Are You Ready to Rrrrrrrrumble!?!?!?

Dennis Gannon has promised "WW III" if Daley vetoes the recent Big Box Ordinance. That not only means a full court press to override the veto. It also means painting a big Target on any and all alderman who vote against the override, ESPECIALLY the flip-floppers.

Here's a list of the alderman currently NOT supporting the ordinance, and the amount of cash-on-hand they reported at the end of the latest reporting period (Democratic Ward accounts in parentheses):

Madeline Haithcock (2nd) - $16,559 ($853.53)
Leslie Hairston (5th) - $35,135 ($74,533)
William Beavers (7th) - $409,181 ($17,222)
James Balcer (11th) - $0 ($140,692)
Arenda Troutman (20th) - $33,948 ($6,507)
Howard Brookins Jr. (21st) - $9,518 ($2,053)
Isaac S. Carothers (29th) - -$4,528[negative balance] ($154,169)
Carrie Austin (34th) - $533 ($9,853)
Emma Mitts (37th) - $57,244 ($18,505)
Burton F. Natarus (42nd) - $582,907 ($143,836)
Vi Daley (43rd) - $99,858 ($3,648)
Thomas M. Tunney (44th) - $210,728 ($643)
Helen Shiller (46th) - $94,658 ($715)
Bernard L. Stone (50th) - $16,500 ($70,745)

Of all of them, I would say only Beavers and Haithcock are in good shape. Clearly, most of them are not ready for WW III. I was SHOCKED at just how vulnerable Bernie Stone is, as one of the leading voices along with Burt Natarus for an aldermanic pay raise and opposition to federal oversight in state hiring. Tunney's combination of cash and popularity mean he's probably fine, but there's a bazillion people planning on going after Vi Daley.

Natarus's cash-on-hand is deceptive because he'd like to hold on to most of that when he retires. His big opponent for 2007 is clearly former Vallas campaign spokesman and current AT&T executive Brendan Reilly, who's only been fundraising for seven months and already reports $179,341 on-hand.

Dennis "Ike" Gannon is a great General, and like all the greats, he welcomes peace while he prepares for war.

On the other hand, Jerry "Patton" Morrison over at SEIU would surely love nothing more than to launch the tanks and start steamrolling over a couple alderman, just to send a message. If he can get permission to launch the nukes, Morrison would take out half the City Council.

Up until now, Chicago's business community has enjoyed a pretty friendly City Council that has followed Daley's marching orders. They may have lost this one vote, but it's really only a token loss compared to all of the money on the table in any given year. Take the upcoming vote on the LaSalle Steet TIF, for example.

For the next couple of years, Big Business's mantra to the city council will be "You owe us one," and the aldermanic response to labor is likely to be "I gave you Wal-Mart, what do you want from me?". But if Daley vetoes the Big Box Ordinance, that goes away, and Big Business risks losing total control over the council, and that's alot to gamble just to pull Wal-Mart's chestnuts out of the open fire.

Politically, the fact that the ordinance passed takes the heat of of the alderman, even those that voted for it. But a successful Daley override would crank the heat right back up, and I don't think Daley and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce want to spend the next seven months waging a very expensive war to defend 10 or more vulnerable alderman.