What Chicago mayor candidates are really saying about themselves
Comparing the campaign TV ads of the various mayoral candidates says a lot about who they really are and what their priorities are, or are not. The candidates for Chicago mayor define themselves in their TV campaign ads. Here’s what it looks like. Published in the Southwest News Newspaper Group Feb. 6, 2019
By Ray Hanania
If you just look at their campaign commercials, what most Chicago voters will see, you can come to some pretty precise conclusions about each of the candidates running for Mayor of Chicago.
Each candidate must have spent a lot of time trying to answer the question, “With the budget that I have, what is the most important thing my TV Campaign commercial should say to the voters?”
For those candidates who don’t have campaign commercials, that says something, too. If they don’t have commercials, it means they don’t have money. And if they don’t have money, that means they must not have much real support.
So why should you vote for them?
Here is what I’ve culled about the leading mayoral candidates from the TV campaign commercials they are running, for those running TV campaign Ads, and conclusions I can make from the news coverage and websites of the others.
Toni Preckwinkle: She doesn’t believe street gang members are a problem and thinks the Chicago Police have run amok. She really thinks a lot of herself, and conveys an attitude of “Why do we need to run an election. Can’t you see I am the best?”
Susana Mendoza: Every time her commercial runs, a glass shatters in my house. I would have had another voice offer instead of her squeaky Smurf resonance. That aside, it’s clear, Mendoza wants to turn Chicago City Hall into a “football” stadium – not Super Bowl football but soccer, a place where she can coach other aldermen on the finer aspects of soccer strategy.
Bill Daley: He’s a banker, and part of a famous family that has run this city more than 43 years since the 1950s. No more excuses is a great campaign slogan, although people wonder why now and not before? You see J.P. Morgan Chase, the credit card robber barons, written all over his suits. He’s a nice guy, though. And he’s promising that aged-old promise that is broken more often than glass during a Susana Mendoza commercial, that he plans to freeze property taxes. Come on Bill? Can’t you do better than that?
Jerry Joyce is a good guy. He has a great family. He’s always happy. He looks stunned that he made it into the mayoral contest. His father, the former State Senator, is a genius who helped dump Richie Daley on us in 1989. You couldn’t come up with one great creative idea to inspire voters?
Gery Chico: He defines himself as the anti-tax candidate, slamming his rivals for raising taxes, lying about taxes, and most likely to raise taxes even more. I like that he is always smiling and its looks genuine. It’s hard to criticize him, although I wouldn’t brag too much about the Chicago Public Schools. They really suck. I know. I learned me English there!
Willie Wilson: This guy has given up running for mayor. He did it once before and it didn’t work. Maybe it was boring or something. So, maybe he could win by pure luck, the way Harold Washington did in 1983. Wilson could be a good mayor, but I am not sure he really wants it.
Amara Anyia: She was the darling of the Left, the illegal immigrants, the Millennial who isn’t on her cell phone every moment of the day. Just don’t put her in charge of your checkbook.
Lori Lightfoot: I’m not sure what she believes in at all. She’s too smart for me or for most voters, I think. We’re dealing with people who have concentrated concern on five issues that are not being addressed: safety or themselves and their children, wanting better education for the kids, paying their mortgage, worried about the economy, and jiggling excessive credit card debt. She seems like a good person.
Garry McCarthy: He’s a good cop who is being blamed for everything. I like cops, though. If I had to choose between a street gang member wearing a graduation cap and gown, or a police officer in blue, I would choose the police officer in blue, even if that police officer might make some mistakes. Yet ironically, Chicago, which is consumed in uncontrollable crime, doesn’t seem to think having a Cop as the top dog at City Hall would make a difference. Go figure.
Paul Vallas: He’s a great candidate, too. But running on an education track record in Chicago and Illinois is not persuasive enough, considering, like I said, that Chicago’s education system sucks.
Bob Fioretti: Another great guy. I’m just not sure he can win, though, despite a big boost from blues guitarist Buddy Guy.
LaShawn Ford, John Kozlar? I just don’t have enough to know them.
Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.
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