For the second time in as many weeks, an upstart candidate has shocked the establishment, only this time it comes as an even greater surprise. While Jon Bruning and Don Sternberg took turns beating up each other in the Nebraska primary for US Senate, state senator Deb Fischer stole a march on both and won handily, taking a “vast majority” of Nebraska counties:

State Sen. Deb Fischer won the Nebraska GOP Senate primary Tuesday in a stunning come-from-behind victory that seemed inconceivable just a few weeks ago. With 79 percent of precincts reporting, the Associated Press called the race, with Fischer leading Attorney General Jon Bruning 40 percent to 36 percent. Treasurer Don Stenberg was third with 19 percent.

Fischer advances to a general election contest with former Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey. The Republican is favored in Nebraska, a red state in a presidential year.

Bruning was the frontrunner throughout the race, greatly outspending his two opponents (while Bruning ran over 20,000 gross rating points in the state, all non-Bruning spending combined amounted to under 18,000 gross rating points, according to a source tracking media buys in the state). But he and Stenberg — who was backed by conservative groups like Jim DeMint’s Senate Conservatives Fund — had been attacking each other. Fischer, who was largely ignored until the end, appeared to benefit from the sniping between the two men.

In the final week of the race, Fischer started gaining momentum and accepted a high-profile endorsement from Sarah Palin, and then one from Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb. A Super PAC boosted her with an ad during the final weekend of the primary.

Halsted Street became the Occupy/Dissident/Anarchist/ Hipster Runway. We were given a preview of the accessory conscious young, armed with Dad-funded Visa Debit cards and Rage Against the Machine.

I’d bet a shiny new Sacagawea gold dollar that not one of these later-day Mother . . .Joneses could identify the significance of these neighborhoods in the real struggle of working people*. Below are the residents of Canaryville and Bridgeport who fought the real fight on Halsted Street the site of yesterday’s Che fashion stroll.

Read more at With Both Hands

Fischer’s victory comes just a week after another unlikely insurgent — Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock — ended the 36-year Senate career of Dick Lugar. While her victory can’t be claimed by outside groups, it will stoke further anti-establishment fear among front-runners sitting on seemingly comfortable polling leads.

A band of several dozen protesters marched up Halsted Street this evening from the South Side through Bridgeport, where some engaged in a shouting match with residents.
The marchers, some of whom covered their faces with hoods or bandanas(sic), began their protest at about 51st Street and Halsted, chanting obscenities about police and police brutality.

*Packinghouse workers, experiencing horrible working conditions and insufficient wages, sought to secure union recognition as the Amalgamated Meat Cutters. Two long and bloody strikes (1904 and 1921) were defeated by the companies. During both strikes, many African-American workers were temporarily employed to break the strikes. Since Black workers suffered from economic circumstances as desperate as those faced by the striking White workers, and since they were excluded generally from unions and consequently the benefits they would gain from unionization, these so-called "scab" workers felt no loyalty to the strikers or the union. In the aftermath of the two defeats, hostility towards Black workers rose, and Black resentment of Whites increased as well. For years, remembrances of racism and scabbing impaired any effort to create a common front against the packers. 

**When Jane Addams's travels took her away from her close companion Mary Rozet Smith, she sometimes took along a painting of Smith, even though the portrait was a rather bulky piece of luggage. Addams, the Nobel Peace Prize–winning social activist who founded Chicago's Hull-House in 1889, clearly felt a strong emotional attachment to the aristocratic, gracious woman in that picture, which now hangs at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum—with a question mark for a caption.
For the past year, the museum has been seeking suggestions on how to label the portrait, which Addams commissioned from Alice Kellogg Tyler. Should the caption suggest Addams and Smith were companions? Lesbian lovers? Or simply focus on Smith's role as one of Hull-House's most generous financial supporters? This summer, as the museum gets ready to decide, a new WTTW documentary is stepping into the fray and staking out the position that Addams and Smith were lesbians. The producers of Out & Proud in Chicago, Alexandra Silets and Dan Andries, say their film on the history of gays and lesbians in the city wouldn't be complete without Addams. "In not revealing this part of Jane Addams's life, you're denying the rest of us a role model," says Silets, a lesbian.

Add to that another word: politics – as in “Plantation Politics.” That phrase resurrects memories of racial subjugation on Chicago’s West Side during the period from roughly 1930 to 1970. That’s when white Democratic political bosses were the unchallenged “masters” of black-majority wards, and, as committeemen, controlled patronage jobs, picked the alderman, and delivered near-unanimous votes for the Democratic ticket.

