This week's giveaway: The American Journey of Barack Obama
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The thing with electing a Senator to the White House is that my home state is now down one Senator. So our Guv aka GRod gets to appoint someone to that position. Most people think that he HAS to appoint another African-American to the position. He actually has a lower approval rating that W. and hasn't said whether or not he's going to try for a 3rd term. So...people are expecting him to pander. It goes without saying that smart money is that he will appoint someone who is already in elected office.
That leads me to POTUSe's Chief of Staff...Rahm...my former Congressman. Since he's leaving, his seat is like that last bratwurst at a Super Bowl party...everyone thinks they deserve that seat. The fun thing is that GRod doesn't get to appoint this one, oh no, there's going to be a special election! Many names have been rumored, but only a few have actually said "Yes." What makes this even more, um, interesting for observers is that rumor has it that Rahm wants his seat back in two years AND Illinois law says that you don't need to live in the district you will represent. Yup, technically I could run for that seat even thou I live in Jan Schakowsky's district.
Thus, if GRod appoints say Jesse Jackson Jr. or Luis Gutierrez to the Senate, their seats will be open and we'll get another feeding frenzy in their district. And another rumor has Obama snatching up more Illinois elected officials (kid-Treasurer for instance) and thus could trigger many appointments and special elections (which aren't cheap mind ya!).
Whew...so this means that Obama's election to the White House could mean months of GRod butt-kissing, special elections and honestly some political turf wars for months to come. Oh and did I mention that we have aldermanic elections for Chicago in 2 years? If I get another email about exploratory committees I might scream. Then again, that's the fun of living in Chicago.