DEMOCRACY IN ACTION MICHAEL ZIRI can now
enjoy his summer. At last week’s meeting of the Capital Township
— whose borders overlap those of the city of Springfield —
township electors agreed to place an advisory referendum on the November
general-election ballot giving residents the opportunity to take a stand on
the occupation of Iraq. The language of the referendum reads: “Shall
President GEORGE W. BUSH and Congress commence a humane, orderly, immediate and
comprehensive withdrawal of all U.S. military personnel and bases from
Iraq?” To get the measure on the city’s ballot, Ziri
would have needed approximately 3,700 Springfield voters to sign a petition
before August. Getting the township to act saved him the trouble of
collecting the signatures. Voters in two Chicago-area townships also will be
weighing in on the war: DeKalb Township recently agreed to put measure
similar to Springfield’s on the November ballot, and Sycamore
Township will ask whether Gov. ROD BLAGOJEVICH should “veto further mobilization of [Illinois]
National Guard units” and personnel. TIT-FOR-TAT Illinois Treasurer JUDY BAAR TOPINKA has stated that she has the
support of both the Republican National Committee and the administration of
President George W. Bush in her run for governor. She also
expects the national party to help raise money for her campaign — but
only under the cover of darkness, as a Topinka aide said when the treasurer
was interviewed by syndicated columnist George
Willtwo weeks
ago. There are two schools of thought at work here. First,
conservative voters who backed state Sen. Bill
Bradyand
businessman Jim Oberweissay their candidates’ receipt
of half of the GOP vote in the March primary serves as a mandate for
nominee Topinka to move to the right. Conversely, many others see Bush as a
political liability for Topinka, whose moderate stances (supporting
abortion rights and civil unions for gay couples) will be crucial to her
chances for victory in Illinois. But at least in conservative pundit Will’s
estimation, Bush’s presence on behalf of Topinka will inevitably
repel middle-of-the road Democratic voters that the Republican nominee
hopes to steal from Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Via e-mail, Will tells IT:
“It is my hunch (and a hunch I
believe that is shared by Topinka’s campaign) that whatever Judy
Topinka might gain by aligning herself with President Bush would be, at
best, proportionally lost by the departure of her less conservative
supporters.” PLAYER HATER? Not all African-American Chicago Democrats are crazy
about state Sen. James
Meeks’ idea
of running as an independent for governor. Mark Allen, president of the
Black Leadership Development Institute and former aide to the Rev. Jesse Jackson, says he doesn’t believe that the state’s
black leaders are “properly prepared to sustain a true third-party
effort” and that blacks should instead concentrate on developing
vehicles through established political parties. On the flip side, Allen says, “Truthfully, the
black community does not have an active and systematic vehicle to access
black political empowerment through the Democratic or Republican
parties.” Tell me again why Meeks shouldn’t run?
This article appears in Apr 13-19, 2006.
