Carol Felsenthal

Rahm Emanuel and his surrogates have been pounding relentlessly on Gery Chico for accepting—sort of—the endorsement last month of the Chicago Tea Patriots, an offshoot of the main Chicago Tea Party group. But late last year, before a new campaign finance reform law kicked in, Donald Trump contributed $50,000 to Rahm’s campaign for mayor. This is the same Donald Trump who appeared in Washington earlier this month before the uber-right group... Read more

Last night’s ABC7/League of Women Voters mayoral debate, the final one before Tuesday’s primary, featured the same back-and-forth we’ve heard before. As usual, some of the most enlightening moments came post-debate, when the candidates descended into the “press room” for 10 minutes each. Read more

On Tuesday night, Rich Daley delivered a 30-minute self-congratulatory and, at times, inspiring speech. It was also relentlessly upbeat, even sunny—“the future [of Chicago] is brighter every day,” he said. But the most intriguing aspect of the evening, for me, was what wasn’t said... Read more

Every political junkie watching Monday’s WTTW Chicago Tonight mayoral forum surely has a question or two that he/she wishes the moderator, Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin, had asked. I wish Marin had asked Rahm Emanuel, “Should you get the 50-percent-plus-one vote next Tuesday, will you direct what’s left of the $11 million or so in fundraising money... Read more

For young voters, the February 22nd mayoral primary will be the first time they’ll encounter a ballot without the name Richard M. Daley on it. One of the liveliest efforts to push this group to the polls was started last September by a 25-year-old on the day that Daley announced he wasn’t running for another term... Read more

Days after Rahm Emanuel left his job as chief of staff on October 1st to return here to run for mayor, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote the “The Soft Side.” The column was weirdly worded—“Flawed like all of us, [Rahm] is a full human being, rich and fertile from the inside out”—and provided plenty of easy laughs for Brooks/Rahm detractors. Today, Brooks did it again... Read more

Miguel del Valle doesn’t have much money—peanuts compared to Rahm Emanuel and Gery Chico, and way less even than Patricia Watkins and Carol Moseley Braun. When I asked him yesterday afternoon if there would be runoff on February 22nd, he answered, “My guess is Rahm is going to buy one of the spots; as for the second, I hope I’m that person... Read more