- Richard A. Chapman/Sun-Times
- Chuy Garcia pictured not too far behind Rahm Emanuel.
Next month Chicago chooses a mayor who will be either a Latino former right-hand man of Chicago’s first black mayor or a Jewish former right-hand man of America’s first black president. Where’s the Irish candidate from Bridgeport, the Slav with headquarters on Archer Avenue or Milwaukee? Nowhere to be found.
Ask the comrades of old who they’re voting for this time around and, in the best tradition of internecine combat, you’re met with not only disagreement but exasperated anger. As in, they just don’t get it! “As we know, Rahm is not a warm fuzzy,” says the friend quoted above (who knows Emanuel socially). “He is arrogant and sometimes profane. But he has worked his butt off to try to save what is basically a bankrupt city and he has run a clean administration. He knows that the way to increase our tax revenue is to bring new businesses into the city which provide both jobs and tax revenue. But some people see his courting of these businesses as ‘siding with the fat cats.’ They don’t understand. . . . . I truly worry about our city if Chuy gets elected.”
But let me wonder in a postscript if a more important factor in the runoff will be the date it’s held. There’s no bloc of voters Emanuel has offended more than the CPS teachers, and April 7 falls in the middle of spring break for the public schools. Will teachers head out of town on vacations or stay around and work precincts?
