraging voters to ignore talk of endorsements and polls, of which there have been few, and focus on turning out in big numbers for the Cook County Board president.
Steve Rhodes…
When one camp is warning about complacency due to poll numbers and the other side is urging voters to ignore the poll numbers, that means both sides agree on the poll numbers.
* Tribune…
Preckwinkle also spent a chunk of the day visiting various South Side grocery stores, though her campaign didn’t publicize them. It did, however, tweet photos of her visiting shoppers at Jewel stores in Brainerd and Grand Crossing, a Food-4-Less in Chatham and the sprawling Walmart in Pullman.
Rhodes…
A campaign that doesn’t want publicity on the weekend before Election Day is a campaign that is either incompetent, is afraid that their campaign stops will draw embarrassingly little enthusiasm, or doesn’t want to face the questions that come with media attention. I’d say the Preckwinkle campaign checks all three boxes.
* And the lack of enthusiasm showed later…
Later in the day, White and Preckwinkle joined U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, Ald. Walter Burnett, Ald. Jason Ervin, city treasurer candidate and state Rep. Melissa Conyears-Ervin and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson for what the County Board president’s campaign advertised as the weekend’s closing get-out-the-vote rally, but a crowd of just 60 people was scattered throughout the sanctuary.
Rhodes…
Oy.
Yep.
…Adding… Chicago Tribune editorial…
Tuesday is Mandate Day. After 22 years of Mayor Richard M. Daley from a family political dynasty, and after eight years of Emanuel who brought an insider, Washington, D.C. portfolio, voters have the opportunity to turn the keys over to outsider Lori Lightfoot. Chicagoans, do that forcefully.
Steve Rhodes…
Bear in mind that for the last three decades, the Tribune editorial board has been, forcefully, in the corners of Daley and Emanuel, issuing no less than eight endorsements over that time - all of them!
Now the Trib wants to shame you into fixing their (unacknowledged) mistakes. If editorial board members thought about it, they’d realize that we’d all be better off if readers following their advice the last 30 years would’ve been better off sitting at home on Election Day! Stupid citizens, look what you did listening to us! Now we need a mayor to get us out of this mess! Get out there and vote or you have no right to complain about how wrong we’ve been!
Our very own Tim Willette adds: “It wasn’t long ago that the Tribune endorsed Bill Daley for mayor! If you endorsed Bill Daley for mayor, you have no right to complain!”
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 2:14 pm:
===A campaign that doesn’t want publicity on the weekend before Election Day is a campaign that is either incompetent, is afraid that their campaign stops will draw embarrassingly little enthusiasm, or doesn’t want to face the questions that come with media attention. I’d say the Preckwinkle campaign checks all three boxes.===
The daily slow train wreck that is/was the Preckwinkle campaign is one where you see a campaign and candidate that lost who they were because being who they were against the wrong candidate doomed them.
- PJ - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 2:18 pm:
This is one of those campaigns that makes you realize how useless political prognostication is. I’d love to find one person in Illinois who predicted in September that by April we would have Lightfoot, who was barely registering as a real candidate for a while, trouncing Preckwinkle in a run-off. I include myself in the ranks of the ignorant here.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 2:20 pm:
===how useless political prognostication is===
True. And it’s a big reason why I love politics so much. Things can change, and they often do.
- Annonin' - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 2:21 pm:
Hate to break the vibe, but Alaska just call to report GovJunk All Star Donna Arduin has landed there to sprinkle some budget magic. We will all remember the work product from her $30K a month contract —- 2 year budget impasse.
Now back to Steve Rhodes in-depth coverage.
- Can’t use Anonymous as my name - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 2:31 pm:
I saw a bunch of Preckwinkle yard signs lining the sides of an exit ramp along 290 this weekend. They jumped out at me because it was either the 1st Ave or 25th Ave exit in Proviso township, well outside of city limits.
- Terry Salad - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 2:33 pm:
Steve Rhodes remains one of the sharper observers of Chicago politics. He should be on television more, and much more than some of the experts the local news stations drag in as commentators.
- Responsa - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 2:39 pm:
==- Annonin’ - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 2:21 pm:==
It’s past time to let this go, no? You won. We have a new governor and a new set of all-stars.
- wordslinger - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 2:49 pm:
The troncs’ lack of self-awareness never fails to produce belly laughs.
