No dog in this race … live just outside city borders. But it does not seem like Garcia is getting those who voted for the other not-Rahm candidates to choose him.
Mind you polling is not particularly deep here but it appears that Garcia’s chances are looking fairly grim, especially when the final weeks will likely have Emanuel’s team spend a lot on ads and get out their voters work that Garcia’s team has not the resources for.
As the minimally interested outsider it looks like there are some with good reasons to be upset with Rahm but too few who are upset enough to vote for the devil they don’t know.
FWIW this bit (from your link BG) of fear mongering distortion makes me not respect Chuy very much:
Chicago is pretty on par with national trends. Homicide rates are WAY down over the past several decades and have been mostly in the mid 400s give or take for the past decade. Yes, shootings had a blip up but crime, especially violent crime, overall was down.
Now Emanuel does not get to take credit for these national trends either, but misrepresenting the facts in an attempt to blame him for a violence epidemic that does not actually exist is pretty unimpressive.
Maybe sensible but not very inspiring of confidence. It’s the standard non-incumbent sales pitch … “I’ll find the waste that others cannot and eliminate it … I’ll make things run more efficiently.” It usually rings pretty hollow even when it comes from those with track records of doing so with past business ventures or other government agencies. The closest Chuy gets to that? He can boast that he worked as floor leader for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle when she balanced the county budget, mainly with kicking some cans down the road and some improved enforcement of alcohol taxes. And in that context it does say something that Preckwinkle is declining to endorse her former floor leader.
We get it. You think García is untrustworthy and incompetent. But hasn’t Emanuel already shown himself to be untrustworthy and incompetent? Why should he be rewarded with another term?
I’m reminded of something** Alessan** said in a recent thread about Israeli politics. He’d rather fire bad leaders until they get a good one.
No actually I have no opinion about Garcia other than that his bit on shootings does not impress. Otherwise he seems to have the main qualification of being not-Rahm. His trustworthiness and competence are unknown quantities. He seems like a nice and well intentioned person.
And not living in Chicago proper I can’t say I have a strong sense of how untrustworthy and incompetent Rahm is. I understand why some are upset with him. But then again given the circumstance he came into some would be upset with him no matter what. I do not know enough to know if anyone else could have done better and given that I can’t vote I am not going to spend too much energy trying to find out. I am a spectator.
The point I have made is merely that Chicagoans seem to be preferring the devil they know to what’s behind door number two. Generally that’s been the way in Chicago. Barring major snowstorms inadequately responded to, or a candidate like Harold Washington (and Chuy aint no Harold).
New poll has Emanuel ahead with a 16-point lead. That’s even worse than previous polling showed in a head-to-head but, even if we don’t directly compare them, Garcia isn’t making any ground.
Magic Johnson’s company gets a nice contract for Chicago public Schools after he gives Rahm a $250,000 campaign contribution. Despite that, schools are dirtier than before the custodial work was privatized and principals are buying cleaning supplies.
Garcia is toast. I’m not exactly sure how accurate a poll for a city run off election is since they’re not common but a 16 point lead for Rahm is insurmountable since early voting started this week. The 18 percent undecided aren’t going to all break for Garcia and I bet quite a few undecided simply stay home.
Yeah, looks like my original guess of Rahm still ending up winning this thing by a margin of “15-20 points” looks like it may hold, although now I think it will be closer to 10-15. That brief period where I thought it may be a race was just that: brief. I’m fine with that. After reading through the articles in this thread, I just held my nose and put one in for the incumbent.
Once again, rahm is killing the schools. It’s OK though because his buddies are making their money. Say what you will about his régime but at least he made the trains run on time.
The quote above is from that bastion of socialism known as Forbes. Here’s a link to the article in case any of you Rahm fanboys and girls can be bothered to read propaganda from such a liberal rag.
Chuy may not be the solution but there is little doubt Rahm and his cronies are a huge part of the problem.
So out of curiosity I read the last two of the anti-Rahm links. Honestly, these are pretty weak sauce attacks.
There is more to be upset about with Rahm than “Protestors claim the cuts run so deep that school principals will have to choose between laying off teachers or purging schools of basic, everyday supplies …”) Really, you are looking for rallying to anti-Rahm over “Protestors claim …”?
Forbes running a guest contribution from the activist group “American Transparency” which has focused most of their energy on corruption in Illinois (not just Chicago but the College of Dupage, Glenview, Quad Cities, so on) and a smattering of others like a few scattered SBAs - that trumpets that there is still “pay to play” in Chicago?
Dang the stupid shortsighted closing of mental health clinics in low income areas where other resources do not exist is much worse.
No question there are good reasons for Chicago voters to look for a qualified alternative to Rahm. Those reasons though are not egregious enough to get Chicago voters to want to vote for someone exclusively on the qualification of being not-Rahm. Maybe Preckwinkle would have stood a chance but someone whose accomplishment list is have served under her (with her declining to even endorse him), and having decades ago worked in Washington’s administration? Being the qualified alternative for running a major city, one that is a financial hub, requires at least something more than not being the other guy and seeming nice. Reflexive throw the bum out and put another bum in is not what Chicagoans generally do; the current bum has to have been world class bad or the new bum something special. Rahm is just not so great, not world class bad, it seems, and Chuy has not made any case of what he is.
Apparently there are “national implications” for the Democratic party at stake … but Chicago voters are not really all that concerned about sending a message with national implications.
Chuy needed to convince voters that he is a qualified alternative … minimally he had to fire up and expand his base … and well, it does not look like he has.
I have no idea if a city government can legally impose such a tax. It’s idiotic because the Chicago Board Options Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange would leave the city if one was proposed. These taxes are idiotic; they’re thrown out as a populist proposal to go after those evil traders. It didn’t work during the Dodd Frank negotiations and it especially wouldn’t work on a city wide basis.
It might work very well on a federal level, the exchanges wouldn’t leave the country, and thank you for bringing the idea to my attention . . . but, why did you even bring it up? It’s not any kind of issue in this election, is it?