* Remember that mystery fax I received yesterday about the new McPier CEO? Well, I received this from Emily Bittner at the governor’s office last night (it got buried in my in-box)…

Normally we wouldn’t be talking about this process, but because someone decided to launch an oppo hit…

The administration is proud to ask the MPEA board to consider a highly qualified African American woman with years of experience in convention and hospitality management. Ms. Larita Reed-Clark is a Chicago native who was raised in West Garfield Park and attended Austin High School before graduating from Loyola and Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

She, her husband and their young family moved to Indiana when he accepted a job there. After he passed away in 1999, she raised their children there to keep them in their existing support network. Ms. Reed-Clark would move to Illinois if the board selects her for this role.

For the past 35 years, she has provided leadership and financial management at the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, rising from assistant controller to Chief Financial Officer.

* I went looking for that email after Greg Hinz published this…

The statement [from Bittner] did not discuss who launched the “oppo hit.” But the mayor and governor have been jostling for months over who to pick to succeed Healey, with McPier board Chairman Brett Hart also expected to leave soon. […]

Lightfoot wants DePaul University CFO Jeff Bethke, but Pritzker’s allies say he has little experience running or attracting the trade shows and conventions that constitute McCormick Place’s business. In turn, the mayor has frowned on some other names pushed by Pritzker, such as Chicago Public Schools COO Arnie Rivera.

Knowledgeable sources say a four- or five-member McPier board subcommittee is about to start interviewing candidates in hopes of reaching a decision. But a final selection will depend on the mayor and governor reaching some sort of agreement, since they split control over the agency.