Don’t remember seeingthe Preckwinkle name on the CHI Crime thread....What do we know about him?
4414 of 4510 Precincts Reporting - 98%
Name Party
Votes %
Preckwinkle , Toni Dem
273,776 49%
O’Brien , Terrence Dem
127,784 23%
Brown , Dorothy Dem
79,797 14%
Stroger , Todd (i) Dem
75,626 14%
ANti Daley/Olympic candidate...SO who is supporting her? the people?
FROM WIKI...reelected alderman four times.
Preckwinkle has been a critic of current Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. She has a reputation for being a progressive leader. In her first four terms in office she emerged as the council’s prominent defender of affordable housing. Among other issues, she is known for her sponsorship of living wage ordinances, her expressed concerns regarding the costs and benefits of the city’s Olympic bid, and her strong stance against police brutality and excessive force.
wiki:
Preckwinkle was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, moving to Chicago to study at the University of Chicago in the Hyde Park community area, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees.[1] She is married to Zeus Preckwinkle, a teacher at Ancona School. They have two children. Her husband is Caucasian, which at times has been a campaign issue.[2]
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Relationship with Barack Obama
Preckwinkle’s views on Obama were prominently featured in a July 2008 New Yorker cover story on Barack Obama’s political origins.[64][65][66] The article begins by recounting a 1995 meeting between Preckwinkle and Obama in which he discussed a possible run for the Illinois Senate seat then held by Alice Palmer[66] According to the New Yorker’s account, Preckwinkle “soon became an Obama loyalist, and she stuck with him in a State Senate campaign that strained or ruptured many friendships but was ultimately successful.” [65][66] In 1995, she successfully challenged the signatures of Obama’s opponents in the Democratic Primary for the Illinois Senate, allowing Obama to run unopposed.[67]
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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/10/12/early_defeat_launched_a_rapid_political_climb/
Obama ran for the seat of Alice Palmer, a respected activist who had decided to run for Congress and anoint Obama as her successor. But when Palmer’s congressional bid fell short, she decided she wanted to keep her seat and tried to get Obama to step aside.
Not only did Obama refuse, his political associates - led by Chicago Alderwoman Toni Preckwinkle and her staff - challenged the validity of Palmer’s signatures and the signatures of his other prospective opponents. Many were ruled fake, and in one fell swoop Obama knocked every rival out of the race.
“That’s what happens in Chicago,” Preckwinkle recalled.
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http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/rezko/353782,CST-NWS-rezpols23.stng
Top recipients of campaign cash
Chicago Sun-Times (IL) - Monday, April 23, 2007
Author: The Chicago Sun-Times
Antoin “Tony’’ Rezko , his family, his businesses and business associates have donated thousands of dollars to politicians since 1989, when he began getting tax dollars to build housing for the poor in Chicago. Rezko has also been a prolific campaign fund-raiser for politicians. These are some of the politicians who’ve benefitted most from Rezko ‘s political fund-raising (more at www.suntimes.com):
1. John Stroger, ex-Cook County
Board president — $148,300
A Rezko company had a contract to maintain pay telephones at the Cook County Jail under Stroger. Also, Rezko has had business ties with Stroger family members and friends.
2. Gov. Blagojevich — $117,652
Rezko has been a longtime supporter and top fund-raiser for Blagojevich, having raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for his campaigns. As governor, Blagojevich gave jobs and state appointments to Rezko friends. Rezko has been indicted on federal charges that accuse him of demanding kickbacks from companies seeking state business under Blagojevich.
3. Mayor Daley — $55,950
Soon after Daley became mayor 18 years ago, Rezko ‘s company, Rezmar Corp., got into the low-income housing business with the city. Rezmar ended up getting more than $25 million from the Daley administration to rehab buildings for affordable housing.
