Could the AP Have Found One Voter Not Voting for Rahm Emanuel in the Mayoral Election?

While it’s true that Rahm Emanuel leads his three main rivals in the race today to succeed Richard M. Daley as mayor of Chicago, there are some people in this city who cast a ballot for someone other than Emanuel.

Perhaps not, according to an Associated Press story picked up by many media outlets, including Crain’s. The piece, which did not have a byline, includes interviews with six voters—and five are voting for Rahm. (One voter doesn’t say whom he’s voting for.)

The only candidate quoted in the story, in the second paragraph, is Rahm Emanuel, shaking hands at a South Side train station. 

Next comes a description of a candidate—Rahm again—whose “confident, no-nonsense style resonated with many voters.”

The first voter mentioned is Justin Black, voting for Rahm because of the candidate’s “knowledge of what’s going on, not only here locally but worldwide.” The second voter, Mark Arnold, doesn’t say whom he’s voting for, but does say that the city needs a new face, and this election will bring in “someone with new ideas who’s been in other places.”

The third voter, Terrence Trampiets, says he intends to vote for Rahm because, like Daley, Rahm has connections. “You have to have that to get things done.” The fourth voter, who is also voting for Emanuel, says he didn’t hear enough from Rahm’s opponents. Patrick Johnson is quoted as saying, “There was an inability to promote themselves.” Yep.

The fifth voter, Lucinda Williams, says she is also voting for Emanuel—because he knows President Obama. And finally, the sixth voter, Randolph Wells, is for Rahm because Emanuel “is best equipped to fix what ails this city.”

And so the article ends, six voters, five voting for Emanuel.

By most polls, Emanuel is in the high 40s or low 50s; he needs 50 percent plus one vote to avoid a runoff on April 5th.  The city’s pundits are mixed as to whether Emanuel will be make it over that 50 percent plus one vote line when the polls close tonight at 7 p.m. His closest rival is Gery Chico, who has been polling in the mid 20s. 

Emanuel’s rivals have complained since the race took shape in late September that the press has been fawning over Rahm. When this election is analyzed in months and years to come, this AP story could be evidence that they had a point.

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