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While the boys from Bridgeport may have their elder brother's future planned out, others are taking a hard look at who may be able to step up and challenge the mayor. Political consultant Don Rose took at look at the possibility of Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart as a candidate for mayor. Dart,
who may be the hottest political property in the state. He is a former white state representative from a majority African American district who built a record of child protection and sensible anticrime measures.Citing the Olympic debacle and the demise of Daley's gold medal dreams, Rose astutely observes that it will take a lot for Mayor Daley to get himself out of the political mess he's found himself in these days. "Daley has become an unpopular mayor—his numbers are at 35 percent according to the most recent Tribune poll—and it’s hard to recover from that kind of slide. I suspect, too, he saw this coming before the Tribune did and was cooking up a lot of circuses to get people’s mind off the bread he is costing them. Another massive cookout in Grant Park or festival of Baltic Music will not do it. Maybe free tickets to the next 100 Bears games might buy back a little love." That might be wishful thinking, but Rose is right about the situation Daley's in these days.
As sheriff he got national attention by refusing to evict hardscrabble foreclosure cases. Then he busted up a national prostitution ring operating on the Craig’s List website.
Then he got even bigger play with the Burr Oak Cemetery case, handling it all in a compassionate, quietly dignified way.
The next thing that falls his way is a dog-fighting ring.
It is on any single such case that careers are built. They are neither liberal nor conservative. They are what we call good-guy issues—nobody dares take the other side except maybe Roman Polanski.
Most politicians dream of getting such cases once in a career—and this guy gets four in the blink of an eye. That means he is lucky, too—another arrow in the successful politician’s quiver. Lucky enough even to have a name that sounds like a comic strip hero: Tom Dart indeed!
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IMHO, Tom Dart is exactly what this city needs.
PLEASE let Dart run. Too many people are being fooled by Daley's bread-and-circuses bit and his tourist ass-kissing is getting us nowhere.
Dart has a predelection for Quixotic crusades I find simultaneously unsettling and refreshing. I think the city could use a crusader, assuming he points his interests in the right direction and doesn't use it merely to distract the electorate. I'd be open to voting for Dart.
The key is the process: No matter how weak Daley may or may not be--and don't underestimate the willingness of so many in Chicago, including those with a direct financial stake in city and Machine jobs, to vote for the white, supposedly Irish guy from the "working class" part of the city (even if he does live in the South Loop now)--the Machine still has wide control over the petition process and all the judges/officials who decide such matters. Inertia is a wonderful thing.
The Machine also has a long history of co-opting would be crusaders, too.
I don't think Tom Dart would be that much better than Daley. Saying this is like drinking poison, but at least Daley understands that the Black community at least has to get a few crumbs. Tom Darts 19th ward base is 99% ethnically pure. The question is does any one have the courage to take this criminal on?
You said it better than I could have, Spook: Daley understands that the Black community at least has to get a few crumbs.
Let me know how that Wal-Mart is working out for all the UNCF graduates and building trades apprentices on the South side.
Yea, I'm sure Wal-Mart will not only be the major incubator for UNCF grads, but also Black grads from UIC, Urbana, Southern, Northern, Eastern, Western U.
But I think you made a major mistake concerning the building trades apprentices on the South side. In spite of Emile Jones, Meeks and the whole Black caucus. All the trade apprentices remain mostly white and predominantly Irish, thanks to Madigan and the 19th Ward( Home of Tom Dart) and of course Daley refusing to get involved.
But, on the “liberal NPR” brighter note
To feel the void numerous non recognized store front and church basement “apprentice programs” with out certification have created more than a few jobs for shyster ministers and community hustler leaders who are able to scam a lot of recent Black prison parolees, high school drop outs and others looking to turn their lives around for the little money and savings that the can drum up or collect from their grand parents who actually think they are going to be admitted into the Union.
"The question is does any one have the courage to take this criminal on?"
No, and probably not for a long time. And even if a challenger had courage, that will not be enough. Even if the mayor goes, his brother will still effectively run the Cook County board, and some form of Daley relation will have his or her hands in our pockets for a long time, I am sure. Power is not easily given up, ever, no matter what system of government one lives under.
I think if Daley were to go, his family would be run out of town, his statue toppling like that of Saddam. And over night every body and they Momma would be a Daley critic
I don't think Tom Dart would be that much better than Daley.
And yet this statement leads us to believe you think he would be somewhat better, which should be enough of a reason to vote for him.