Political battle for immigration reform just developed a new front – Chicago mayoral race

It’s beginning to look like the inability of the federal government to do anything of significance this year with regards to advancing immigration reform is going to be an issue in next year’s municipal elections in Chicago.

What threatens to bring this issue up is the fact that one of the dozens of political people who aspire to call themselves Da Mare is Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff whom many believe was influential in getting President Barack Obama to put the issue on the political backburner.

ANOTHER MAYORAL DREAMER is Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., who has been arguably the most vocal member of Congress in support of significant reform of the nation’s immigration laws.

Which means the two have been butting heads on this issue all year. When combined with the fact that the two men didn’t much care for each other to begin with, it means that the fight between these two alone could make the city’s mayoral campaign something worth watching.

When mixed in with all the other sub-plots that will come from the various other candidates, each representing a certain interest that wants to believe it is their turn to have the mayoral post, it will be political chaos.

Emanuel, who has long said he’d like to be mayor if the post ever opened so that he wouldn’t have to challenge Richard M. Daley, is in the process of preparing himself to shift from the District of Columbia back to Chicago urban concerns.

HE HASN’T OFFICIALLY started campaigning yet, but he has been meeting with people who might be helpful in putting together a base of potential voters who would care enough about Emanuel to cast ballots for him.

He even went so far as to meet with Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., D-Ill., who himself was considering a campaign to be mayor (I’m sure the Rev. Jesse Jackson would find great irony in his namesake son winning the political post once held by a man who, upon his arrival to Chicago some four decades ago, snubbed him by offering nothing more than a job making change in a toll booth).

But as the NBC affiliate in Chicago reported recently, Emanuel hasn’t bothered to contact Gutierrez. Does he really think that Chicago’s lone Latino member of Congress doesn’t know enough to gain him influence in the city’s Latino communities that account for about a quarter of the city’s population)?

Personally, I’d like to think it is because Emanuel knows Gutierrez wouldn’t give him the time of day, let alone any serious help in gaining voter support. Not just because Gutierrez has his own dreams of being the alcalde de Chicago, but because the congressman has made it clear that he is among those who blames Emanuel for immigration reform’s failure to go anywhere.

THEN AGAIN, I don’t know why Jackson Jr. would be any more inclined to help Emanuel.

Perhaps it is Emanuel realizing that there is no one official, and that several Latino interests have a desire to win this election. City Clerk Miguel del Valle became the first candidate to go on television with campaign advertisements – even though the mayoral elections are seven months away and there is another Election Day (Nov. 2) that comes first.

Gutierrez isn’t even officially a candidate, although he’s playing the political game that they all do – he’s running, but he’s claiming not to yet. He has been circulating the nominating petitions required to get him on the ballot, but said during the weekend that he’s not making anything official until after that Nov. 2 election for U.S. Senate and Illinois governor – among other posts.

Any attempt to reach out to Gutierrez would be perceived as a snub of del Valle, or Gery Chico (former Chicago Public Schools president and a chief of staff to Daley who has never been able to get elected to a government post), or any of the Latino aldermen who have dreams about running for mayor.

SO MAYBE EMANUEL is just playing it cautious.

But I doubt that, because cautious is the one thing that Emanuel typically is not. Despite his hesitation to touch immigration reform, he usually is the guy who goes charging head-first into a political fight and figures to take down anyone who dares get in his way.

Which makes me wonder if Emanuel is deluded enough to think he can win this election without a Latino voter presence. Anything is possible, particularly with this particular election cycle.

There is a chance of a dozen or more candidates, each of whom thinks he deserves to be the front-runner. It means that the winner of the initial election could very well be a person who is only desired by about 20 percent of the voters.

NOW UNDER STATE law, Chicago has non-partisan elections for city posts – which means that if no one candidate gets a 50 percent-plus-one majority, the top two candidates then have to face each other in a second election to be held about one month later.

That would be the point at which Emanuel, if he were among the top two, would have to reach out to Latino voters. He had better realize, though, that any snubs he engages in now could result in the Latino electorate of Chicago deciding that they want whoever is running against Rahm come that runoff election.

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