As far as I’m concerned, the high point of this still embryonic gubernatorial campaign happened a few weeks ago, when alderman Ameya Pawar blasted Governor Bruce Rauner as a “racist.”
By contrast, Pawar was pretty much an Emanuel loyalist during the mayor’s first term, sticking with Rahm on many issues even as it infuriated community activists. I’m not picking on Pawar—I still may vote for him. And he’s by no means alone. The gubernatorial race is filled with Democrats—state senator Dan Biss, businessman Chris Kennedy, and venture capitalist J.B. Pritzker—who’ve been missing in action for the last few years. Or worse, they were on the other side of the good fight they now profess to be waging.
Biss is leading the charge for a bill that would end the carried-interest tax loophole, which enables wealthy hedge fund and private equity operators to dodge paying millions in Illinois taxes. A headline in Crain’s Chicago Business blasted him as a “traitor” for proposing the bill—a castigation that Biss calls “a badge of honor.”
There was apparently enough money to give a tax break to some of our wealthiest citizens, but not enough in the coffers to provide desperately needed therapy for people dodging bullets in high-crime areas. I don’t know if keeping those clinics open—or, better yet, opening new ones—would’ve curbed the violence of the last few years. But it would’ve been a step in the right direction. Instead, those in power shamefully went the other way.
Look, I’m not a Green Party fanatic who says there’s no difference between Democrats and Republicans. I’d vote for Biss, Kennedy, Pawar, or Pritzker over Rauner, a political lunatic who’s trying to bankrupt the state. But let’s be honest, Democrats: You dug yourselves a big hole, and now we all have to climb on out. v
