March 26, 2007
Obama The Aldermaniac
State Sen. Barack Obama's self-injection into a Chicago city council run-off isn't ordinarily a topic that earns space in the Hotline or on On Call.
But Sen. Barack Obama, the presidential candidate, gets a whole new level of scrutiny.
He's decided to help an old friend, Dorothy "The Hat" Tillman, who is described by the Chicago Sun Times as having "an iron grip on every nickel that rolls into the 3rd Ward and has pulled in the backing of virtually every black big shot in the city."
Writes a Sun-Times columnist: "Obama's campaign mailers aren't going to mention Tillman's deployment of city resources to hire her family and reward campaign contributors, nor her abject neglect of the ward." She's also a prominent supporter of slavery reparations. But she began her career in Alabama working side-by-side with Dr. Martin Luther King.
BTW: Jesse Jackson, Jr. supports Tillman's opponent, Pat Dowell, as do most of Chicago's labor unions.
Why is Obama getting intimately involved in Chicago ward politics? Loyalty. He's loyal to Tillman, who endorsed Obama in '04 when Obama opponent Blair Hull was furiously courting Chicago's black political power elite. Same reason he endorsed Richard Daley's mayoral re-election. Obama may be running a different campaign, but he's a political realist -- something that Ryan Lizza captures nicely. [MARC AMBINDER]
Posted at 10:04 AM
Comments
The mayor supported Blair Hull in 04. What loyalties does Obama have to Daley?
jb1125 | 03.26.07 10:52 AM
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A lot of Independents and even some Democrats may be turned off by his endorsement of Ald. Tillman - she is very controversial and has made many racially charged comments over the years. She is just the type of person the GOP would use against Obama in the general election.
Craig | 03.26.07 04:21 PM
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Tillman endorsed Obama, but so did northside county board member Forrest Claypool, and Obama gave him no help when he ran for county board president against John Stroger (who endorsed one of Obama's white primary opponents). So I don't think loyalty really answers the question.
As for Daley, I think he was officially neutral in the 04 primary--with Tom Hynes' son in the race, I don't think he was going to endorse Hull (and Obama was clearly out of the question). The only big-name city endorsements I remember Hull pulling were from Bobby Rush and Dick Mell.
ben | 04.18.07 05:00 PM
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