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Gentry Liberals Have Increasing Clout in Chicago's Shrinking Electorate
A Commentary By Michael Barone
in Political Commentary
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Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Rahm Emanuel heads into a runoff April 7 in his bid for a second term as mayor of Chicago. He's the favorite going in, having won 46 percent in the Feb. 24 first round against longtime local officeholder Chuy Garcia's 34 percent and topping 50 percent in recent polls.
Emanuel, President Obama's first White House chief of staff and architect of the Democrats' 2006 takeover of the House, is politically astute, energetic and profane. Given all that, it's surprising that his support is down from the 55 percent he won in the first round in February 2011.
And it's interesting that his strongest support comes from gentry liberals: high-income, high-education whites. In February, he won absolute majorities in only eight of Chicago's 50 wards, six on the Lakefront running north from the Loop almost to the city limits and two just inland.
Rahm Emanuel is scrambling for votes in bungalow and black wards that went for third and fourth candidates in February and will probably get enough to win. That's important for Chicago, but not so significant for the nation, because the central city electorate is contracting. The number on Richard J. Daley's license plate was 708,222 -- the number of votes he got in April 1955. In February 2015, Rahm Emanuel got 218,217.
Yo, Americans are seeing the LIGHT!!!
"GTP"
"OBAMA IS THE WORST PRESIDENT EVER"
A Commentary By Michael Barone
in Political Commentary
Email thisShareThis
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Rahm Emanuel heads into a runoff April 7 in his bid for a second term as mayor of Chicago. He's the favorite going in, having won 46 percent in the Feb. 24 first round against longtime local officeholder Chuy Garcia's 34 percent and topping 50 percent in recent polls.
Emanuel, President Obama's first White House chief of staff and architect of the Democrats' 2006 takeover of the House, is politically astute, energetic and profane. Given all that, it's surprising that his support is down from the 55 percent he won in the first round in February 2011.
And it's interesting that his strongest support comes from gentry liberals: high-income, high-education whites. In February, he won absolute majorities in only eight of Chicago's 50 wards, six on the Lakefront running north from the Loop almost to the city limits and two just inland.
Rahm Emanuel is scrambling for votes in bungalow and black wards that went for third and fourth candidates in February and will probably get enough to win. That's important for Chicago, but not so significant for the nation, because the central city electorate is contracting. The number on Richard J. Daley's license plate was 708,222 -- the number of votes he got in April 1955. In February 2015, Rahm Emanuel got 218,217.
Yo, Americans are seeing the LIGHT!!!
"GTP"
"OBAMA IS THE WORST PRESIDENT EVER"