Chicago City Hall No Longer A Place For A Boss Like Preckwinkle

“Hate has no place in Chicago.” That was mayoral frontrunner Lori Lightfoot’s measured response to news that fear mongers targeted her in homophobic campaign propaganda distributed near South Side black churches.

It’s a nice sentiment, but it’s not true. Hate lives here. It always has. And there’s a special dark corner in the Chicago Democratic Machine where bigotry abides. Everybody knows it.

Chicago Democrats might not own hate but they certainly rent it, forgive it, or cover for it in moments of political opportunity or, in the case Preckwinkle's mayoral bid, campaign desperation.

Make no mistake, Preckwinkle’s campaign has become increasingly desperate as labor unions, business titans and politicians leap on Lightfoot’s bandwagon.

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Down in the 19th Ward — where Jerry Joyce won in the general election — folks on the street will tell you they’re voting for “anybody but Preckwinkle.”

Veteran political operatives knocking on doors in cop-and-firefighter country on the Northwest Side say most folks are all-in for Lightfoot. Same goes for North Side lakefront liberals. The downtown business voting bloc that backed Bill Daley for mayor seems to have aligned itself with Lightfoot, too, according to campaign finance reports.

Preckwinkle’s only possible shot at victory would have had to come from voters in black wards that former mayoral candidate Willie Wilson carried in his general election loss. For that, it’s not a shock that anti-gay flyers targeting Lightfoot, who is married to a woman, ended up on windshields of cars parked near conservative black churches.

Lightfoot quickly rebuked the attack flyers. Preckwinkle did, too, and denied having any knowledge of the hate-filled campaign ads that seemed to be courting black voters opposed to homosexuality.

Wilson, who endorsed Lightfoot, called the flyers a “potential hate crime.” He wants the Chicago Board of Elections or the FBI to investigate who was behind distributing the homophobic campaign literature.

Chicago’s network of surveillance cameras that helped determine actor Jussie Smollett faked his own hate crime should make that easy enough. But finding the culprit isn’t enough to evict hate in Chicago. Catching the bad guys might even offer status-quo Democrats scapegoats to deflect attention from a bigger problem: The ruling-class looks the other way when racism, bigotry or discrimination might threaten their grip on power.

Politicians don’t have to be a racist to help harbor bigotry in the Democratic Party. Preckwinkle is neither a racist nor a homophobe. But she is Cook County’s clout-heavy party boss. Clout protects clout. That's the Chicago Way.

Last year, Preckwinkle defended billionaire Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who got caught talking the language of racists on an FBI wiretap while discussing which African-American politician would be the "least offensive" replacement for President Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate.

“We’ve all had casual conversations which we might not be happy to see on the front page of the newspaper,” Preckwinkle told the Sun-Times while endorsing Pritzker.

She doubled down on her support for Pritzker when racial discrimination allegations mounted, including a campaign worker wearing black face in an Instagram post, and a federal discrimination lawsuit filed against the Pritzker campaign by 10 minority staffers.

"You know I've been a strong supporter of JB Pritzker from the very beginning. I know his commitment to diversity and inclusion within his staff, his campaign and his policies. I remain strongly supportive of him." Preckwinkle told ABC 7.

Back then, I talked to some of the Pritzker campaign staffers who sued the campaign about that.

Erica Kimble, a single mother and lifelong Democrat, told me she couldn’t believe Preckwinkle and other prominent black politicians didn’t even call to ask about how the now-governor’s political operation allegedly mistreated minority campaign workers.

“Toni Preckwinkle, please, she’s a mess. She’s part of the Machine,” Kimble said. “Don’t tell me about her being a social activist.”

One reason we don't need to find out if someone associated with Preckwinkle’s campaign had something to do with the homophobic flyers attacking Lightfoot: It’s a distraction from what we already know about how Boss Preckwinkle operates. Her loyalties to Chicago’s political status quo sit atop her priority list even if it might hurt people she represents.

Remember, Preckwinkle stood by patronage king Joe Berrios, the former county assessor, who presided over a property tax assessment system that screwed over property owners in mostly minority swaths of the South and West sides of town.

She accepted campaign cash from powerful ward boss Ald. Ed Burke, who the feds charged with alleged extortion that landed $10,000 in Preckwinkle's war chest. She also hired Burke’s son to a taxpayer-funded, six-figure, do-nothing job in her administration.

There’s no place for a boss like that at City Hall anymore.

See Also:

• Foster-Bonner Makes Run-Off Against Rubber Stamp 6th Ward Boss
• Preckwinkle Disses Voters By Ditching Sun-Times Mayoral Debate
• The Lori Lightfoot I Know Blindsided Mayor Emanuel With The Truth
• Chicago Election Results Confirm Referendum On Emanuel's Failure
• Want Change Chicago? Vote Out Absentee, Rubber-Stamp Aldermen
• A Vote For Daley, Preckwinkle, Mendoza, Chico Is A Vote For Rahm
• 'Empire' Actor Doesn't Fib As Well As Chicago's Clout Candidates
• Is Chicago Crazy Enough To Elect Bill Daley, The Rahm Candidate?
• Don't Believe CTU Hype: Undecideds Could Shock Mayoral Status Quo
• Mendoza Rapid-Fire Tweets Sling Mud On Clout Candidates, Herself
• Chicago Mayoral Race Is Absurd And Nightmare If You Don't Wake Up
• Did Rahm's Failure, Solis' FBI Wire Make Chicago GOP Relevant?
• Mayoral Candidate Susana Mendoza Can't Be Taken Seriously Anymore
• Facts About Pay-To-Play Preckwinkle Help To Voters To Form Opinion
• Chicago Needs To Elect Bunch Of Snitches To Kill Code Of Silence
• Rahm's Podcast Isn't Practice For TV Gig; He Stinks On TV (VIDEO)
• Are You For 'Cockroaches' Or Reformers In Chicago Mayoral Race?
• Cash Connects 'Independent' Preckwinkle To 'Good Ol' Boys Club'
• Hmm, Mayor Candidate Bill Daley Doesn't Want To Dis Rahm Anymore

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting and Emmy-nominated producer, was a producer, writer and narrator for the Chicagoland series on CNN.