The lead story in today's NYT business section baldly sets forth the real stakes in the upcoming Chicago mayoral run-off. While the story's headline (which describes Rahmbo and billionaire GOP investor Kenneth Griffith as "Chicago's odd couple") is inaccurate, the content of the article more than makes up for that inaccuracy.
These paragraphs sum it all up:
Mr. Emanuel’s single biggest donor, Mr. Griffin, 46, has given more than $1 million to political organizations that support the mayor. The bulk of that money — $950,000 — was donated in recent weeks after Mr. Emanuel failed to win majority support for a second term at the end of February.
Backing Mr. Emanuel, a former Democratic congressman and President Obama’s first White House chief of staff, may seem an unusual choice for Mr. Griffin. A self-made billionaire who started trading convertible bonds from his dormitory room at Harvard, Mr. Griffin does not like big government. He thinks taxes are too high and corporate regulation is too burdensome.
While he has rarely commented on his political donations, in 2012 Mr. Griffin said he considered himself a “Reagan Republican” and that he thought the rich have “insufficient influence” on the political process.
Let that one sink in for a moment. Rahmbo is relying upon a seven figure donor who thinks that the rich have
insufficient influence on the political process. In addition to the $1.3mm that Griffin has given to Rahmbo (predominantly in 2015), his employees gave another $137k. Griffin gave
over $13mm to GOP union-buster Bruce Rauner for IL-Gov last year. Said donor, furthermore, thinks that Rahmbo has been insufficiently draconian in his school closing drive:
And when Mr. Emanuel shut down 50 public schools in Chicago, polarizing some voters who said the move unfairly targeted low-income communities, Mr. Griffin argued that the mayor should have gone further. “The number should’ve been 125,” he said.
I have lost count of the # of diaries here in recent months advocating that posters accept the de facto awarding of the Dem presidential nomination in 2015 and that they focus on downballot races. Chicago mayor is an acid test for that thesis. If this site can't (or won't) rally against a union-busting, school-closing, privatizing DINO who's bankrolled by a Reagan Republican, that acid test is being failed.
Few races offer a clearer chance to achieve party reform. There's still time left to rally behind Chuy Garcia. It would be nice if this site did so.