| « Durbin Knows Who's A Serious Mayoral Candidate | Unseasonable Weather Weekend » |
Elections Fri Oct 08 2010
Don't Forget to Remember November
Capitol Fax blogger Rich Miller has a particularly relevant column in today's Chicago Sun-Times. "Rahm Focus Blurs News on All Races" notes in detail has the media frenzy accompanying Emanuel's return home has obscured the facts emerging about the November elections. Although Emanuel is attracting hordes of attention, the November elections were bound to be overshadowed the moment Mayor Daley announced his retirement.
In some respects, it's encouraging to see people motivated and involved in the political process regarding the civic elections. Hopefully this initial puff of celebrity-like zeal over the race will actually translate into voter participation. As Miller points out though, before we jog around that track, there are earlier races that need attending.
Some of the apathetic disillusionment towards November, both in the media and the voter mindset, could be due to two extraordinarily bad gubernatorial candidates, which no doubt leads to rote feelings of "they're all the same"-ness. But between the US Senate race, the Cook County Assessor race (this may be the most important race of the Fall folks), and hordes of other statewide offices, there's a fairly large and important set of decisions to be made before all eyes start looking towards the Fifth Floor.
There's an undercurrent here of how this is a further illustration of Chicago decoupling itself from the State of Illinois, which deserves a more in-depth analysis at some point in time. But as that is more fantasy than reality at present, it would be best for all parties to focus first on November.
Besides, Pat Quinn somewhat resembles a waffle. How bad could a waffle, especially in comparison to some things, possibly be?
