Dems Might Lose Obama's Old Senate Seat In 2010

Democrats Stumble Toward Senate Primary



Some Chicagoans grouse that President Obama has reneged on promises to return home regularly. Midway through a desultory, prickly United States Senate debate last week, I realized he might need to get back to help save his old seat for Democrats.

It’s almost as though the seat was covered by a secret term-limits restriction. Since 1992 we’ve had Alan J. Dixon, Carol Moseley Braun, Peter G. Fitzgerald, Mr. Obama and now Roland W. Burris, whose mediocrity and conceit helped make his selection by then-Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich so unseemly. Confronting doubts about his candor and fund-raising prospects, Mr. Burris opted not to run for a full term, though he can joyously engrave “U.S. Senator, 2009-2010” on the large mausoleum he has already built for himself in Oak Woods Cemetery.

This leaves four Democrats in the Feb. 2 primary and, since Mr. Obama couldn’t persuade the state’s attorney general, Lisa Madigan, to run and surely win, it presents an unexpectedly problematic general election match against Representative Mark Steven Kirk, a moderate Republican. Only one of the Democrats has run for elective office, and three can thank inheritance and other family largess for making their candidacies possible.

The debate spotlight was on Alexi Giannoulias, the state treasurer and front-runner, who is clearly improving as a candidate but given to a too-slick-by-half, frat-boy superficiality à la Mr. Blagojevich. David Hoffman, a nervy former federal prosecutor and former City of Chicago inspector general, is razor-sharp and self-confident to the point of projecting arrogance.

Cheryle Jackson, president of the Chicago Urban League and a former spokeswoman for Mr. Blagojevich, is Carol Braun Lite, lacking the former senator’s street savvy and knowledge of politics. And Jacob Meister, an unknown lawyer, has family riches, campaign offices statewide and, I presume, a hope that his opponents are all kidnapped by Election Day.

Mr. Giannoulias’s plan turns on name recognition and money. As he did for Mr. Obama’s presidential run, he has so aggressively tapped a Greek-American base that his Federal Election Commission filing resembles the Athens phone directory: Konstantin Alexakis, Baltimore; Evangelos Ambatielos, Los Angeles; Nicholas Angelides, St. Louis; Demetrios Panoushis, Elmhurst, Ill., to name a few.

Mr. Hoffman, a Yale graduate and former law clerk for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, must be hoping the image of truth-seeking prosecutor combines with a Giannoulias meltdown. Mrs. Jackson’s slogan could be, “I’m black and a woman and they’re not.” As for Mr. Meister, who barely registers in independent polling, perhaps the visibility at least will help him find some new law clients.

The breakfast gathering at the Union League Club heard rhetorical spitball fights between Mr. Giannoulias and Mr. Hoffman that did not reveal any larger political vision. Lost in the debate was any convincing discussion of the day’s predominant economic fears.

Mr. Hoffman so often restated the doubts about creaky Broadway Bank, the Giannoulias family-run institution in trouble over bad real estate loans, that the next debate should be held in the bank’s lobby at 5960 North Broadway. Instead of a moderator, bring auditors from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The state treasurer is lucky that Broadway Bank’s disarray became truly apparent only after his election and exit from the bank.

But what was most notable was Mr. Giannoulias’s needless and peevish counterattack against Mr. Hoffman for having “hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in stock with these big Wall Street banks that are protected by TARP money and taxpayers, and he’s now using that money to fund his campaign.” It was confusing and unconvincing.

Who cares about the investment issue? said Dion Miller Perez, an unemployed father of three who had worked for a nonprofit community agency. Mike Flannery , the ace WBBM-Ch. 2 political reporter, had brought Mr. Perez to the debate as a two-legged, one-person focus group, and Mr. Perez indicated that corruption was not as relevant as the economy to a prospective primary voter.

The treasurer was a no-show for a promised postdebate appearance before reporters. That left newsies to deal with a wacky accusation from Mr. Meister, who is gay, that Mr. Hoffman is anti-gay for mentioning that he’s the only parent in the race.

Regardless, if Mr. Obama still cares about a filibuster-proof Senate majority after he’s done with health care and fixing the global climate, he might want to return home, have dinner with Oprah and work for whomever Democrats pick to run against Mr. Kirk.

If it’s Mr. Hoffman in an upset, his strength may be that he’s least likely to embarrass the state. Then, again, Mr. Burris has set the bar so low that only a professional limbo dancer could get under it.



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Sources: NY Times, Huffington Post, Google Maps