By Carol Felsenthal
In a face-to-face interview Thursday afternoon, Hermene Hartman said she has felt neglected by President Obama since he left Chicago for the White House. Read more
Carol Felsenthal
By Carol Felsenthal
Yesterday, when lame-duck mayor Richard M. Daley finally got some of what he wanted in the building of a new runway and a new air traffic control tower at O’Hare, he got to take center stage. But people who follow city politics saw the hand of Rahm Emanuel, who has an old friend in Ray LaHood, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation... Read more
By Carol Felsenthal
Tom Carey, 56, has been working for candidates here—from Rich Daley to John Stroger—since he was 25. One day in January, the political strategist received a call from a local lawyer who was volunteering for Carol Moseley Braun. The man told Carey he would pick him up to take him to a meeting, but didn’t say with whom. Carey was soon in the Hyde Park home of Moseley Braun, talking politics with the woman who, at the time, was hoping for a runoff with Rahm Emanuel... Read more
By Carol Felsenthal
Hermene Hartman, publisher and editor in chief of N’DIGO, angered some members of her African-American community when she endorsed Rahm Emanuel over Carol Moseley Braun. She told me recently that the black political/business/religious leaders who selected Moseley Braun had better move aside, or, at least, rethink their strategy. “We are not training people to run for office,” she laments. Her case in point: LeAlan Jones... Read more
By Carol Felsenthal
ABC7’s Chuck Goudie reported Wednesday the possibility of a coming together between the Jewish community and the Nation of Islam’s Minister Louis Farrakhan. “The Anti-Defamation League seems open to a meeting with Farrakhan and Chicago mayor-elect Emanuel,” Goudie said. The ADL’s regional director, Lonnie Nasatir, said that’s not so. Nasatir told me today... Read more
By Carol Felsenthal
Two-time mayoral candidate and congressman Danny Davis, who criticized black Rahm voters during the campaign, took a more mellow look when he called me yesterday from his office in Washington. “Life is alright with me,” he said... Read more
By Carol Felsenthal
Mayoral candidate Miguel del Valle says he declined an invitation from Rahm Emanuel to co-chair the mayor-elect’s transition team. Del Valle told me in a phone interview that he turned the position down because—after his term as City Clerk is over on May 15th—he will work on other projects “organizing around progressive issues in the neighborhoods.”... Read more
By Carol Felsenthal
By Carol Felsenthal
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.) Read more
By Carol Felsenthal
At the ABC7 debate Thursday, the candidates for mayor were asked whom they would name to their “kitchen” cabinets—their unofficial group of advisers. Not surprisingly, Gery Chico named two men whose endorsements are crucial: Congressman Luis Gutierrez and the Reverend B. Herbert Martin, Sr., longtime pastor of the Progressive Community Church in Bronzeville. Martin, 68, is best known for being Harold Washington’s close friend and pastor—and for standing with Steve Cokely in 1988 after Cokely, then 37, made inflammatory recorded lectures at Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam headquarters. Read more