* The African-American publisher of Ndigo.com took a Republican ballot last week, but not to vote for Kirk Dillard…

“We’ve got a one-party system in Chicago and Illinois. We’ve got to break it up,” said Hermene Hartman, Ndigo.com publisher.

Online publisher Hartman says the black community’s high unemployment and total lack of economic development caused her this week to vote Republican for the first time.

“We’ve got to bring about some change. And you’re not going to change, if you don’t change,” he said.

Major Chicago black church leaders, all one-time Democrats, have endorsed Rauner, including the Reverend and former State Senator James Meeks, West Sider the Reverend Marshall Hatch and the South Side’s Reverend Stephen Thurston.

* And Laura Washington takes a look at a nascent political wing…

Chicago’s organizing community is restless. They actually agree with Rauner on one thing: The Democratic Party establishment is not working in their best interests.

So they are looking past November, to 2015.

Four major Chicago progressive operations have been in quiet but intensive planning for a brand-new political organization that will identify, train and run candidates for the 2015 citywide elections.

They aim “to build an infrastructure that allows community folks to act political and exercise political power in a way that doesn’t exist right now,” a top member of the planning team told me late last week. As Bill de Blasio did in New York City, this group thinks the time is ripe to move Chicago to the left. They will formally announce and launch the new organization this summer.

“This is the moment to be bold,” the activist said.

One of those organizations is the Chicago Teachers Union, I’m told.

*** UPDATE *** SEIU is also part of the “progressive” Chicago community, but the union went with the governor today. From a press release…

Governor Pat Quinn today received the endorsement of the Illinois State Council of the Service Employees International Union, a major labor union that represents more than 150,000 workers across Illinois.

Today’s endorsement adds to the growing momentum for the Governor’s re-election in 2014.

“I am extremely honored to have the support of the hard-working women and men of SEIU,” Governor Quinn said. “We know how to work hard and we know how to organize. Together we will continue to bring more families into the middle class and continue to move Illinois forward.”

“The clear choice for residents of Illinois in the upcoming November election is between a future in which we all have access to a quality standard of living, or one in which workers are increasingly stuck in low-wage jobs with a widening income inequality gap,” said Flora Johnson, Chair, SEIU Healthcare Illinois Executive Board. “That’s why SEIU is proud to endorse Governor Pat Quinn for another four-year term so he can continue his fight to eradicate the economic and social inequality that currently thrives in the state.”

Since taking office in the worst recession since the Great Depression, Governor Quinn has fought to create jobs and build a brighter future for working families, driving unemployment down to its lowest point in five years. Quinn championed and signed into law the largest capital construction program in state history, supporting more than 400,000 jobs to update Illinois’ roads, schools and bridges.

Throughout his time in office, the Governor has always worked to make sure Illinois workers are safe and treated fairly in the workplace. He has enacted more Project Labor Agreements than any other governor in the country and is leading the nation in fighting worker misclassification to ensure employees receive the pay they have earned.

* Other stuff…

* Zell, Emanuel to appear at Forbes summit

* And Now for the Further Adventures of Rahm the Impaler - “Trending toward insolvency.” “The country’s worst school system.” “The murder capital of America.” This is Rahm Emanuel’s third year as mayor of Chicago, and everything is under control.

* Neil Steinberg’s ‘Esquire’ Profile Of Emanuel Pulls Few Punches

* Englewood Students Satirize Mayor Emanuel’s School Closings With ‘Wreck-it Rahm’ Poem