Emanuel's Choice Was Either Get Out Or Get Beat

Nadig Press (Chicago) ^ | September 12, 2018 | Russ Stewart

[PBRCat]

There are various exit strategies for a Chicago mayor. [G]et out before getting beat and not run for re-election. The most painful and humiliating is to run and get defeated. A mayor has to be egregiously inept to lose. And then there is the great beyond, dying in office.

Smart mayors get out before they're voted out. Emanuel is a smart mayor. Make no mistake about this: With close to $9 million on-hand, Emanuel would have run in 2019 if he thought he would have won. His advisors concluded that he would not win, so he bailed, spewing forth the usual drivel about spending time with his family.

Polls indicated that Emanuel's "approval" rating was barely over 30 percent, and the Jason Van Dyke trial in the shooting of Laquan McDonald was just starting. A poll from the Gary McCarthy campaign had the mayor up 25 to 22 percent over the former police superintendent in the Feb. 26 primary, with the other 11 candidates in single digits, and McCarthy winning the runoff 55-45.

Convicted criminals may be rehabilitated, but an incumbent with Emanuel's numbers is beyond resuscitation. He is DOA. And for a guy with a colossal ego like Emanuel, that is utterly unacceptable.

All the problems that Daley avoided, particularly the under funding of city pensions, came home to roost after Emanuel took office. Emanuel won by a desultory 332,171-258,562 or 56.2 percent, in the 2015 runoff, and he approached 2019 with plenty of money but no fervent base. He was disliked by many, and despised by many more. Against mediocre opponents, Emanuel's campaign theme would have been: They're worse them me. And with $1 billion in additional pension payments due annually during the 2019-23 term, Emanuel's plight would just keep getting more onerous. So he bailed. Smart move.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

:: The next Mayor of Chicago will be a radical kook. ::

Depends on how many voters have an address at 7200 Archer Ave.

Again, Gang Bangers and other nefarious Southsiders won’t go to the polls. Their votes have already been counted and cast.

[Blurb2350]

The next Mayor of Chicago will be a radical kook.
Alas, you're probably right. If one of the minority candidates is elected, watch for the steady trickle of middle-class taxpayers out of Chicago to become a rushing stream. I lived in Chicago for about 25 years and it was a wonderful place for someone like me to live and work and save for later. I genuinely thought Emanuel -- the foul-mouthed, foul-tempered little Jew -- was so different from the usual casually corrupt Catholic mayors that he had a chance to turn things around in Chicago. No dice. Turns out he's simply a doctrinaire lefty, wedded to foolish but fashionable ideas that couldn't possibly work.

[oldtech]

In the old days,wouldn’t someone like this be tarred & feathered & herded out of town?

[butlerweave]

What ? No go to Prison choice ,LOL

[PBRCat]

Seriously, it is rumored that Emanuel is trying to float another municipal bond issue to raise some cash for immediate bills by incurring more future debt payments. He will fly the coop while his favorites will be earning more commissions from selling the junk bonds.