By Steve Rhodes
“Former state Rep. Robin Kelly easily won the special Democratic primary Tuesday night in the race to replace the disgraced Jesse Jackson Jr. in Congress, helped by millions of dollars in pro-gun control ads from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s political fund,” the Tribune reports.
“A snowstorm and lack of voter interest kept turnout low as Kelly had 52 percent to 25 percent for former U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson and 11 percent for Chicago 9th Ward Ald. Anthony Beale with 99 percent of precincts counted.”
While others were calling Halvorson, Donne Trotter, Toi Hutchinson and even Mel Reynolds the favorite at the outset of this race, the Beachwood continued its stellar run as a superior pundit machine by tabbing Kelly early and often. Yay, us.
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Note: Predictions are not endorsements.
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Why Kelly? First, she wasn’t an unknown around Beachwood HQ, which remembers her from her days as Matteson’s community affairs director. We were aware of her deep roots in the district, her relationship with south suburban mayors, her record on guns, (some of) Hutchinson’s vulnerabilities, Trotter’s lackluster demeanor, Beale’s lightweightedness and Halvorson’s white conservatism. Kelly’s generally progressive positions also most closely mirror those of the departed Jesse Jackson Jr. While the ad buys of Michael Bloomberg’s PAC were a surprise, they only made the margin that much greater than Kelly would have otherwise won by. She also raised more money on her own than any other candidate and could probably have tapped into deeper pockets had she needed to (being pals with Alexi Giannoulias doesn’t hurt on that score).
And like our prediction that Toni Preckwinkle would win the Cook County presidency and not Terry O’Brien, for god’s sake, as many of our most esteemed pundits opined, we never bought into the notion that multiple African-American candidates would split the vote. That way of thinking is just old-fashioned Chicago reductivism.
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“It’s easy to forget that when Jackson resigned three months ago, there weren’t many people who would have bet on Kelly taking the stage at the Matteson Holiday Inn on election night as the party nominee and Jackson’s heir apparent,” Mark Brown writes for the Sun-Times.
Our (updated) Political Odds had her on top from the start.
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“Darnelle Fielder, of Park Forest, stood on the street corner outside the polling place carrying a sign that urged a vote for Chicago Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) for Congress,” Phil Kadner reports in the SouthtownStar.
“Why was Fielder willing to stand in the sleet touting the candidacy of a Chicago alderman?
“‘They’re paying me $100,’ she said. ‘I stand outside from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m., and they pay me the money. I just did this for the money.'”
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Beale’s indignation at Bloomberg’s spending is also a little hard to take given that he tried to get a piece of that New York money himself. From a statement he released a week ago:
“At no time did the Independence USA PAC reach out to other candidates in the race. When we saw the Bloomberg PAC’s involvement, we immediately sent information outlining Anthony Beale’s record on gun control. We also sent information to One Million Moms Against Guns and Gabby Gifford and Mark Kelly’s PAC.”
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Posted on February 27, 2013