- Trapped in the 'burbs - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 2:49 pm:
Young Toni Preckwinkle would vote for Lori Lightfoot over an entrenched political hack. Current Toni Preckwinkle has to accept that she has become that which she fought against and Kim Foxx isn’t helping.
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 2:50 pm:
You gotta give Lightfoot credit for being out there in September, ect. I’m sure those good impressions helped a lot once she gained some mainstream attention.
- Wensicia - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 2:52 pm:
I’ve often thought the Tribune editorial board suffers from bipolar disorder.
- Annonin' - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 2:59 pm:
MrMs Reponsal:
Let go?
Why let go when the All Stars are still spilling their magic sauce around the planet. Adams County grand jury still at work and Small Govt/NoRegs Durkie callin’ for the GovJunk Poison Plant to be shuttered. Guessin’ the “let go” will not be tugged for a while.
- Lefty Lefty - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 3:09 pm:
I can’t say enough good about The Beachwood Reporter and Mr. Rhodes. Between his website and this one, no political stone is unturned in Chicago and the State.
If you appreciate solid, trenchant political commentary about Chicago, visit TBR often and throw something in the till:
http://www.beachwoodreporter.com/membership.php
- Dotnonymous - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 3:32 pm:
It’s all happening…as you say, Miller…the only constant is change…it’s predictably unpredictable.
- Original Rambler - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 3:35 pm:
It’s kind of like the NCAA tournament. Sometimes your team gets matched up with the wrong opponent and your bracket gets busted. That’s pretty much what happened to Toni when Lori came out of the primary.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 3:36 pm:
===It’s kind of like the NCAA tournament. Sometimes your team gets matched up with the wrong opponent and your bracket gets busted. That’s pretty much what happened to Toni when Lori came out of the primary.===
Yep.
It was like a 5 seed getting that dreaded 12 seed matchup…
- Eric Zorn - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 3:48 pm:
I thought this passage from the Tribune story this morning said a lot:
>>>Later (Sunday), U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, Ald. Walter Burnett, Ald. Jason Ervin, city treasurer candidate and state Rep. Melissa Conyears-Ervin and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson joined Preckwinkle and White for what was advertised as the weekend’s closing get-out-the-vote rally. The event, though, drew just 60 people scattered in the sanctuary of the People’s Church of the Harvest.>>>
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/elections/ct-met-chicago-mayors-race-runoff-frenzied-final-weekend-20190331-story.html
- State Employee 2 - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 3:58 pm:
“I saw a bunch of Preckwinkle yard signs lining the sides of an exit ramp along 290 this weekend. They jumped out at me because it was either the 1st Ave or 25th Ave exit in Proviso township, well outside of city limits.”
I saw them at 1st Avenue, at least 50-75 lining the curb, pretty much in front of the Maybrook Courthouse. I hope she’s targeting the employees and not the “customers”, either way it was weird to see them
- Marrs96 - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 3:58 pm:
I live in Hyde Park, which you’d think was unshakably Preckwinkle territory and Lightfoot has a lot more visible signage scattered throughout HP, Woodlawn, Kenwood & Bronzeville.
I think the Berrios, Burke, and now Foxx connections have really doomed Toni, even in a place that used to love her (or at least deeply respect her.)
- Anon E Moose - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 4:00 pm:
Didn’t the Tribune endorse Gary Johnson in 2016?
- Norseman - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 4:03 pm:
Looks like Preckwinkle is going to get popped. (An allusion to soda, not violence.)
- Shytown - Monday, Apr 1, 19 @ 4:25 pm:
I wouldn’t give Rhodes too much credit for stating more or less the obvious. he just put some good snark on it.
With that said, their is virtually nothing good about the Preckwinkle campaign. Horrible consulting by a team of mostly c teamers and Jerry Morrison (when is that guy finally getting a pink slip). Almost as bad earned media strategy. Many on the campaign team were nothing less than embarrassingly arrogant. Seemed to build their entire paid media and field strategy around getting money and bodies from the public employee unions. Multiple unforced errors on their part. It seriously could not have been worse than it was.
- Larry Boone - Tuesday, Apr 2, 19 @ 5:36 am:
Toni and her followers stress the mayor’s office is not entry level. Jumping from Chicago 4th ward alderman to Cook County Board Presidency was just that-entry level, where she previously had no county and no executive experience.