Rahm and Hillary-- bad for Chicago working familiesHillary is counting on several factors to win in Illinois Tuesday. Born in Chicago and raised in the all-white suburb of Park Ridge, it's where she started her political career, canvassing first for Richard Nixon and then for her hero, Barry Goldwater. Her first-ever political cause was to accuse the Democrats of stealing the election from Nixon and trying to prove the Chicago Machine delivered the state illegally for JFK. More important to her on Tuesday, though, is that same political machine is now controlled by Clinton power-broker Rahm Emanuel, Chicago's corrupt and much-hated mayor. Under him the Machine is somewhat tattered and blacks and Hispanics, especially, are far less trustful of it than they have been previously. During his rally in Summit Friday, Bernie said "I want to thank Rahm Emanuel for not endorsing me; I don't want his endorsement." Bernie's campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, explained the situation on the ground today: "You have this horrendous, horrendous problem with police violence and the whole Laquan McDonald situation. These are very important issues to the people of Chicago. Bernie Sanders has been very strong in condemning the Emanuel administration; Secretary Clinton has stood by him over the interest of the people of Chicago." An ad that Bernie is running features Chicago Public Schools principal Tony LaRaviere, who says "In Chicago, we have endured a corrupt political system, and the chief politician standing in the way of us getting good schools is our mayor. If you have a presidential candidate who supports someone like our mayor, you have a candidate who’s not willing to take on the establishment."Last month, the Chicago Tribune reported that "three times as many Chicagoans side with the teachers union as with Mayor Rahm Emanuel on how to improve public schools at a time when the two sides remain locked in contentious contract negotiations, a Chicago Tribune poll has found." Emanuel had the support of less than 20% of Chicagoans on matters pertaining to education.
During his four-plus years as mayor, Emanuel has made a number of controversial decisions on education, from opening more charter schools and closing about 50 neighborhood schools to his standoff with teachers that led to the strike.But at no point since the Tribune began polling on Emanuel has his approval rating on education been lower than it is now. Just 18 percent of Chicago voters approved of Emanuel's handling of education while 70 percent disapproved, both record marks. That's lower than the mayor's overall job approval rating of 27 percent that the Tribune reported Monday.The poll found the mayor's education approval numbers were even lower among those who want to see him resign-- 93 percent said they disapproved of his handling of CPS. Emanuel fared better among voters who thought the mayor should stay in office, although 52 percent still disapproved of his job performance on education while 32 percent approved.Emanuel also fared worse among households with union members or a CPS student. Nearly 80 percent of voters with CPS students and 76 percent of voters in union households disapproved of the mayor's handling of schools. In nonunion households, 66 percent of voters disapproved of Emanuel's performance on education.As was the case with the mayor's overall approval rating, white voters viewed Emanuel more favorably than minority voters.
The poll found that 79 percent of African-Americans disapproved of Emanuel's performance on schools while just 11 percent approved.
African-American voters put Emanuel over the top in his recent reelection campaign and feel especially burned and betrayed by him now. Many consider it very risky for Hillary to have so fully embraced him and tied her campaign to his (non-existent) popularity. If Bernie wins Chicago Tuesday, it will be largely attributable to Hillary's utter tone-deafness about Emanuel's role in education and justice. Bernie gets it; Hillary missed on this even worse than she missed when she praised Nancy Reagan for being a champion of the battle against AIDs, which she never was and which infuriated non-establishment gays. [The LGBT establishment types who are part of Hillary world not only don't care; they probably gave her the bad advice!]I wonder if his stench will rub off on his presidential candidate next Tuesday when Illinois' 182 delegates will be voted on, the second biggest prize of the day (after Florida's 246 delegates) and more than Ohio's 159 or North Carolina's 121. In many ways, Hillary and Rahm are cut from the same cloth policy-wise. They're both Wall Street Democrats with strong financial (and social) ties with the people who want to privatize education and bring the teachers' unions to heel. Chicago is headed for a one day teachers' strike and Bernie is unequivocally on the teachers' side. He tweeted "I stand with Chicago teachers. We shouldn't close schools and lay off teachers to reward Wall Street." Just above is the flyer from the teachers' union website featuring pictures of the 3 villains: Governor and Emanuel-ally Bruce Rauner, Emanuel and Emanuel-ally and billionaire Ken Griffin and touching on four main points: corporate welfare, tax injustice, growing poverty and racial justice, made for Bernie (and very much not for Hillary). She's way ahead of him in Illinois polling, as she was in Michigan until people started focusing on the issues and on her negativity and inability to tell the truth.You can contribute to Bernie's campaign-- and, if you choose, to the campaigns of the congressional candidates running on his issues (including the just-added Ohio congresswoman who endorsed Bernie Friday, Marcy Kaptur)-- on the Bernie Congress ActBlue page by tapping on the thermometer below.
UPDATE: Bernie Pulls Ahead In Illinois!This morning CBS News released the latest polling data for Illinois, which shows Bernie inching ahead of the better-known but much-distrusted Clinton.
