What has Brown done for -- her campaign?

What has Brown done for -- her
October 23, 2006
BY LAURA WASHINGTON
Dorothy, where are you? Barack, you sure are lucky. Does Junior really think a third airport will fly with Chicago voters? Q for clerk. Todd's a clod. Why not Bobbie?
Here's the skinny:

Dorothy Brown is clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court. Since Aug. 31, she's also been a mayoral candidate. Call her campaign office, (312) 368-8288. Listen to the pre-recorded message, leave a voice mail and patiently wait for the reply. Go to the Web site: DorothyBrownforMayor ofChicago.org.

Better yet, let me save you time. It doesn't exist.

The biggest media hit Brown has attracted so far was a recent Mark Brown column reporting that she had hired former Channel 2 reporter John Davis as her press secretary. The entire column was about John Davis.

Why the silence? Another Brown spokesman told me she is still assembling her team. Besides, she "doesn't want to give too much of her platform away," he said, because "within 10 seconds it's going to be somebody else's." Talk to candidate Bill "Dock" Walls about it.

Brown's non-campaign is fueling the persistent rumor that Brown is a stalking horse for Mayor Daley. Dorothy, say it ain't so.

Sen. Barack Obama isn't just awfully smart, he's awfully lucky. Few people know that when Obama was fresh out of Harvard Law School in 1991, the now-infamous Tony Rezko made him an offer that apparently Obama could refuse. Rezko tried to hire him to work for his blossoming real estate business. Obama took another job. Good career move, Barack.

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. has made his push for an airport at south suburban Peotone the centerpiece of his congressional career. There's one problem: If he runs for mayor, he must morph into O'Hare Airport's No. 1 booster. Peotone would be a dagger in the hearts of Midway and O'Hare, with enormous -- and negative -- economic implications.

Jackson's mayoral play would be a team effort, and he's building up steam. He is screening potential aldermanic candidates and plans to run a multiracial slate of independent challengers to the mayor and his City Council minions. Jackson is wishing for a rainbow at the top of the ticket and courting Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd) and Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley to join him there.

Jackson "text-messages me twice a day," Munoz tells me. I predict that while Munoz is an avid Daley critic, he'll take a pass on this one. His priority is to get re-elected and then gear up to run to replace Rep. Luis Gutierrez in the 4th Congressional District.

Meanwhile, it's Q for clerk. Quigley is impressed with Jackson, who, he says, is "all go, he's all fire and brimstone."

Quigley is mulling it over, saying he has family obligations to consider. He sure sounds like a candidate. He's mapping out major reforms for the city clerk's office, best known for the august responsibility of issuing city stickers. "Let 'em buy their stickers at Jewels and Dominick's, and then get on to the real stuff," he says. He envisions an aggressive agency that would put everything on line, even, gasp, Chicago City Council meetings (YouTube, look out!) "I would treat the office as a GAO or OMB," he dreams.

The reform-minded Quigley is rapidly emerging as Daley's persona non grata. Quigley revels in the attention. "Part of me would just love to get into an equal fight with Daley." He is eager for an "intelligent public debate on the issues," like the city's true financial condition. When we look back on the Daley legacy, Quigley opines, the city's finances "will be his Waterloo."

Everywhere I go, I hear the refrain: "Why isn't it Bobbie Steele?" If you have been following Ald. Todd Stroger's "campaign" for the Cook County Board presidency, you know that the moniker "clod" is too complimentary. He's been a no-show at campaign appearances, he's shunning debates. There's no "there" there. On top of that, he's vying to become the political crybaby of the year.

For weeks he's been whimpering that white pols with family names get treated differently. At a recent North Side committeeman's meeting, sources tell me, Stroger whined that his campaign kitty is so undernourished that he couldn't afford to run TV ads.

Last week, Stroger's political uncle, Ald. William Beavers, told the media that if Gov. Blagojevich wants to see a decent African-American turnout, he needs to deliver $100,000 to the campaign. The Stroger camp denies it is strapped for funds.

Message to Stroger: Life is unfair. Get off your butt and stop the sniveling. You could lose this one. You surely deserve to.