Rising Star

by David Garrow

  As police detained one suspect and identified a second, reports emerged that Rich’s involvement in drug trafficking had led to the attack. Rush asked Jackson to officiate at the funeral at Trinity, but Wright, fearing the church would be used for a campaign rally, told Rush that he, not Jackson, would preside. Wright was dismayed to see reporters and television in attendance, and Huey’s grandmother told Wright to bar the press from the service. “Bobby’s not going to make my grandson’s death a show and a spectacle. He wasn’t there for this kid, and I’m not having him playing the role of grieving father,” Wright recounted her telling him. Mayor Daley and former senator Carol Moseley Braun were among the dignitaries who attended, and several years later both killers were convicted and sent to prison, with triggerman Leo Foster sentenced essentially to life without parole.3

  After Huey Rich’s death, the Chicago Defender ran a story headlined “Obama Asked to Bow Out of Race Against Rush” after one South Side pastor backing Rush called for Barack to end his campaign. Privately, several savvy observers sympathetic to Barack had the same thought. John Kupper, David Axelrod’s partner who had expected to work for Barack, realized that Rush had been recast as a figure of widespread sympathy as opposed to a loser of a mayoral race. “Barack ought to get out,” Kupper told Chris Sautter, and Sautter did not disagree, for Huey’s death had “washed away any bad feelings that people seemed to have about Bobby.” He appreciated Kupper’s view that now the race was “completely unwinnable.” But with $18,000 spent on polling, and Sautter just two weeks from starting radio advertising and direct mail on Barack’s behalf, neither Dan Shomon nor Barack seriously considered standing down.

  Four days after Huey’s funeral, Bobby Rush formally announced his candidacy for reelection. Cook County Board president John Stroger, state representative Lou Jones, Aldermen Freddrenna Lyle and Arenda Troutman, and former state senator Alice Palmer were among the 150 people in attendance. Lyle, who had a collegial relationship with Barack, told reporters that Obama and Donne Trotter “are fine gentlemen who’ve down outstanding jobs in Springfield” while stressing that “we shouldn’t cannibalize each other.” Barack told the Chicago Tribune that “an elected official’s vision is more important than his seniority” and noted that Rush had challenged and defeated incumbent representative Charlie Hayes eight years earlier. Rush had said “he would bring more energy to the office, and that’s what I intend to do.”

  Although it was not publicly noted at the time, the day after Rush’s announcement Barack’s campaign received five $1,000 contributions from private citizens who shared the same employer—FORUM, or Fulfilling Our Responsibility Unto Mankind, the South Shore social services agency run by Yesse Yehudah, Barack’s 1998 Republican opponent. Yehudah “handed Barack five checks,” Dan Shomon remembered. Such an expensive gesture seemed odd, and almost a year would pass before the donation would attract scrutiny. Barack continued to call for the governor to appoint a minority member to the all-white Illinois Commerce Commission and for passage of his “universal health care” state constitutional amendment that would lead to “health insurance for all.” At a candidates’ forum in Woodlawn, with Bobby Rush represented by a volunteer stand-in, Barack argued that “the test of leadership has to go beyond how you are voting. The question is your ability to mobilize constituencies outside of the 1st Congressional District.” In his Hyde Park Herald column, Barack did not mention his candidacy and stressed that at the upcoming veto session, “I will be working my hardest to get an override” of the gubernatorial veto that had sidelined his child support reform bill. Donne Trotter, struggling to raise funds and attract attention to his campaign, attacked Barack more than Bobby Rush. Trotter argued that his Springfield experience would make him an excellent congressman, and he asserted that “the only money Barack Obama has brought back is money I’ve given him as Senate Appropriations spokesman. Has he done better than most? I wouldn’t say so. I certainly wouldn’t say anything at all based on Obama’s two years in office.”

  Political observers disagreed on how much traction Barack was gaining against Rush. State representative Tom Dart, who represented many of the mostly white neighborhoods that made up the 1st District’s western wing, told the Herald that given Rush’s abysmal showing against Mayor Daley, “you’d have to say he’s in trouble.” But powerful 19th Ward committeeman Tom Hynes argued that “the mayoral vote was a positive vote for the mayor,” not anti-Rush. Then, one week into November, after Dan Shomon had given Chris Sautter more than $20,000 to reserve airtime for upcoming radio ads, the poll results came in. Rush’s firm spoke with five hundred 1st District Democratic voters, 90 percent of whom knew Rush’s name, compared to only 33 percent for Trotter and just 22 percent for Barack. They also overwhelmingly supported the incumbent over both challengers, with 68 percent choosing Rush, 10 percent Trotter, and only 9 percent Barack, with 14 percent undecided. Among black voters, 72 percent backed Rush, among whites, 52 percent. For Barack, pollster Ron Lester’s results were equally dismal. Rush’s approval rating was 70 percent, Barack’s name was known to just 11 percent, and only 10 percent said they supported him. Lester was struck by how “incredibly popular” Rush was, and especially in the immediate wake of his son’s death, Rush’s “support ran deep.”

