Happy New Year - 2022 recap sort of...

Found here

I spend most of this past year not posting here aside from one post by J.P. Paulus regarding the 2022 primary election for the 1st Congressional District seat which was won by Jonathan Jackson - who's brother Jesse Jackson Jr. served in Congress and his father was two-time Democrat candidate for President Jesse Jackson Sr. And then a few posts within the past two months which are more or less politically inclined and in reference to the 2023 municipal elections for Alderman and Mayor of Chicago.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot is running for re-election. Ald. Roderick Sawyer had recently survived a petition challenge that was dropped by his opponent Willie Wilson to remain on the ballot in the 2023 Mayoral Race. That means Ald. Sawyer will NOT be running for re-election for 6th Ward Alderman. So there is one open seat on the Chicago City Council.

We can include in the many open seats on the Chicago City Council the 21st Ward Alderman. Longtime 21st Ward Alderman Howard Brookins has opted not to run for re-election. In the June 2022 primary he failed in his bid to become a Cook County Judge.

Another thing we have covered over the years on this blog and I think is a notable event that I'm sorry to have not written about it here is the closure of Whole Foods Market Englewood. After a store closing clearout the store had closed on November 13, 2022 having been open since September 2016. We were glad to see Whole Foods expand onto the south side as they announced in 2013.

Heralded as an oasis in the food desert the closure had been announced earlier in the spring of 2022, another Chicago store had also closed this year the DePaul location located steps away from the Fullerton Red Line station. Originally it was advertised as being designed to keep the prices of product down for the people in the community. It was certainly a well meaning experiment.

However, as a customer I have found that most of the time I went there the store was often empty. This is something that was probably appealing say if I go to other stores in the area it would be very busy. However, that's not conducive to keeping any business open small business or a national chain.

I got a souvenir shopping bag from the 2016 Englewood grand opening. I also had bought from there over the years a water bottle I can't find for the moment and another Englewood shopping bag. So I do have some memorabilia from the now closed store which had opened with some excitement. I'll give credit to RAGE, this was their vision and it was realized.

Who knows perhaps the fortunes of Englewood will turn around and as opposed to the small outpost they had for over six years, the neighborhood could one day be home to a flagship similar to the one that opened this past spring at Chicago & State. Something to look forward to as a vision for Englewood.

All the same as I had been sharing on this blog I will be doing more posting at Ninth Ward Chicago. Hopefully do more with regards to the 2023 city elections and especially look at the race for Mayor and perhaps some City Council contests. The Mayor of Chicago is said to be vulnerable however the residents of the city will make that decision as far as who they want for mayor.

I hope that 2023 finds you in better spirits. Happy New Years! 

Congressman Bobby Rush to retire

 This is huge news to start the new year 2022. It started breaking Monday afternoon and now that we have an open seat in the 1st Congressional District who else besides Jahmal Cole will go for this seat.

It'll be official in the morning, but it's confirmed. U.S. @RepBobbyRush, D-Chicago, the only person ever to have beaten @BarackObama in an election, is retiring at this end of this term after nearly 30 years in D.C. Cld be lots of potential successors. https://t.co/J4Yvh4daDH

— Greg Hinz (@GregHinz) January 3, 2022

Also bear in mind primaries will be held in June 2022! 

Is Mayor Lightfoot running for a second term?

 This piece by Crain's Greg Hinz seems to hint that she may not. Although the media just about a month ago was speculating that Gov. Pritzker may not run again only for him to announce that he's running for a second term and since the primary for Governor is in June next year he might drag this process out.

Well I do expect that if Mayor Lightfoot has a deadline for a decision it'll be the same type of deadline that Mayor Rahm Emanuel used or even Mayor Richard M. Daley. Perhaps we'll know more by the fall of next year 2022 just before we cast our ballots for Governor in the general election in November. 

Meanwhile what is Hinz saying:

One thing I learned a long, long time ago is that you never believe any politician—any politician—when they respond to a question about their future political plans. They all lie. Even the best of them. So a wise person takes any pronouncements about future plans with a ton or two of salt.

That having been said, Mayor Lori Lightfoot raised eyebrows all over town today when she seemed to strongly hint in an interview with the New York Times that she may well not seek election to a second term in in 2023.

Re-upping for four more years “is not a gimme,” the mayor told the Times’ Kara Swisher, going considerably farther than she has in interviews with Chicago media.

“The toxicity of the debate, the physical and emotional toll that it’s taking on all of us, those are serious issues,” Lightfoot said. “And we have to have a — my wife and I and my daughter and my close friends and my team, we have to have a serious conversation about why and what that would look like and what we believe that we would be able to accomplish.”

I think this is true considering the challenges - including the pandemic for sure.

Besides, calling it quits at a time of pandemic and soaring violent crimes is becoming a habit among other city chief executives, Lightfoot added. “This is a tough time for mayors all across the country,” she said, mentioning both Atlanta’s Keisha Lance Bottoms and Seattle’s Jenny Durkan.

We are in tough times right now and I can believe even a very strong chief executive probably would want to just step away.

Here's another thought:

One heavy hitter I spoke with who’s been of help to Lightfoot said the transcript of the interview suggests to him she’s “getting ready to walk away from the job.” That source pointed to the mayor’s fund-raising, which after a pretty good first quarter dried up in the second quarter, with Lightfoot for Chicago pulling in just $10,067 in the three months ended June 30, leaving the mayor with a sizable but not overwhelming $1.790 million in the bank.

Well it was noted in this piece that the Mayor said she came into office to push people out of their "comfort zones". Do you believe she was successful in that?

Do you think she should run for a second term? Do you think she's had a successful tenure so far? 

If yout want to check out the interview with the NY Times click here. Unfortunately you have to sign up for an "free" subscription with the NY Times to listen to the interview or to read the transcript.

Jahmal Cole for Congress

When the 34th state representative seat was vacated a few years ago Jahmal Cole was one of many who stepped up to represent this part of the state (of course that distinction went to current state rep Nick Smith). Now he's throwing his hat in the ring to unseat longtime Congressman Bobby Rush. 

Who else isn't running for re-election? #twill

It seems we've had two significant political stories this week. One of which is certainly more immediate and important the other not so much.

Dorothy Brown is the circuit court clerk who attempted to run for mayor earlier this year and even participated in some candidate forums. Unfortunately she was knocked off the ballot due to petition challenges. Also it doesn't help when authorities have been looking at the activities of her office.

Regardless she won't be running for re-election next year. In the post at CapFax we not only see a story about her stepping down after 2020, we see a comment by a former challenger Jacob Meister. I wonder if he's running again...

Dorothy Brown won’t seek reelection https://t.co/8j9ckAaPpq

— Rich Miller (@capitolfax) August 14, 2019

I also wanted to share this exit interview from CBS 2 of Dorothy Brown [VIDEO]

Probably not as important and it hasn't so far been mention by Rich Miller who runs CapFax involves Jesse White. White has been our Secretary of State for over 20 years. The last two elections it was "teased" that he might retire only to run one more time.

Even though the next election for that office is in 2022, it's already being "teased" that he won't run again. Since it's relatively early to discuss election plans for 2022 and knowing that he may change his mind and run again - although he's in his 80s - I get the feeling that this report isn't being taken very seriously.

Although who knows, I'd like to know who'd be willing to take on that role after White's long tenure over among other parts of state gov't issuing our driver's licenses...