4. Sen. Barack Obama — $54,416
Rezko has been friends with Obama for 17 years. As a lawyer at a small Chicago law firm, Obama worked on low-income housing deals involving Rezko ‘s company. Rezko has been Obama’s political patron since he ran for the Illinois Senate a dozen years ago. Obama has apologized for buying a piece of property from Rezko ‘s wife last year to expand his yard.
5. Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan — $43,000
6. Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan — $35,500 Madigan got those donations between 1998 and 2000 — “ancient history,’’ according to a Madigan spokesman.
7. Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn — $32,000
As state treasurer, Quinn appointed Rezko to serve on a state housing task force.
8. Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th) — $31,375
Rezko was the longtime head of Preckwinkle ‘s campaign-finance committee. Six of Rezko ‘s troubled housing projects were in Preckwinkle ‘s ward.
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(no link)
Preckwinkle induction tainted by tactics that got her elected
Chicago Sun-Times - Sunday, May 5, 1991
Author: Vernon Jarrett
Although Toni Preckwinkle will be sworn in Monday as alderman of the 4th Ward along with the 49 other members of the City Council, her victory reeks with a stench that cannot be fanned away by phony rhetoric.
An examination of the data from that election shows clearly that had her campaigners not distributed anti-white and anti-Semitic slander and falsely attributed it to Ald. Timothy C. Evans, Preckwinkle would not be taking the oath of office tomorrow. However, I have other concerns that impact far beyond a single election.
The 4th Ward election is a special cause for concern because racist political propaganda finally succeeded in a racially mixed community where it had failed over the last 30 years. The interracial Hyde Park-Kenwood neighborhood, which includes parts of the majority-black 5th and 4th wards on the south lakefront, has been a sort of showcase for racial harmony superior to any other Chicago community.
My recall of the area’s resistance to racial appeals dates back to 1963 when the Democratic Machine attempted to oust liberal 5th Ward Ald. Leon Despres, who is white, by endorsing his opponent, Chauncey Eskridge, a black lawyer for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But this majority-black ward rejected such a tactic and helped re-elect Despres by a 5-to-1 ratio. Despres lost only one black precinct.
I supported Despres in that election and I, like other black voters, rejected the racial tactics of two of the three black candidates who opposed Ald. Lawrence Bloom in February, 1991. Bloom won by garnering 77 percent of the vote in a ward that is today at least 75 percent black.
Also, in the 26th Legislative District, which is 80 percent black and embraces a part of that community, the voters recently re-elected state Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, who is white.
But in the recent 4th Ward runoff, Alan Dobry, 5th Ward Democratic committeeman who had been re-elected many times in this overwhelmingly black ward, was caught posting anti-Semitic and anti-white leaflets in heavily Jewish precincts in the neighboring 4th Ward. Dobry, who blamed Ald. Evans, a black lawyer, was a part of Preckwinkle ‘s campaign assault squad.
Somebody even tacked an anti-Semitic poster on a synagogue door. Preckwinkle campaigners blamed Evans.
This time racial scare tactics worked. Preckwinkle , who is black but never had the support of a majority of the 4th Ward’s black voters, won in April by a contested margin of 109 votes.
But the “secret” of her success can be found in the tallies of just five of the 20 majority-white precincts that she carried. In precincts 29, 30, 32, 38, and 45 alone, she gained 404 votes, a 63 percent jump over the votes she won there in the February election.
This pattern was consistent throughout the remaining 15 predominantly white precincts that are her base. There are 58 precincts here, of which only 20 are white, but a big white voter turnout and a low black tally told the story of the triumph of an ugly scenario.
How could anybody accept the argument that Evans or his campaigners would distribute anti-Semitic and anti-white leaflets only in white-community precincts with the expectation of gaining votes for Evans?
The purpose of this racist tactic is clear: Frighten whites, particularly Jews, into knocking off Evans.
Another question: Why haven’t we heard public words of protest from Ald. Bloom and state Rep. Currie?
Vernon Jarrett is a member of the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board.