By Steve Rhodes
A new book by Rickey R. Hendon (the “R” stands for “Hollywood”) is even weirder than Chicago News Cooperative columnist James Warren lets on.
It is also hugely instructive – as a field guide to door-to-door politics and a window into Hendon’s bleak soul.
It’s not a tell-all, as Hendon warns us early on, but it wants to be. Hendon takes sideways shots at several political figures known and not along the way.
It’s also a psychological portrait of a self-absorbed and paranoid pol who portrays himself as an independent reformer but acts like nothing of the sort.
It’s important because Hendon is the assistant majority leader of the Illinois Senate.
It’s laughable because Hendon preaches attention to detail while misspelling the names of familiar officeholders.
It’s disturbing because this mess is written by an ostensibly powerful member of our state’s legislative body; it’s enlightening in opening a window into the mindset of somebody who came up through a street-level, bare-knuckles culture of acquiring power lacking in the niceties of thoughtfulness about policy. Politics, to Hendon, is only about power and pork.
On the other hand, public relations visionary Hermene Hartman, also the publisher of N’DIGO, also embarrasses herself – and can’t spell the name of our hometown president correctly, as we shall see.
In fact, the best thing this book has going for it is its compact size and inspired cover art (look closely; that flagstaff is a knife, albeit a butter knife).
But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth a look.
*
Hartman’s preface begins with a statement that is, um, highly questionable:
“The game of politics, the art of politics, the structure of politics is played no better in the world than in the world’s most vibrant city, Chicago.”
Really? Our corrupt politics are played better than anywhere else? (And Chicago is more vibrant than, well, New York? Paris? Tokyo?)
An argument could more easily be constructed placing our politics at the bottom of the barrel; our ballot shenanigans and racial divisions and ethnic rivalries and sheer cynicism of putting the fix in wherever and whenever possible. Ghost candidates, patronage armies, steady conviction rates. The best?
“Politics in Chicago is a sport,” Hartman continues.
A good thing? Or sad and pathetic, if not hurtful to the lives of tens of thousands?
“Everybody plays it, from the man on the corner to the person in the corporate office.”
Then why is our voter turnout so low?
“It may be the reason the city is so vibrant, unapologetically it is the place where things get done.”
Things get done here? Take a look around. What things – parking meters and federal trials? (The corollary: Things don’t get done anywhere else!)
“It may be the rationale for the city that works.”
The city works? For whom? Because politics is a sport?
“It may be the reason for Chicago’s reputation as the city with big shoulders.”
Or the reason for Chicago’s reputation for the city where politics is a sport. A cynical blood sport.
“It is the only place in America that could deliver a Black President.”
It produced one, but it is hardly the only place that could have.
“Chicago is a city that does not trust outsiders.”
We’re small town.
“We welcome them but we send them on their way.”
We’re small-minded.
“This is a city that likes insiders, we have our way, we understand it and we like it.”
We’re pro-insider. That’s why we’re the only city in America that could produce a Black President who presented himself as an outsider.
“A political adage is ‘Don’t send me nobody nobody sent.'”
It’s the adage that has landed many a Chicago pol in prison – and for a long time kept many a Black American off the public payroll.
“And ‘Dance with the one who brung you’ rings true and is a hard-core reality.”
I thought that was a political adage from Texas.
*
How embarrassing for Hartman, though maybe not as embarrassing as her spelling the president’s name “Barrack” both times she mentions him by name.
*
Hartman, who describes herself as “One of the most significant and influential black women in American publishing,” calls this book “brilliant,” which can only lead me to believe she is performing the same kind of “friend journalism” here that she has accused Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell of.
She also describes this book as “poignant,” which perhaps it is in ways Hartman fails to grasp – as we shall see.
*
In his introduction, Hendon gives us a glimpse of the kind of rationale that is to come:
“I also lost a try for Alderman of the 27th ward; in a suicide mission that I knew I was going to lose . . . I had just won re-election to the Senate and most of my supporters wanted me to stay there.
“Besides, my contributors were tapped out from my recent race. They couldn’t understand why I was running for my old job. I ran to keep my opponents in check and to send the establishment a message. I’m not saying I didn’t try hard, but I wasn’t angry at anyone who said he wasn’t going to help me. Winning that City Council seat back would have forced me to give up my Senate seat through media pressure.”
