The Tipping Point
In yesterday's Sun Times. I wondered if anyone would pick it up as significant.
That means for the first time in history, more voters are registered in suburban Cook, where 1,383,712 people are on the rolls, than in Chicago, where the number is just 1,298,872.Anything that promotes two party competition seems good to me. I thing that's what this will mean for the 'burbs.
"It's mostly growth," said Cook County Clerk David Orr. "We all knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. ... We finally reached the tipping point."
It leaves the city in a one-party political morass that will come unglued (again) once this Daley goes.
17 comments:
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
maybe,
but this is the future...
says you....but you also partake in race baiting...so I have to take what you post with a grain of salt from here on out.
Bill, you are absolutely right. There's a Trib story today, also one in Crain's. It shows the movement of families and jobs to the exurbs. The exurbs usually trend Republican--family and freedom. Chicago may end up like San Francisco. Also liberal baby bust contributes to this. See my related post here:
http://backyardconservative.blogspot.com/
2006/03/dont-want-to-know-where-those-grass.html
Interesting.
Of course C6 and C8 are trending Democrat.
Maybe they will just trade turf.
Skeeter,
Those are the two districts in my mind.
What happens (I think) is you see the fall of the GOP Machine in DuPage, and you see more Moderate Dems (Bean, Duckworth). Two things good for both Party's.
You may not share my assessment on either Dem, but I think that's what's happening...
You bet Duckworth has a chance.
And it's the demographic changes that will help.
(not to mention Obama's support...)
ahhmmm... support which seems to go unoticed by Cegelis folks...
Republicans are dreaming if they think just because someone moves to the collar counties they become republicans. I do believe Obama did awfully well in the collar counties. And if the repbulicans keep on running people to right of Attila the Hun like that troglydyte Roskam the party of Lincoln Dirkson and Goldwater will become as extinct as the dodo bird. Not everyone in DuPage is radical right. The party thinks Goldwater is too liberal. Dream on
I am a life long DuPage Republican whose party became the new Dixiecrate. DuPage Saint
I don't know if Chicago will switch parties and I pray Chicago will never become another San Francisco but I would want to see more independent individuals run for Alderman and other offices in the city. I'd like to see the fall of many seemingly perpetual incumbents.
Based on Bill's racial undertones in previous posts, I have to wonder what he's really afraid of when people move from the city to the suburbs.
There are some dangerous undertones in his comments and concerns.
I don't see racial undertones in this at all.
Are the suburbs mostly white? Sure. But not all (and I'm not just talking about Oak Park's real integration and Evnaston's segregated integration).
There is a lot of African American political power in the south and western burbs. And the Latino population is feeling some might in the burbs as well.
Democrats who fear this and Republicans who celebrate it are a little out of sorts. This is mostly good for Dems (faith + family = GOP, give me a break).
Republicans shouldn't celebrate this demographic change. Not at all.
They're very aware of this growth. Search for my post on the interview with Speaker Cross. He's very aware of the challanges because there is no promise all the new voters will be Republicans.
As for the Race angle here...
I grew up in south Oak Park, right next to Berwyn and Cicero in the 1960s.
Racehatred was everywhere. As were guys who would beat a Jew because Jews killed Christ.
It defines what it means to be Liberal to me. If you don't stand up and call racism, you're not Liberal.
And I don't think you can understand Chicago if you don't understand our history of racism.
Go back to my post on William Tuttle's Race Riot: Chicago in the Red Summer of 1919.
The aftermath of that brutal summer was pushing African Americans into a Ghetto.
1919 defined Chicago for the rest of the 20th century and explains the City I knew. It's little known chapter now and often overlooked by our historians.
The end of the huge projects marks the end (I think) of the forced segregation the city and realtors implemented after 1919.
I'm not sure the tipping point Orr mentioned is a migration or anything to do with the projects or ethnicity.
I think instead it's a function of growth rates but it does represent a voting shift... how it will unfold we'll see.
Anyways, a little background on why I'm so dismayed with Blagojevich's failure to follow Pat Quinn's adivce and fire Sister Muhammed.
And why I think it's foul he would lead us to believe African Americans, as a community, endorse her. That he somehow needs to keep her, to bring us all together.
The race message is communicated in subtle ways by polticians.
When I hear Blagojevich say he needs to keep her, it seems weirdly racist to me. A way of manipulating people in Illinois that plays on whites' worst perceptions of blacks.
The racism I remember was in your face and violent. I saw some of the violence up close.
This is subtle.
So maybe I'm phobic, too quick to read things into something; but I truely think you don't have to scratch some people too deep for the brutality to come out, and that's we ought to quickly check a guy like Farrahkan and remove anyone who endoreses him from positions of responsiblity.
Read Tuttles book about 1919... that's Chicago's legacy.
Now we see why the Chicago Dems changed the Cook County Board to single-member districts in the early 90s. They saw the trend coming and realized that keeping two at large districts -- city and 'burbs -- would threaten city domination of the board.
Reports about the demise of the DuPage machine are premature. The GOP isn't as dominant, but it will carry for Roskam I predict. Remember that this isn't a presidential election, so turnout will be quite a bit lower than it was in '04.
Bill, if standing up to racism and antisemitism defines a liberal, what does it make Meeks and the Black Caucus who defend Ms. Mohammad?
David Orr's statistics (about suburban Cook County versus Chicago voter registrations) have validity ONLY if you assume that his office has been as effective in purging outdated voter registrations as the job in removing outdated registrations in Chicago. Since Orr has consistantly shown a dismal lack of administrative skills throughout his political career, I am of the opinion that a significant number of the suburban registrations are indeed outdated.
Don't be shocked if there are still more votes cast Tuesday in Chicago then in the Cook County suburbs.
Respectful,
I don't think they're very Liberal in the old sense of the word.
This alliance between the left and the Muslim right is happening now in the UK. It can happen here and you start to see it with the waffling on denouncing Farrahkan.
Lisa Madigan took a good stand today speaking out against the closed meeting the commission is proposing.
She and Pat Quinn haven't lost it.
Meeks is a fellow Brady recommended to be on the commission by the way during last Sunday's WBBM interview.
It's a shame Blagojevich can't replace her with him. Even if he can't speak out along with most of the State's Democrats, at least he would be a far far superior member of the commission.
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