Family Ties

By Kevin Robinson in News on Dec 21, 2006 2:50PM

In case you missed it, two important filings of candidacies took place this week: Mayor Daley's stalking horse, Dorothy Brown, is now officially running for mayor, and Sandi Jackson threw her hat in the ring to take on William Beavers' daughter, Darcel Beavers, for 7th Ward Alderman. While Brown's announcement is significant only becuase she is a pawn of Daley, the Beavers/Jackson race is sure to be a headline grabber this season.

While Chicagoist has our doubts about Darcel Beavers (and all of this Annointing of the Children), we have to stop and wonder what's going on when the British are talking about this stuff. After all, isn't this the political system that invented the modern inheritance of political office?

As strange as this race seems (the wife of the son of Jesse Jackson verses the daughter of a Machine alderman), the reality is that it is quickly shaping up to be a referendum on the kind of politics voters in the 7th Ward want: the predictability of Daley-Beavers, or the independence of the Jacksons. And as bizarre as that last sentence reads, it's the truth; as long as the Daley-Beavers machine exists, the Jacksons will have to maintain their independence to remain credible in the eyes of the voters.