Crooked Chicago Pol Endorses Bloomberg

If this was still the 1960's-- when Bobby Rush was a co-founder of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panthers-- you might scratch your head and wonder how he could have endorsed a multi-billionaire former Republican mayor of New York who instituted a stop and frisk policy aimed directly at African-Americans. But over five decades have gone by and selling his endorsement to the highest bidder is exactly what anyone who's been paying attention would expect from uber-corrupt Chicago Congressman Bobby Rush today.

Lynn Sweet covered the endorsement announcement for the Chicago Sun Times this week and noted that Bloomberg, whose only endorsements have been bought-and-paid for, named Rush a national campaign co-chairman. "Rush," she wrote, told her that he was "impressed by Bloomberg’s approach to the 'economic discrimination in the black community' [and that] he will serve as a surrogate for Bloomberg and have 'influence into strategies.'" Rush is the fourth House member to endorse Bloomberg. The others are ex-Republican Harley Rouda (New Dem-CA), Blue Dog chieftain Stephanie Murphy (FL) and Max Rose (Blue Dog-NY), exactly the kind of corruption-oriented, right-of-center money-grubbers you would expect to gravitate to Bloomberg.

Blue America has endorsed Robert Emmons, Jr., the progressive young reformer who is taking on Rush this cycle. We asked him how he sees the endorsement. "Congressman Rush, like many Democrats at the time," he reminded us, "voted in favor of the 1994 Crime Bill. Also like many Democrats who voted for the bill, he later apologized for doing so. But nothing about his apology rings true after endorsing a Chicago mayoral candidate who wanted to use drones to monitor black and brown communities around Chicago, and now the presidential candidate responsible for implementing stop and frisk, Michael Bloomberg."

Emmons continued: "For months we have called attention to Rush’s corporate loyalty, and his endorsement to Mike Bloomberg follows a clear pattern. If Congressman Rush were to support a candidate because he truly believed that individual would work to empower our community, I would have no issue with it. But he has a history of moving where the money moves, and this is business as usual. There is nothing that myself and my team are more committed to than actual reform in our community, and we’ll keep fighting for Medicare for All, a Green New Deal and Restorative Justice. We’ll continue to support Bernie Sanders, a presidential candidate who supports true progressive reform through an agenda with far more to offer our district than Bloomberg. #NotMeUs #WeAreTheSolution"

If you'd like to help Emmons raise money to combat the Bloomberg-Rush machine, please consider tapping on the 2020 Chicagoland thermometer above and contributing what you can to his campaign.