Coalition of Black Leaders Backs Rep. Danny Davis

The Sun-Times is calling it a “political about-face.” The Chicago coalition of African American politicians, religious and community leaders met Friday night and unanimously chose to support Representative Danny Davis in the mayoral race. The finalists, announced last month, included former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun and Board of Review Commissioner Larry Rogers. Braun was originally thought to be the best contender for the coalition’s support, so it came as a surprise when the coalition announced it would be backing Rep. Davis. After being re-elected to eighth term in last week’s elections, Davis says he’s “ready to run” for mayor of Chicago.

The coalition is meant to unify the African American vote in Chicago, but with Braun and Rogers feeling slighted by the decision, will it end up dividing rather than unifying?

Garrison Medill: A Bird? A Plane? A Candidate?

If you Google the name Garrison Medill, the first page of results will
turn you to multiple web addresses, including Medill’s personal blog,
his campaign website, and his Wikipedia page.

Wait, don’t know who I’m talking about?

That seems to be the general case when it comes to Garrison “Gary”
Medill, the newest candidate for the position of mayor for Chicago,
who seemingly popped up out of nowhere. According to his personal
pages, Garrison has been a part of the Chicago community all of his
life, and for the past five years has served as a private political
consultant. However, a closer look at him may reveal more. At the top
of his Wikipedia page is a warning for readers that his information
may or may not be deleted, as it does not follow Wikipedia’s Personal
Biography Policies. Perhaps this is a simple error on a public space,
but there are more signs that people should be wary about this new
player in the race. Looking at major websites listing political
candidates for mayor, Medill is nowhere to be found. In fact, the only
person backing Medill up seems to be himself. Is this a sign that not
all is right with Medill, or that he is simply inexperienced at
campaigning? It is still early in the race, though. Perhaps this is
just a start to his campaign. One thing is for certain, though:
Garrison Medill is someone to keep a close eye on.

Rahm Puns… Yeah, we’re going there.

 In addition to publishing this picture of Rahm Emanuel reaching out to shake the hand of a woman who looks rather wary of shaking his, New York Magazine‘s recent article “The Rahmfather Makes an Offer Chicagoans Can’t Refuse” mentions no less than three plays on the former US Chief of Staff’s first name. But why just let New York Magazine (and every major news publication) have all the fun? So here’s our list of Rahm puns/names that we’ve collected and some we’ve come up with.

From the News:
The Rahmfather, Battering Rahm, Rahmbo

From Weigel, a Slate blog:

“Rahmadan: The 24 days between Richard Daley’s announcement that he would retire and Emanuel’s announcement that he would run to replace him, during which time the Washington press corps fasted. (Alternate spelling: Rahmadone.)

Rahm Kippur: Friday, October 1: The day Rahm will leave his post as White House chief of staff.

Rahm Sunday: The day that Rahm returns to Chicago.

Thanks to Felicia Sonmez, Rachel Balsham and Jeffrey Mervosh for the puns.”

From us:
The Rahmper Room: The news and talk show CNN will create if Rahm is not elected Mayor. He’s already quit his White House job… What else is he gonna do?

The Rahmaround: If Rahm is elected mayor, any efforts he makes that are perceived as attempts to delay direct action will be referred to as such.

We’ll be adding to this list as we come up with more puns. Feel free to send us your suggestions!

By the way, if you don’t get a chance to read the New York Magazine article, the last line is worth noting: “Emanuel seems genuinely touched. ‘Got off a goddamn bus to shake my hand,’ he says. ‘Isn’t that weird?'”

Check this out!

Gregory Tejeda, a Chicago-area freelance writer on Chicago’s far South Side, has this great political blog called Chicago Argus. He’s following the mayoral race, too, but he also touches on other Chicago and Illinois politcal issues. He’s got an awesome post about the mayoral candidate field after Dart dropped out. Dart out – Is mayoral field thinning down to Emanuel and dreamers? Check him out, and keep the dialogue going!

Tom Dart’s out… Now what?