Poor Rickey Hendon.
Later he writes “I ran only in order to prove that I was willing to continue to fight my arrogant enemies, but I knew I wasn’t going to win. I really did not want to go back to the City Council. My plan actually worked because they were willing to make peace after spending all that cash. We are now on cordial terms with each other.”
So his plan worked! By losing he made peace with his arrogant enemies!
(Those unnamed enemies by the way? Jesse White and Ald. Walter Burnett Jr.)
*
To say Hendon’s ego is inflated is to say Richard M Daley can be irritable; laughably understated.
For example:
“In the 2006 Dean Nichols-Pat Horton-Governor Rod Blagojevich race . . . ”
Huh?
It turns out Nichols and Horton were candidates Hendon ran for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District board. Their campaigns are Hendon’s prime examples in this book.
The way Hendon portrays it, the whole state was breathlessly watching.
Apparently delusional thinking isn’t the sole province of the governor’s office.
The funny thing is that – 40 pages later – after Hendon describes the painstaking process of getting his candidates on the ballot and surviving petition challenges, he decides later that “I now needed Dean Nichols to GET OFF THE BALLOT!!”
Why?
“It was clear to me from the beginning that we could come to this point. Both of my candidates filed on the first day and were in the lottery. Nichols pulled the third top ballot position and Patricia Horton pulled the fourth spot. There are twelve candidates running.
“I was trying to cut some deals and get other elected officials to carry my candidates but most of them would only commit to one of them.
“Some people liked Nichols while others preferred Horton. There was talk about me being greedy by trying to get two at one time. This can be disastrous to an elected official or a mover and shaker. Greed is not well received and ONE IS BETTER THAN NONE. So I met with Dean Nichols and explained our situation. If Dean agreed to step down Pat Horton would move up to being third on the ballot and this would give her a much better chance to get elected.”
Oy.
But that’s not all.
“I caught the opposition’s people checking out my sign sheets at the Board of Elections. They also requested my time sheets from my job at the Board of Review . . .”
You know, the one he held when he wasn’t a state senator or running to add the city council to his duties.
No wonder we’re the city that gets things done; our elected officials work several jobs at once.
(Hendon also put in a few years as “Secretary and Treasure of the Cook County Forrest preserved.)
*
Hendon’s lack of self-awareness is stunning, if unsurprising.
“Some of these candidates are nuts; others are so corrupt they will stop at nothing!”
*
When Hendon writes that he was “double-crossed by the Alderman of the 29th Ward,” he’s referring to Ike Carothers. Everybody, it seems, double-crosses Hendon.
*
The real piece de resistance of Backstabbers, though, is Chapter 7, titled “Characters, Agents Provocateur, Idiots, And Fools.” Off we go:
“When Congressman Danny Davis and I met with the heads of the Chicago Board of Education to discuss school issues in the rear of Edna’s, a popular restaurant on the West Side, some fools broke into the meeting with a camera.”
Oh yeah, I remember that.
“They have a little cable show here in Chicago. They got money from a couple of Republican candidates and the guy who was running against Congressman Davis, brought a camera and used video as a political tool. They were breaking up meetings and videotaping them for their cable show.”
Um, sort of. I guess. Maybe they read a manuscript of your book, Rickey.
“They were telling people that we had a secret meeting at this big, popular restaurant which really doesn’t make any sense because if we were going to have a secret meeting we wouldn’t have it in an open popular place.”
Except it was a secret meeting – with school board president Michael Scott and school CEO Arne Duncan present. And Davis called the police.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
“Since these people successfully broke up this very important meeting, I planned another meeting at my Senate office. I also went on the radio and told the community our side of the story. I knew as we went forward with the community meeting about our schools, they were going to show up. So I got all my tough guys and put them at the door and outside the office and refused to let them in.”
He got all his tough guys! To prevent folks from a community meeting!
Rickey, listen to yourself.
“Since the Rodney King video some people made a determination that video taping is the means to an end.”
What?!!!
Later, Hendon writes that “The same ones who interrupted the meeting we held to try to save our schools had threatened to kill Congressman Danny K. Davis and they followed him wherever he went in order to intimidate him.”
I kinda think that if identifiable people following a United States congressman around town made death threats against him, arrests would have been imminent. I have found evidence of no such thing and Hendon doesn’t provide any.
