My Sun-Times column this week is both national and local in focus, although it leans more local…
Fresh, independent-minded candidates, most helped by labor unions, forced 10 Machine aldermen into runoff elections this year. But now the “Empire” is striking back, and liberal icon Barack Obama is helping the Old Guard in at least one of those races.
Obama is set to endorse the always controversial 3rd Ward Ald. Dorothy Tillman in her runoff against hard-charging independent Pat Dowell. Obama isn’t alone. Almost every black political, religious and civil rights leader in the city is lending support to Tillman, who scored just 43 percent in the first round of voting, finishing a mere 400 votes ahead of Dowell.
About the only major political figure not backing Tillman right now is U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who just helped elect his wife, Sandi, to the City Council. Jackson said this week he plans to put at least 150 foot soldiers into the 3rd Ward come Election Day, but he tried to downplay the fact that this is the first time he and Obama have ever opposed each other in a local race.
And it ends this way…
Jackson says he understands why Sen. Obama would back Tillman. The alderman was one of Obama’s earliest supporters in his U.S. Senate bid. But others are wondering how Obama’s decision to back such a die-hard proponent of slavery reparations will play in Iowa and New Hampshire. They may have a point.
