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* ABC7 has a report from the racially charged press conference today…

“If there were any African-Americans considering voting for Dan Hynes as a result of this ad, I think they are going to be turning away from him and turn to Pat Quinn as a result of this ad,” said U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, (D) Chicago & South Suburbs.

Rush and his colleagues also noted that Hynes’ father, former county assessor and state senator Tom Hynes, was one of Washington’s most bitter political enemies who abandoned the democratic party in 1987 to run against the city’s first black mayor. “I was 18 years old when my father ran for mayor. But he is running against me, not my father,” said Hynes.

“Are you trying to suggest that there is no link between Dan Hynes today and who his daddy was?” said Gutierrez.

The congressmen demanded that Hynes the remove the ad. As of Friday afternoon it was still running on all the Chicago television stations.

Congressman Rush warned of what he called a blacklash in which wised-up African-American voters would turn against Hynes.

And Eric Zorn has posted a Chicago Tribune article from when Quinn left the Washington administration…

Although he would not say that he felt betrayed by the mayor, Quinn said: “When I was appointed, the mayor said, ‘Remember, Quinn, no one speaks for Harold Washington but Harold Washington. You have got to clean this place up, and don’t let any of these political things interfere.’ ”

Quinn said, “People would come to me, so-called friends of the administration, asking, ‘Can you do this or that?’ and I would send them on their way firmly but politely.”

Quinn said he was made aware of possible problems by Alton Miller, Washington’s press secretary, in a conversation Wednesday night.

“I had been at the park with my kids, and as I was pushing them on the swing, I thought to myself that I had better start looking for health insurance because I might not be with the program Friday,” he said. “I know the job I did at the board of appeals and also here and when I go home at night, my conscience won’t kick me in the shins.”

Alton Miller has been saying that the Hynes ad accurately reflects Washington’s views…

“It’s almost kind of paternal disappointment,” said Alton Millter, speechwriter and press secretary for the late mayor, to the Chicago Current. “Harold Washington thought he had another team player … and became alarmed when he noticed that Quinn was talking to the media without … sufficient coordination from the mayor’s standpoint.”

All this is so much clutter when Washington, himself, is on tape speaking so forcefully against Pat Quinn. As I wrote in the Sun-Times today, “Who are you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?”

* This one’s for Randi…

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Jan 22, 10 @ 5:32 pm

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