  Sautter, who was busy producing Barack’s first two radio ads, remembered that the poll results were “much worse than anybody imagined,” especially given what Shomon and his Springfield buddies thought they had heard from 1st District Democrats four months earlier. Sautter’s view of Barack’s chances “went way down when we got the poll back,” and there was no question that in private “the wind had clearly been let out of the campaign.” The painful lesson, Barack later explained, was “do the poll before you announce,” because now he had no immediate escape. “Less than halfway into the campaign, I knew in my bones that I was going to lose. Each morning from that point forward I awoke with a vague sense of dread.” And the election was still four long months away.4

  Barack’s two sixty-second radio ads debuted Monday, November 15, on black Chicago’s two major stations, WVON and WGCI. Capitol Fax’s Rich Miller called Barack “a serious challenger” to Rush but mused that Trotter “may help split any anti-incumbent vote that’s out there.” Rush had been “humiliated” in his loss to Mayor Daley, “but the Daley folks are said to be eyeing Obama as a possible future challenger to hizzoner and may be secretly wishing for a Rush win to stop Obama’s rise.”

  The first of Chris Sautter’s ads featured “Diane Johnson,” an African American woman with a distinctly down-home voice. “I’m frightened. We can’t afford health insurance and some day my family’s gonna need a doctor.” An announcer followed.

  For Mrs. Johnson and many others, basic health care today is out of reach. But one new leader is taking on the insurance industry with a bold plan to guarantee that health insurance is available for everyone, regardless of income. That leader is Illinois state senator Barack Obama, candidate for Congress. Barack Obama worked as a community organizer in Roseland and Altgeld Gardens, fighting for the rights of struggling families to receive their fair share of services. After law school, Barack Obama turned down the high-paying corporate jobs to become a civil rights lawyer, and Barack Obama headed up Project Vote, registering over 100,000 minority voters. Now, Barack Obama is running for Congress, a new champion for affordable health care, HMO reform, and better prescription drug benefits for seniors. Barack Obama, Democrat for Congress. New leadership that works for us.

  Barack uttered only the obligatory final sentence: “Paid for by Obama for Congress 2000.”

  Sautter’s goal was to increase Barack’s name recognition, and the second ad featured an exchange between a black couple, harking back to August’s power failure. “Oh man, there go the lights again.” “Another blackout.” “I’m tired of this. When’s somebody going to do something.” “Obama,” the woman responded. “Say what?” “State senator Barack Obama. He’s fighting for reforms t
hat would force ComEd to refund customers who lose power.” Then came the announcer.

  Barack Obama, Democratic candidate for Congress. As a community organizer, Obama fought to make sure residents in Roseland and Altgeld Gardens received their fair share of services. Barack Obama. As a lawyer, Obama fought for civil rights and headed up Project Vote, registering over 100,000 minority voters. Barack Obama. Elected to the Illinois Senate, Barack Obama pushed to make health insurance available to everyone, regardless of income, and brought millions of dollars into our community for juvenile crime prevention.

  Then the black couple returned. “Here come the lights. ComEd must have heard from that Senator Bama.” “That’s O-bama. Barack Obama. And they’ll be hearing a lot more from him.” Then the announcer: “Barack Obama, Democrat for Congress. New leadership that works for us,” the same slogan featured in the first ad. Barack again provided just the final words: “Paid for by Obama for Congress 2000.”

  By November’s third week, the campaign had spent $31,000 to broadcast those two ads, and Dan Shomon was working with three young lawyers from the prominent Mayer Brown law firm who had volunteered to help produce a “book” of “Barack’s positions on all the issues,” particularly “specific economic development ideas” for the 1st District. Barack had to be in Springfield for two veto session weeks before and after Thanksgiving, and during the first he stopped in Decatur, a small city forty-five minutes east of Springfield, to join Rev. Jesse Jackson at an evening protest rally. Two months earlier, a brawl at a high school football game had led to two-year suspensions of seven African American students. The black community was angry about the severity of that penalty, and onstage with Jackson, Barack announced that he would introduce a bill requiring that any suspended student, apart from those who had attacked a teacher or carried a weapon, be provided alternative education. “My attitude is that to the extent that we’re dealing with nonviolent offenders or students who haven’t struck teachers or used weapons, that probably it makes sense that we have a mandate that in fact these children attend alternative schools,” Barack told the Decatur Herald & Review. “That’s going to be better than having them on the streets,” he added. “One of the most difficult things we as a society have to decide is how we deal with young people who have engaged in antisocial behavior. If we simply throw them out, we can anticipate that over time a good number of these people will end up in the prison system.” He also worried that Decatur’s disciplinary policies “disproportionately affect African-Americans.”5

