Preckwinkle Disses Voters By Ditching Sun-Times Mayoral Debate

Toni Preckwinkle bossed around America’s "Hardest-Working Paper" like it was nothing.

Preckwinkle's campaign sent word she wouldn’t commit to attend a Sun-Times debate moderated by reporters who, the paper says, “operate independently from the Sun-Times Editorial Board.” The paper's board endorsed mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot in the Feb. 26 election.

Ditching a debate with Chicago’s No. 2 paper is the kind of thing you’d expect from a legacy powerbroker, like Bill Daley, who dipped out on a Fox 32 primetime debate on the day the Chicago Tribune published a hit piece about him.

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For Preckwinkle, it’s all about her priorities — which include debates with other news outlets, including every TV station and the Tribune. It’s not a shock.

Preckwinkle continues to show Chicago voters that she’s embraced her role as Cook County Democratic Party boss. She’s not doing anything her predecessors wouldn’t have done.

Do you think former machine boss Joe Berrios, the king of county patronage, or soon-to-be felon Edward “Fast Eddie” Vrdolyak, or the boss of all bosses, the late Richard J. Daley, would submit themselves to questioning by a paper owned by labor unions who are split on which candidate to back in the run off?

Of course not. Unions are supposed to back machine bosses. In Chicago, being on the right side of an election is the first step in getting favorable contracts negotiated.

SEIU Local 1, which owns a stake in the Sun-Times, dumped $1.5 million into Preckwinkle’s campaign.

A journalist pal of mine explains major newspaper endorsements this way: “The content of the editorial page reflects the viewpoint of the editorial page editor in consult with the publisher.”

A machine boss like Preckwinkle is right to expect that newspaper owners who contributed the most cash to her campaign would come through with a rubber-stamp endorsement. That’s the Chicago Way.

Here’s the rub: The Sun-Times doesn’t have a publisher on its masthead. There’s Editor-in-Chief Chris Fusco, Editorial Board Editor Tom McNamee — both stand-up ethical journalists — and ownership.

Unlike the gubernatorial race, Sun-Times ownership’s political allegiances are divided in the mayor’s race. It was no secret on the South Side that Sun-Times part owner, Elzie Higginbottom, a long-time Daley fundraiser in the black community, campaigned for Bill Daley in the Feb. 26 election.

And this week, the Federation of Labor, which also owns a piece of the Sun-Times, announced it would stay neutral in the mayoral run-off, which the paper called a “blow” to Preckwinkle’s campaign.

Sun-Times ownership’s competing political interests might have created a perfect storm that offered a rare moment of absolute editorial board independence — which might explain the bombshell decision to endorse Lightfoot for mayor.

The Tribune and Crain’s Chicago Business, you’ll remember, endorsed Bill Daley over Preckwinkle. At least those editorial decisions didn’t stray from the pro-business, rich-side-of-town political leanings everybody expects from those publications. Don’t expect the Cook County boss to decline any of their invitations to make her case to become Chicago’s boss.

She's out to win endorsements that might court the Daley vote. But a debate for the Sun-Times' working-class, neighborhood demographic? Eh, not so much. Instead, she pulled a boss move and "The Hardest-Working Paper In America” let her win by calling the whole thing off — a horrible mistake. The Sun-Times should call Preckwinkle's bluff.

Chicagoans deserve as many chances as they can get to hear from the women who want to be Chicago’s next mayor. So, go ahead, Fusco: Fire up Facebook Live and let your reporters conduct a public grilling of any candidate who shows up.

Lightfoot already said she’d be there.

If Preckwinkle wants to be mayor so badly she can drop the boss act and show up to prove she can take the heat in any situation.

If not, voters will get the gist.