Chicago CAN Stop Wall Street's Candidate Rahm Emanuel

When Carol Moseley Braun left the Illinois House of Representatives, where she had been Assistant Majority Leader and an effective champion of progressive causes-- even when it meant going up against powerful conservatives in her own party-- she was dubbed "the conscience of the House." In fact, when she ran for the U.S. Senate, the impetus was to hold conservative Democrat Alan Dixon accountable for an unconscionable and shortsighted vote to confirm Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. In beating Dixon, and going on to win the general election, she became the first woman to defeat an incumbent senator in an election, the first and only female Senator from Illinois and the only African-American woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate. With the withdrawal of Rep. Danny Davis from the Chicago mayor's race-- and his endorsement of her-- she becomes the consensus candidate who has a shot at beating the Big Business-backed Rahm Emanuel. She has also been endorsed by state Senator James Meeks, the other credible African-American candidate, who withdrew last week.

"I am totally dropping out of the race. I am supporting Carol Moseley Braun with every ounce of fervor that I have," Davis said. "I am even going to give her some money. I am going to try to get every person who thought that they might support Danny Davis to switch their support to Carol Moseley Braun. In fact, I will start tonight."

Blue America is backing her as well, and you can donate to her campaign through the new ActBlue page, StopRahm.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson brokered a roughly four-hour meeting Wednesday night with Davis and Braun at his Rainbow PUSH headquarters that was also attended by several ministers, business leaders and politicians. Among them was U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, who is backing Braun, and state Sen. Rickey Hendon, who is backing Davis.

Where does this leave Rahm Emanuel?

With a unified black political community behind Mosely Braun, her chances of winning just shot up substantially. It is significant that the Rev. Jackson brokered this agreement given the factionalization of the black vote in the past between west side and south side African Americans. For the first time since 1983 when the city's only black mayor-- Harold Washington-- was elected, the African American community will head into primary day backing a single major candidate.

For Emanuel, this negates any opportunity he had to use Mayor Daley's very successful game plan in winning the primary. With the black vote usually split, Daley successfully courted the growing Hispanic vote while siphoning off just enough black machine votes to add to his astounding margins of victory in working class white neighborhoods. For Rahmbo, the Hispanic vote is expected to split between two major candidates and it is doubtful that Rahmbo will be able to run up the 85-90% margins in Bridgeport and other white communities in the city that Daley was famous for.

Might Rahm's former boss take a hand? Bill Clinton offered to come to Chicago to campaign for Emanuel and had his face slapped by black leaders for even thinking about it. And the African American community, while supporting Obama to the hilt as president, no doubt recalls some of the betrayals the former state senator effected when Obama was part of the regular Democrats prior to his run for the presidency. His tacky deal with Daley to support his mayoral re-election (over a qualified African American candidate) in return for Daley's support in his bid for the White House did not sit well with many in the "reform" community, or among rank and file blacks. Obama's "help" may be no more welcome than Clinton's.

Now Mosely Braun has the opportunity to employ Harold Washington's successful strategy of uniting the black community while exciting the liberals in Hyde Park and along the lakeshore to back her candidacy. Her name recognition will also help immensely. She will have decent funding, an army of dedicated volunteers, and the opportunity to portray Rahm as a carpetbagger.

Are Chicago voters ready for her plain spoken truth-telling? She says she'll fire the Police Superintendent if she's elected. And she hasn't pulled any punches when it comes to Emanuel either. At a press conference last week she pointed out the one-eyed aunt in the attic-- "everybody in this room knows [Rahm] doesn't live here"-- and she criticized Clinton's endorsement of his sleazy NAFTA-crony Emanuel.

"We know that Mr. Clinton and Emanuel have a relationship," Braun said in a statement. "But if Rahm is going to invite his buddies to Chicago to campaign for him then he ought to invite his friend Bart Stupak, who along with Rahm took a woman's right to choose out of the health care bill. He ought to invite his buddy Tom Tancredo who blocked the Dream Act. Or he can have his friend Leland Brendsel stop by. Brendsel was in charge of Freddie Mac and played a huge role in the mortgage meltdown, and was a major Rahm contributor."

Powerful stuff-- which Emanuel whined is "divisive." Emanuel has one constituency: Big Business/Wall Street. There isn't a worse or more dangerous Democrat anywhere in America. He's very much a part of the Conservative Consensus that dominates the GOP and has been gradually taking over the Democratic Party as well. When George H.W. Bush couldn't get enough Democrats to pass the job-killing legislation of all times, NAFTA, he left it to Bill Clinton, and Clinton charged a little-known Chicago political thug, Rahm Emanuel, with the task of forcing it through. It succeeded, and the middle class was on the road to ruin. Emanuel was rewarded with a cushy sinecure from Wall Street, and tens of millions of dollars, and later he was further rewarded with a rotten borough congressional district, which he used to force his way into congressional power. As head of the DCCC he backed conservative Blue Dogs and ruined the party brand in the minds of millions of Democratic voters. Obama couldn't wait to name him chief of staff.

And now Emanuel is campaigning to bring his brand of Big Business politics to Chicago. The only credible candidate who has a shot at stopping him is former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun. Please consider donating to her campaign fund.