There was Eddie Quigley, Chicago’s sewer boss, who ran the 27th Ward, in the all-black Garfield Park area, plus Skid Row, which didn’t get a black alderman until 1971. There was Jake Arvey, Arthur X. Elrod, Sidney Deutsch and Izzy Horowitz, who successively kept control of the once-Jewish Lawndale 24th Ward as it became black; it didn’t elect a black alderman until 1958. There was Bernie Neistein, the debonair attorney and state senator, who ran the Austin-area 29th Ward, which got a black alderman in 1967. None of those wards elected a black committeeman until the 1980s.

Harold Washington’s mayoral triumph in 1983 eradicated “Plantation Politics.” But now it’s back on the West Side, and the new “masters” are Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, the state Democratic chairman; Illinois Senate President John Cullerton; and state senator and Oak Park boss Don Harmon. They, like their predecessors, deliver votes. But their methodology is not turkeys at Christmas and bail bondsmen at the ready. Instead, it’s money. They lavishly fund black candidates in West and South Side wards and legislative districts. That money begets paid precinct workers, mailings, literature, ads, lawn signs, and election day “street cash.”

“When black voters see a lot of literature, mailings and workers for a particular candidate,” said Tom Simmons, who got 11.9 percent in a losing 2011 aldermanic race in the 29th Ward, “they get a clear message: That candidate has power. That candidate can help them in the future. So they vote for that candidate.”

Hence, the plantation masters’ modus operandi is to turn on the dollar spigot, flood the ward/district with money, and elect compliant black Democrats who will vote they are told. And if they don’t, the money evaporates next time. The Boys of Springfield and, to a lesser extent, the mayor of Chicago, expect to get what they pay for.

The current “mess” in the 10th House District, located on the near West Side, is a salient example of the new “Plantation Politics.” The current black boss of Quigley’s old 27th Ward, Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, engineered the 2011 appointment of his onetime aide, Derrick Smith, to a vacant state House seat. Never mind that Smith had been previously fired for wrongdoing as 27th Ward sanitation superintendent. Character and integrity matter not. Smith’s job was simple: Show up in Springfield, and vote as told by Madigan. That’s only slightly more difficult than walking while chewing gum.

But then, as they say, the best-laid plans often run amok. First, Tom Swiss, the former 27th Ward Republican committeeman, decided to run for state representative – as a Democrat. He filed to oppose Smith in the Democratic primary, figuring that, if he spent $100,000, he could hoodwink enough gullible voters to win the nomination. And second, Smith decided to accept a $7,000 bribe from an undercover FBI sting operation, and was arrested just 10 days before the March 20 primary.

Nobody could possibly claim that 10th District voters didn’t have a clear choice: A white Republican blatantly masquerading as a Democrat in a black-majority district versus a black Democrat who, after just a few months in office, gets arrested for taking a bribe. In Chicago, that’s almost “politics as usual.”

Not to worry. It’s Moneybags Madigan to the rescue with wads of cash.

According to state campaign filings, Smith raised nearly $200,000 during the Jan.-March period, with $65,000 directly from Madigan, $61,600 from unions and PACs, and $31,750 from out-of-district Democratic sources; White’s 27th Ward operation spent $38,777. The last-minute message to the voters was blunt: Don’t be a laughingstock. Don’t elect the white Republican guy. Save the brother now but we’ll get rid of him later. “There was money everywhere,” confirmed Simmons.

It worked. In a turnout of 9,440, Smith crushed Swiss 7,247-2,193 (76.8 percent), carrying the 27th Ward 2,081-490. And Smith, whenever he’s not in federal court and/or conferring with his lawyers, is in Springfield, doing his job, and refusing to resign either his office or his nomination. Although under enormous pressure to quit, his resistance is understandable: He needs the job as a chip for a plea bargain. An indicted officeholder, by agreeing to resign, usually gets a better deal and lighter sentence than an indicted non-officeholder.

Smith’s intransigence, of course, conflicts with Madigan’s agenda, which is to elect a non-controversial, controllable, unindicted Democratic state representative from the 10th District. Madigan’s fear is that the Republicans, who have until June 4 to name a nominee (which can’t be Swiss), could win in November in a one-on-one against Smith. So Madigan dispatched his moneybags, lawyers and private investigators to the near West Side, and is making preparations to create a new party, with a squeaky-clean candidate. The petition drive will cost about $50,000, and will set up a three-way election, which will cost Madigan at least $200,000 to win.

Smith is drawing his state paycheck, and doesn’t want to quit too soon. His term ends in January 2013, so he has to quit while he still has leverage. If he doesn’t resign his nomination by late August, his name stays on the ballot.

