oh, carol. you're losing me.

Just because I have brown skin (and breasts) does not mean I'm voting for Carol Moseley Braun for Mayor.

I think I'm even supposed to be one of her target demographic: woman of color, professional, educated, tired of old boy politics, pro choice, progressive, feminist-y, and modern. But I'm not digging Carol's style right now. Her campaign style is definitely not...modern. It's a mish mash of crankiness, recalcitrance, bull-headedness and iron-fisted charm. If her campaign was a CEO, I'd hate to work for her.

Am I supposed to be impressed she convinced Meeks and Davis to drop out? I wonder if their capitulation was due to her directly or the result of inevitability? Rev. Meeks insulted gays, women, Latinos, Asians, and people who knew gays, women, Latinos and Asians. Danny Davis is old (this isn't me being ageist; he's seriously old. Grandfather old. He won't make it!). And he's a demigod in his district. Why would he trade in his demi-deity to paint a target on his back as Mayor of a city with a huge deficit and mounting infrastructure issues? Does the fact she's the last black woman standing mean I'm ready to vote for Carol?

Not really.

To be honest, her reliance on tired Old Black Dude (OBD) traditions makes me, a modern brown woman, even more tired. The OBD circuit is not where I come from. For once, can't we ignore that old dog/pony church circuit show? As the daughter of a pastor, I don't know what's more insulting: politicians polluting a church with their shilling, or pastors allowing them to do it. And watching her play 'gotcha' games (like the flip flop about the tax return) with the media is not helping me. Neither is her futile crusade against the parking meters. (She want to sue because it was a bad deal? They didn't pay enough? I think that milk is spilt.) Her comfort with the OBD circuit ages her - and alienates me.

Is the OBD circuit emblematic of what her administration would be?

Chicago is a city of neighborhoods, but has Braun left hers? Perhaps that's a little unfair of me, but I see a woman in her very well kept Hyde Park home, occasionally venturing out to give a few speeches and raise some money during a luncheon. She's a genteel lady who lunches -and I'm not.

The communicator in me believes in stories - not so much campaign cliches - but narratives of a vision. But what's Carol's story? What's her vision? Will she put Chicago on the path of something new or does she think it's good enough just to maintain the status quo? Where does she see Chicago going and how will she steer it? And why her? What's her value proposition? I've read her site (after weeks of searching for it) and all I can think of is blah blah blah.

On Christmas Eve, M- and I were having lunch somewhere in the art gallery district and overheard some regular guys talking about the Mayoral race. One of them said, 'She's a nice lady. But she just wants a job.'

Ouch.

Folks like me want to know what's inside the package. Black ministers don't do it for me. Neither do the unions. Who are the thinkers, the doers, the innovative creatives who are going to help you get Chicago back on track (if you think the wheels have come off.) When Chicago is threatening to fracture into sectarian groups again, how is she going to engage the whole public to rally around her, as the symbol of this city?

I'm the public, Carol, and you're losing me.

ideas (and preparation) matter: cook county board president candidate forum

Last night I went to the Cook County President Candidate forum sponsored by local domestic violence and sexual violence orgs and I have never had such a stupendously clear example of how *not* to present yourself to an important constituency.  It was really disappointing that not a single GOP candidate (or Dem O'Brien) mustered the energy to attend.  While there may have been legitimate reasons why they were absent (hey, I know schedules can get weird) they've left the women in that packed room no choice but to say to folks, "XX Candidate doesn't give a shit about violence against women."

Is that an unfair characterization?  Perhaps.  Too bad they weren't there to counter it.

Should the Cook County President even care about violence against women?  Considering how domestic and sexual  violence impacts the women/girls and LGBTQ community in this county, and how we may/may not be accessing services through the public healthcare system or may/may not be interacting with law enforcement - yes, the Cook County President should goddamn care how a public health/safety issue is impacting at least 1/4 of the goddamn population.

(You can read my Tweets about it last night here.)

What I learned last night:

1. The importance of a good moderator:  Kimbriell Kelly was awesome.  She didn't let candidates get away with anything.  When Stroger drifted into generalities, she pressed him for specifics and clarification.  When Brown tried to rest on her laurels about funding, she rode Brown to lay out a specific implementation plan to counter violence against women.  When Tresser just looked nuts and repeated himself about fighting corruption and waste, she pretty much called that a red herring.  And, yes, she also pressed Preckwinkle to be more specific about best practices.

2. The importance of having good ideas:  I would gladly stand next to Tom Tresser in a protest.  The guy is relentless.  He fought against the Olympic bid (yay!), the Oprah show (huh?) and has been a non profit leader, a social justice activist and community activist for years.  I bet he even buys organic vegetables.  But as a candidate he is a disaster.  I have no doubt he wants reform in our county gov't and that it needs reform.  But while the spirit is willing, his talk is crazy.  Ideas matter.  Having a few would be a good idea.

When he said that he would defund the sheriff's department as a response to the practice of shackling female prisoners while they give birth, Brown gave him a 'you are so crazy' side glance that made the two back rows snort aloud.  That's your idea, Tom?  Really?  You're going to stand by that?

Speaking of Brown: it's true the county needs cash.  (Take a close look at CTBA's analysis of the county system, sometime.)  But if your only viable problem-solving solution, with the exception of establishing task forces and committees, is to source revenue then why call yourself President?  Why not just run for the Chief Development and Revenue Officer, or something like that?  I don't see the flexibility in her thinking.

It was disappointing that no one had a sufficient answer to my question: how would they prepare county providers for the fallout should a state budget fail to materialize?

I know that Stroger has become sort of a walking joke in this town - and last night did nothing to dispel it.  The guy is checked out.  He looked disengaged from the entire process.  His answers were defensive, vague and lacking in specifics.  Did anyone prepare him at all for that forum?  I mean, give the guy a fact sheet on the issue, for god's sake.  The only fire he showed was when he snapped on Brown for saying he didn't sit on a certain com'tee.  'My representative sits on that com'tee for me,' he snitted.  Brown snitted back and for a couple of minutes it was like being at a Sunday dinner with some crazy deacons.

Jesus Christ, this is what we have to work with.

3. The importance of knowing what the hell you're talking about - and who actually gets the work done: This is Toni Preckwinkle's strength.  I don't know if she's a fast learner or knew this stuff before, but for every question she answered she gave an example of a best practice.  When asked what they've done to combat violence against women, the only thing Stroger could say was he implemented a program to tow johns' cars in the act of soliciting.  Preckwinkle pointed to the excellent work of a program called End Demand and detailed what they did and how she supports programs like that in order to shift the burden away from arresting protitutes which doesn't do anything except to further destabilize women.  That's a smart answer.  That's an answer that shows some little study; it shows a more flexible way of thinking about domestic trafficking - and it's an acknowledgment that domestic violence and sexual violence orgs actually do the work bloated municipalities can't.

She plays to her strength which is knowing what's happening on the ground.  Why couldn't Tom (who's on the ground) articulate that?  If the county is strapped it's going to have to rely more on community orgs to deliver services for it.  She sees that the county is going to have to become more of a facilitator of services and in order to do that, you need the right ideas and the right folks in place to get that done.

(And no. I have never paid Toni Preckwinkle this much attention before last night. She always seemed kind of crabby when I spoke with her.)

4.  If they can do it, so can you: Swear to god, if these people can run for office, show up completely out of their depth, spout inanities and get away with it, so can you.  But don't do what they do.  Be better than they are.  Apply for training with IWIL.org.  Or go to a DFA training.  Or register with The White House Project.  Study your issues.  Raise some cash.  Just be better than they are. 

Please.  For the love of our democracy.