PHOTOS: CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN CONCEDES!
This was Chicago’s first post-race mayoral competition, and the black candidates circled the wagon around the community in hopes of reclaiming the spirit of ’83 — when blacks, Latinos, liberals, Independents and disenfranchised whites came together to support Harold Washington, Chicago’s first black mayor.
How did the effort fall apart?
This much we know: Chicago’s black leaders were caught off guard with the news that Richard M. Daley would not seek re-election.
Black leaders sought a consensus candidate in an effort to recreate the Washington-era victory. But time was not on their side, as there was not enough time to create and finance a formidable campaign, and the times had changed.
The Big Six Reasons Rahm Emanuel Captured the Mayor’s Office
Let’s throw Rahm Emanuel’s obvious advantages out of the mix — yes, he had more campaign money to spend, (although he was the media’s darling and really didn’t need to spend a dime), and, of course, he had the White House’s best wishes to boot.
Still, there were at least six other factors at play that may have led to Emanuel’s victory.
- Gone from the equation was the black vs. white Council Wars, those televised racist jousts that served as adhesive for the entire black community.
- Gone were the disrespected, often neglected Latino voters — replaced by the activist, powerful, Hispanic Democratic Organization voting bloc. They had two Latino mayoral candidates to support: Gery Chico and Miguel del Valle.
- Gone was the reliable, active voting bloc from the housing projects that in the past, organized legions to support a favored candidate. The projects have since been destroyed, and the active, voting residents have been scattered around Chicagoland and the outlying suburbs.
- The liberal or disenfranchised white voters that supported Washington have since found a message they could believe in elsewhere — in Emanuel, or perhaps the tea party. Carol Moseley Braun just didn’t do it for them.
- Some members of black leadership ignored the youth and lost touch with the needs of the common black voter. “We have to start all over again,” Robert Starks, Northeastern Illinois professor of political science tells rolling out. “We must have better leadership and younger leadership. We should have been training and nurturing new leaders, and we were caught off guard. This effort looked like a workshop; now, we have to go back to the drawing board.”
- There wasn’t a mesmerizing Washington-like black politician in the race. Granted, Braun made it clear that she could get down-and-dirty in a Chicago minute, but overall there was no one in this year’s election that came within a mile of Washington’s eloquent and lightning rod style of cussin’ an opponent with words most journalists didn’t immediately understand. I retract, there was a mesmerizing Washington-like politician in the mayoral race, indeed, but a). He’s not known for dressing folks down in front of the cameras, and b). he was in Washington, throwing his muscle behind Emanuel.
On a grander scale, the race card itself may have played its last hand.
In 2011, Chicago voters didn’t care about the color of the candidates’ skin; for them, the only color that mattered was green — and the need for more of it.
The typical Chicagoan cared about securing a job, fending off foreclosure, finding a parking spot that didn’t require a hefty down payment, and not becoming a victim of a violent crime.
And for enough of them, Rahm Emanuel was their man.
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