Interestingly, the most vociferous critic of Madiganism and “Plantation Politics” on the West Side is U.S. Representative Danny Davis (D-7), whose 1979 election as 29th Ward alderman signaled Neistein’s demise. Davis, now age 70, became ward committeeman, county commissioner, and congressman in 1996. He ran for mayor in 1991, getting 198,815 votes (37 percent).

Davis’ political base has evaporated. He is well-known and well-liked in his 55.5-percent black district, which covers Chicago’s West Side, parts of the South Side, and a string of western suburbs, including Oak Park, Maywood, Forest Park, River Forest, Broadview, Bellwood, Westchester and Hillside. But, incredibly, Davis on March 20 lost his bid for 29th Ward Democratic committeeman to Alderman Deborah Graham, who is widely viewed as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Harmon. The vote was 3,138-2,977 (51.3 percent). Graham raised an anemic $8,520, but got $18,400 in loans from Harmon, and owes $165,122 to her election attorneys. Davis spent $46,137. Graham, as state representative, was a Madigan flunkey, occupying the black east half of Harmon’s senate district for 7 years prior to her 2010 aldermanic appointment, when the incumbent went to jail. Harmon and Madigan generated most of her money.

The Boys of Springfield are quietly sharpening their knives, preparing to take out Davis in 2014. In a little-noticed detail in the Madigan-Cullerton remap of Illinois’ congressional districts, “Master” Cullerton positioned one of his minions, black state senator Kwame Raoul, to be the next 7th District congressman. Raoul lives in Hyde Park, in the South Side 5th Ward, and succeeded Barack Obama when appointed in 2004. Until 2011, Raoul was firmly ensconced in Bobby Rush’s (D) 1st District, and was impatiently waiting for the ailing Rush to retire or “move on.”

Now, in a miracle of cartography, Cullerton appended Raoul’s block, around 43rd Street and King Drive, onto the 7th District, and added more South Side territory where Davis has no base. The new district contains all or part of 22 wards, most on the West Side. Virtually every officeholder and committeeman in the district is under the thumb of Madigan, Cullerton and/or Harmon. If Davis does not retire in 2014, he’ll have a tough primary.

According to sources, Madigan is grooming Alderman Will Burns (5th), a black former state representative (and cog in the Madigan Machine), who won county board president Toni Preckwinkle’s council seat in 2011, for the Rush Succession. Since both Burns and Raoul reside in Hyde Park, and both aspire to Washington, Raoul got the short straw. He has to take out Davis. Rumors of the “Coming of Kwame” have infuriated West Siders, said Simmons, most notably LaShawn Ford, a youthful state representative from the Lawndale area, who thinks Madigan will hand him Davis’ seat.

West Siders can look on the bright side. Raoul is from the South Side. During Reconstruction, “carpetbagger” congressmen came from different states and regions. But West Siders in particular, and blacks in general, are being “dissed” – meaning disrespected. South Siders disrespect West Siders, believing they are entitled to the 7th District seat; and the master manipulators in Springfield disrespect the black community, believing they are entitled to pick their congressmen.

If Raoul and Burns get to Congress, and Obama and Preckwinkle are still in office, Hyde Park will be the most clout-heavy neighborhood in America.

In the 2012 primary, Davis faced Jacques Conway, and got 43,653 votes (86.7 percent) in a 50,352 turnout. He raised $214,334 during 2011-12. Rush faced 5 opponents, getting 66,068 votes (83.9 percent), in a turnout of 78,729. Rush raised $331,290. Neither is a money machine. If the “masters” spend upwards of $500,000 to defeat them, they’re history

**
Russ Stewart is a political analyst for the Chicago Daily Observer. E-mail Russ@russstewart.com or visit his website at www.russstewart.com.

Edward Klein, author of the just released book, “The Amateur”, names Obama’s close ally and friend as the one who bribed Rev. Jeremiah Wright with $150,000. On today’s Sean Hannity show, Klein identified Obama’s crony as Dr. Eric Whitaker, the VP of the University of Chicago Medical Center. The same hospital that employed Michelle Obama.

Clearly, the HHS grant for almost $6 Million to Whitaker’s Urban Health Initiative at the University of Chicago Medical Center was sweet payback. Michelle Obama had a cushy job making over $300,000 and the Reverend Jeremiah Wright got $150,000 to do nothing. Dr. Whitaker is, also, the same guy who was hired by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to be the state’s Public Health Director, via recommendations from Tony Rezko. Based on the initial request of Obama. Rezko and Blagojevich are currently doing time in federal prison.