“YEAH, I’LL ADMIT IT’S GOT ON SOME MILES ON IT, BUT IT STILL RUNS GOOD…”

3/4/09

I sent the following letter to the Chicago Sun-Times in response to Carol Marin’s piece on the 5th District Congressional primary:


3/4/09

In her 3/4/09 piece on the 5th District Congressional primary, Carol Marin concludes by writing “But they (the ward bosses in the 5th District) would be wise to tremble just a little. Because the earth under their feet just moved” with the nomination of Machine functionary turned independent County Board member Mike Quigley as the Democratic candidate for that Congressional seat.

The Machine may have some reasons to tremble, but the outcome of this primary is not one of them. First, how will Mike Quigley’s agenda in Washington be any different from that of a candidate sent to Washington with the blessing of the Machine in the primary? Quigley will surely get the Organization’s blessing in the general election, and he will just as surely push the same agenda either John Fritchey or Pat O’Connor, the two candidates in the race who best approximated “Machine candidates,” would have pushed: staunch support for President Obama’s agenda and, more importantly, plenty of federal money for the 5th District and for Chicago.

Second, while Mike Quigley “beat the Machine,” with a 22% plurality, the combined votes of Fritchey (18%) and O’Connor (12%) indicate that if the Organization could have decided on one of those two, it would have easily taken advantage of the low turnout and trounced Quigley and nominated its candidate, even in the 5th district that includes some of the most independent wards in the city.

If the Machine has anything to fear coming out of this primary, it is not so much Mike Quigley’s nomination as the lack of someone capable of enforcing party discipline and getting the ward organizations to unite behind one candidate in this disparate and somewhat difficult to control north side and north suburban district.