Mayor Richard Daley has a laugh with Congressman Bobby Rush Wednesday September 8, 2010, a day after he announced he was not a candidate for mayor. Jose More/Chicago News Cooperative
U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) has run against Mayor Richard M. Daley and then worked to help the mayor and his City Council allies win re-election. This time around, with Daley not running for another term, Rush says he is focused on trying to unify African-Americans around a single “consensus candidate.”
“I’m trying to be a diplomat, a local George Mitchell, to try to help my community out of this maze that exists,” he told the Chicago News Cooperative, referring to the former Senator and Middle East peace envoy for the Obama administration. “And I’m having some success in it.”
Daley won office in 1989 after the black vote was divided between interim Mayor Eugene Sawyer and Alderman Tim Evans. In 1991, 1995, and 1999, African-American elected officials and community leaders tried to rally behind a single mayoral candidate, as they had successfully in 1983 to elect Harold Washington. But Daley beat each challenger decisively, including Rush, who lost 69 to 27 percent in 1999.
Rush has since made peace with Daley. In 2007 he called Daley a “great mayor” and helped raise money for the unsuccessful re-election bids of such mayoral council loyalists as Madeline Haithcock and Shirley Coleman.
Now, though, Rush sounded less enthusiastic about the Daley legacy. “He did a decent job as mayor,” Rush said. “It could have been a lot worse.”
And he’s emphasizing black unity. Rush said issues like crime, education and the condition of African-American neighborhoods must be priorities in the mayoral campaign. The best way to do that, he said, is for black business leaders, clergy, elected officials, and activists to work together to come up with some names to advocate for. He said their lists currently include state Senator James Meeks, former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun, CTA board chair Terry Peterson, CongressmanJesse Jackson Jr., and current CHA board president Jim Reynolds.
“Somebody’s got to assume the role of being a coalition-builder within the community. I think that was partly what was lacking in 1989 in our community. There was nobody to command the respect of the divergent groups, who had some kind of moral authority to bring the community around a candidate. And in my own humble way I am trying to fulfill that role. I am trying to remain in Congress and help my community heal from its wounds and elect a mayor responsive to its needs.”
It’s possible the chosen mayoral candidate won’t be black, Rush said, but “that’s a far-fetched position.”
The congressman hasn’t always been known for his diplomacy. In 2000, while staving off a challenge from Barack Obama, Rush said that the future president “went to Harvard and became an educated fool.” In a strange 2008 press conference, he declared that if Senate Democrats didn’t seat Roland Burris it was tantamount to a lynching. And just last week he appeared at the City Council meeting and warned the media not to anoint Rahm Emanuel as Daley’s successor.