All In?: Chicago Mayoral Race Tests Strength of Coalition Building
The One and Only?: Dems Court 2016 Defeat with Hillary’s Tactics
The April 7 mayoral runoff race in Chicago is at fever pitch. Incumbent Mayor Rahm Emanuel, his campaign coffers fat with new money from corporate donors, had gained ground against challenger Jesús “Chuy” García with negative ads, but García has been boosted by endorsements from high-profile Democrats, prominent African Americans who had supported Emanuel in the Feb. 24 election, and troops and money from local and national labor unions.
In the home stretch, undecided voters and African American and Latino voters with divided political loyalties are both candidates’ quarry. These groups will determine the winner.
Leid Stories looks at the coalition effort that, though late in formation, is working to send Emanuel packing and put García in City Hall. In a city that practically invented the art and science of divide-and-conquer politics, however, does the pro-García coalition have a shot at winning?
Considering the trouncing Democrats suffered in midterm elections last year, one would think that the party would have in its comeback arsenal a battalion of its best and brightest ready to do battle to regain lost turf. The Republicans have spawned possible candidates aplenty—Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas formally announcing today, the first to throw his hat into the ring.
The Democrats, meanwhile, seem to have sent out a memo that Hillary Clinton is to be THE candidate; all others better stand down.
Leid Stories asks: Do Bill and Hill really have that much power over the Democratic Party that they can, in effect, shut out other candidates?