*
Backstabbers is not without practical advice. Always provide stamps when rustling up absentee voters, for example. But for all his attention to detail – which colors to use on a poster – Hendon went to press with these misspellings:
– Jessie White (Correct: Jesse)
– Cheryl Jackson (Cheryle)
– Chewie Garcia (Chuy)
– Miguel DeValles (del Valle)
– Donnie Trotter (Donne)
– Natasha Thomas (Latasha)
– Deborah Shore (Debra)
– Judy Barr Topinka (Baar)
*
But back to backstabbing.
“In my most recent race for Lieutenant Governor I formed an alliance with a powerful Hispanic organization. I kept my end of the bargain, but they played games and did not help me. They lied and still act as if they kept their word. So much for the black and brown coalition in Illinois.”
UNO?
*
Hendon also had a falling out with Frank Avila Jr.
*
“I was never able to find out who stole my PC with all my fundraising information on it. We raised the reward to $300 and it still didn’t show up.”
Gee, Rickey, why didn’t you try $300.50?
*
Why waste time with a clown like Hendon? Well, as I said (and he said), he is the assistant majority leader of the State Senate. And he’s adept at playing with our money. No such clown should be overlooked.
–
See also:
* Rickey Hendon Could Become Governor
* Money For Nothing, Campus for Free
* Hollywood Hendon’s After-School Specials
* Jesus is waiting for you, Rickey.
–
From The Papers:
* Feb. 23, 2007: “[State Sen. Rickey] Hendon, a former county employee and longtime political supporter of [Bobbie] Steele’s, resigned his county job Sept. 5 and was signed to a contract the next day that doubled his monthly paycheck, records show,” the Sun-Times reports.
* Aug. 19, 2008: State Sen. Ricky Hendon (D-Chicago), now vying for the presidency of the Illinios Senate, told Carol Marin last night on Chicago Tonight that “maybe three groups did it incorrectly out of a hundred” when she questioned him about a recent education grant scandal. In fact, Hendon bragged about what he called a 97 percent success rate.
But that’s not what the facts show.
“[A] Tribune investigation found that nearly half of the 48 groups that got money this past school year were running dubious programs, or declined to show how they spent the money. Only 11 of the grants went to established programs with a history of tutoring or mentoring school-age children,” the paper reported last month.
“All of the questionable projects share the same sponsor: West Side Sen. Rickey Hendon (D-Chicago), who awarded many grants to campaign workers and donors, the investigation found.”
* Jan. 8, 2009: Chicago Tonight last night featured a segment with Mary Hayes, the one-time deputy attorney general under Roland Burris who resigned because he insisted on letting an innocent man face the death penalty, and state Rep. Rickey “Hollywood” Hendon (D-Chicago, natch). From my notes:
HAYES: When Roland Burris was the attorney general, we had a crisis in a death penalty case . . . I had secured a promise ahead of time [before taking the job] that his door would be open. He assured me that his door would be open for questions. I quickly found it was not open at all. He would not discuss the case with me . . . I was never allowed to discuss the mater with him . . . I wrote numerous memos . . . Mr. Burris failed to recognize what was right and what was wrong.
HENDON: Perhaps he made a mistake at that time . . . [argues that Illinois needs two U.S. senators, as if we’ll be left with just one if Burris isn’t allowed to take the job]
HENDON: I would have accepted it if [Blagojevich] had offered it to me. I told congressman Davis he should have accepted it . . . I’m just keeping it on the up-and-up with the people of the state.
* Sept. 1, 2009: State Sen. Rickey Hendon (D-Chicago) appeared on Chicago Tonight last night to defend putting $40 million into the governor’s capital bill for a West Side campus that Chicago State University has neither asked nor planned for.
“Poppycock!” Hendon said.
Hendon said he’s been to meetings, a committee already exists, and “This story has been in the paper at least 10 times.”
Yes. But there is no plan and CSU didn’t ask for the money.
Shouldn’t there be a plan in place – even, you know, a budget – before money is appropriated?
“There is a planning committee that’s been meeting for two years,” Hendon said.
Yes. And they still don’t have a plan.
Hendon explained that he originally asked former Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago State) to pony up some dough. Jones only offered $10 million.
“You can’t even build a house for $10 million these days!” Hendon said.
*
This One Goes Out To You, Rickey
–
Comments welcome.
Posted on August 10, 2010