 The Sun-Times reported yesterday that Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart will not be running for mayor of Chicago. That leaves Rahm Emanuel as the even-clearer frontrunner in this race. So now what? The Sun-Times article mentions Carol Moseley Braun and Gery Chico as “other contenders,” but Emanuel is still leaps and bounds ahead of those two, as far as name recognition and support. Alas, is it too early to make a prediction? Probably. But right now, it’s looking like a steeper and steeper hill those “other candidates” are going to have to climb to be considered “real contenders” in the mayoral race.

But who knows? Maybe a candidate will appear from out of the blue, and Chicagoans will no longer be subject to the seemingly endless array of puns (The Rahmfather, Battering Rahm, among others) our newspapers are trying to convince us are clever… But with the November 22nd deadline quickly approaching, it’s looking more and more like a Rahm vs Some Other People race.

Carol Moseley Braun giving Rahm a “ruhn” for his money?

Okay, so it wasn’t a very good pun… But seriously reports are looking like former U.S. Senator Braun may be emerging as the other major contender for Chicago Mayor. At the very least, she’s stirring things up by hiring two “potentially controversial” political consultants to help out on her campaign. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Braun’s choice to call on Victor Reyes–Daley’s former political enforcer and co-founder of the scandalized Hispanic Democratic Organization–and Mike Noonan–a former House Speaker Michael Madigan political aide–“could allow Braun to climb into the top tier of mayoral candidates.” It’s a risky move, hiring two consultants who may leave a bad taste in the mouths of many voters, but when it all shakes out, both Reyes and Noonan have winning track records and connections to critical communities.

Rep. Mike Quigley won’t run

Associated Press says Congressman Mike Quigley has decided not to run for mayor of Chicago. That makes two Congressmen who have decided not to run (last week was Rep. Luis Gutierrez). Quigley took Rahm Emanuel’s seat in Congress when Emanuel signed on as Obama’s Chief of Staff. Quigley has not yet officially stated who he’s supporting in the mayoral race.

Gutierrez will not run for mayor

Representative Luis Gutierrez says he will not run for Chicago mayor. Instead, he will stay in Congress “to lead the fight for immigration reform.” Lynn Sweet at the Chicago Sun-Times wrote about Gutierrez’s statement. You can see what she wrote, as well as Gutierrez’s prepared remarks here.

“Futurist” David Houle Makes His Prediction

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/video/videoplayer.swf?dppversion=5390

Who’s in the running so far?

It’s still kind of early in the game, but here are the websites of who is officially running so far. The candidates have to get at least 12,500 signatures by Nov. 22 to be eligible to run. To be safe, they should try to get double that. For unannounced candidates, that number is hard to hit. So this is a list of candidates who have officially announced that they are running AND have an campaign official website. For a complete list of candidates (officially announced and speculative), check out: http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=481786 The list is sure to change as candidates drop out and others jump in, but you can get a feel for the current pool just by poking around a bit.

The Frontrunners

Rahm Emanuel. Former Chief of Staff for Obama. He quit his job to focus on his campaign. If we had to pick just one fruntrunner, it’d be Emanuel. He’s at least got the shiniest name recognition. http://www.chicagoforrahm.com/home/

Bob Fioretti. Alderman for Chicago’s 2nd Ward. http://chicago2ndward.com/

Tom Dart. Cook County Sheriff.  http://votefortomdart.com/ Thanks J Fresco for the update.

Miguel Del Valle. Chicago City Clerk. http://www.delvalleformayor.com/blog/home/

Carol Moseley Braun. Former U.S. Senator for Illinois and U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand. http://www.carolforchicago.com/

Gery Chico. City Colleges Chairman. http://www.chiconunes.com/gery-chico/

James Meeks. Illinois State Senator. http://www.ilga.gov/senate/Senator.asp?MemberID=1472

Luis Gutierrez. Represents Illinois’ “fightin’ fourth” district in the House.  http://www.gutierrez.house.gov/ Gutierrez announced on October 14 that he will not run.

Other Candidates

Garrison Medill. Independent political consultant based in Chicago. http://medillformayor.org/

Christopher Cooper. Civil Rights Attorney based in Chicago. http://www.christophercooperformayor2011.org/

Jay Stone. Political activist. http://stoneformayor.com/

William “Dock” Walls III. Community and political activist.  http://wallsformayor.com/

Frederick K. White. http://www.fredrick-k-white.com/