As hinted about yesterday, the Washington campaign is a bit of an enigma in the race for the Democratic Nomination to the US Senate. Her background is weak,
Washington, 52, a hospital administrator, was the runner-up in last year’s three-way primary for lieutenant governor. Former state Treasurer Pat Quinn defeated her by 108,136 votes. She carried Cook County over Quinn by 849 votes and got about a third of the statewide vote.
As the only African-American candidate in this contest, Washington had the support of Sen. Jones, U.S. Representatives Davis and Jackson, County Commissioner Jerry ”Iceman” Butler and the Rev. Clay Evans, all of whom are backing Obama for the Senate.
Rush had nothing good to say about Washington when she was running for lieutenant governor. As a strategist for black gubernatorial candidate Roland W. Burris, Rush lamented that Washington’s bid might undermine Burris. That wasn’t the case.
But Bobbie Rush is backing her. Why? Because Barack Obama challenged him for the US House seat in 2000, though Rush crushed him.
Not only that, but,
Settling an old score with Obama isn’t the only reason that Rush is promoting Washington’s long-shot candidacy. According to knowledgeable sources, this is part of an elaborate scheme to covertly help state Comptroller Dan Hynes, the nominal front-runner in the Democratic senatorial field.
Rush has a longtime relationship with the candidate’s father, former Cook County Assessor Thomas C. Hynes, who is still the Democratic committeeman of the Far Southwest Side’s 19th Ward. Back in 1992, the elder Hynes provided Rush with critical support in his upset Democratic primary victory over the late Congressman Charles A. Hayes.
But Rush repaid this debt when he backed the younger Hynes for state comptroller in 1998. By using Washington to split the black vote, Rush is counting on the Hynes camp to stop Obama.
Whether Washington fully realizes the game being played or not is an interesting question, though my guess is that her ego overcomes the giant flashing warning lights.
What does having two African-Americans in the race do?
In a statewide Democratic primary, about 30 percent of the voters are African American. When the black community is united behind a single candidate, that person is inevitably a strong contender.
As Rush knows better than anyone, rival black candidacies splinter the vote. In the 1990 Democratic primary for the Supreme Court, black judges Cousins and Blanche M. Manning got just over half the vote. This split helped the late Mayor Michael A. Bilandic win the judicial slot with less than half of the vote. If Rush is determined to spoil Obama’s chances, there is no better way to do it than with a second black candidate.
Obama is a serious candidate, Washington isn’t. The shame of it is that Washington may not realize this.
Dan Hynes is one of my two least favorite kinds of candidates in general–he is the kid who gets the boost from the parents. The other I’m not thrilled with are millionaires who jump in with no experience. That being said, this campaign has some very able people who fit those descriptions and I’m not talking about John Simmons. Hynes should be tested in the primary by having to take on real candidates with no gimmicks. If he is as strong as the Machine is claiming to everyone who will listen, release him and let’s see his stuff.
As a parallel, Lisa Madigan seemed incredibly ill-prepared to be AG until we got lucky and she turned out to be a natural against Birkett. We never would have known that in her race against Schmidt. But what if she was a dud–how would we have known? Hynes has only had to gimme primaries and two jokes of general campaign opponents. The good news is Lauzen is gearing up 2006 and well, one can’t make up that kind of stupid.
Admittedly, the general election Republican may yet turn out to be a joke, but you don’t bet the farm on that. And Hynes may be a natural, but I’d rather see that demonstrated instead of just having him annointed.