The Wishful Thinking Of An Emanuel-Preckwinkle Mayoral Race Continues

By Chuck Sudo in News on Apr 2, 2014 4:10PM

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has repeatedly said she has no political aspirations beyond seeking re-election this year but that hasn’t stopped local media types from wondering how Preckwinkle would fare in a 2015 mayoral race against Rahm Emanuel. Let’s face it: unless Preckwinkle has a serious change of heart Emanuel’s path to the Fifth Floor next year is free of obstacles.

The Illinois Observer conducted a poll of likely voters and found 40 percent of them would vote for Preckwinkle in a head-to-head matchup with Emanuel if she decided to run for mayor. The survey, conducted by La Grange-based Strive Strategies, showed major dissatisfaction with Emanuel among African-American and female voters. Forty-two percent of black voters said they would back Preckwinkle in a mayoral campaign, compared to 28 percent for Emanuel.

That’s a far cry from 2011 when 59 percent of African-American voters rejected the pandering of former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, Congressman Danny Davis and state Sen. James Meeks to be the “consensus black candidate” for mayor and threw their support behind Emanuel. Among female voters, 40 percent of those polled said they would support Preckwinkle to 29 percent for Emanuel. But there are a lot of undecided voters in the poll; 28 percent of those polled were undecided.

The Observer poll also showed growing dissatisfaction with Emanuel’s job performance. Observer editor David Ormsby noted 53 percent of those polled felt Chicago was “headed in the wrong direction” and 55 percent of those voters would support Preckwinkle.

Of course, this is all wishful thinking. Unless Preckwinkle decides her outstanding business with county government is complete (and last we checked, she emphatically said it wasn’t), no one has emerged to pose a challenge to Emanuel next year.