  On November 21, the Chicago Sun-Times’ Steve Neal reported the poll results Bobby Rush’s campaign had received some days earlier. Neal stressed that in the portion of the 1st District that comprised Barack’s state Senate district, Rush led him by only 52 to 24, and with a margin of just 13 points among voters who knew Barack. “The primary might tighten if Obama becomes better known,” Neal wrote. A Crain’s Chicago Business story on the race highlighted Barack’s radio ads and noted that Barack had been “perceived as a rising star in Chicago politics since he headed a successful minority voter registration drive in 1992.” Barack’s campaign had now raised just more than $200,000, and while that could fund the radio ads plus the cost of yard signs, leaflets, office rent, and salaries for Shomon, Will Burns, Amy Szarek, and Cynthia Miller, Barack would not have the funds to run television ads in Chicago’s expensive media market. Barack continued to stress that in Rush “we don’t have an effective advocate,” and he drew coverage in the Tribune, the Defender, and weekly neighborhood papers like the Hyde Park Herald and the Chicago Citizen by announcing a plan to spend $50 million over five years to improve computer technology at the 150 public schools in the 1st District. “I believe the role of a congressman is to tap the federal government, the state and private resources to make this possible,” with local universities playing key roles. “Our children must have a strong, technology-based curriculum in the schools to be able to compete in the job market,” Barack explained. “When kids get excited about computer technology, their parents get excited. They become the catalyst for change in the community.”

  On the first day of the veto session’s second week, Barack’s increased child support payments bill returned to the Senate floor. The House had overridden Governor Ryan’s veto by a 102 to 15 margin, but Ryan’s aides were lobbying fiercely in the Senate to sustain it, arguing that if the bill became law, Illinois would pay out—to the federal government as well as recipients—$6 million more each year than the state took in. On the floor, Barack recounted that of the $88 million Illinois presently collected, half went to Washington, the state retained $35 million, and hardly $8 million went to children. For a successful override, Barack needed at least thirty-six votes in the fifty-nine member Senate, and he described HB 1232 as a “commonsense bill” that would help remedy “how we’ve screwed up the child support system in this state.” On the initial electronic tally, the voting board displayed thirty-seven voting yes, including ten Republicans, with only seven nos and fourteen embarrassed Republicans voting present. But when Public Health and Welfare committee chairman Dave Syverson requested a head-count verification of the two-thirds majority, Barack’s victory evaporated. In what Capitol Fax’s Rich Miller described as an “obviously scripted move,” two yes voters—Democrat John Cullerton and Republican Stan Weaver, Pate Philip’s top deputy, had left the floor, and the override failed, 35–7–14.

  “I’m very frustrated,” Barack told statehouse reporters. “For some reason, the governor dug in his heels on this modest attempt to put more money into the hands of needy children,” but Barack vowed to return to the issue in 2000. The short veto session was additionally unpleasant because a number of colleagues questioned the wisdom of both Barack and Donne Trotter remaining in the congressional race against Bobby Rush, and because Trotter’s own antipathy toward Barack became increasingly vocal. One staffer overheard, and shared with friends, how Trotter under his breath used two names from Roots to refer to Barack as both “Kunta Kinte” and “Toby.” To have a fellow senator calling Barack “a derogatory name” was unprecedented, but Trotter’s Republican friend Steve Rauschenberger knew that Barack’s presence in the congressional race was more of a stimulus for Trotter’s candidacy than anything about Bobby Rush. “I’m not sure I ever thought Donne was in that race to win,” Rauschenberger explained. Democrat John Cullerton, who was closer to Trotter than to Barack, remembered telling Trotter, “You guys aren’t going to win. I don’t know why you’re doing this. If one of you dropped out, maybe,” and Rickey Hendon recalled, “I tried to talk to both of them, but neither one would drop out.” Kim Lightford questioned Barack about challenging Rush. “Do you really think you could beat him?” Barack’s answer was illuminating. “I don’t know if I can beat Bobby, but I’m going to beat Trotter!”

  During the veto session, Bev Criglar, the secretary Barack had inherited from Alice Palmer, told him that she was leaving in January for a new job in the comptroller’s office. Criglar recommended that he hire Beverly Helm, an African American Springfield native who was well known in the capitol because her late father, Eddie Winfred “Doc” Helm, had served for many years as the Senate’s official photographer. Beverly had worked in the Senate years earlier, and one evening Bev Criglar took her to meet Barack for an informal interview. Barack said something about interviewing others, but Bev Criglar disagreed. “No, I don’t think so, Barack. She’s the one.” Barack assented and left it to the two Beverlys to work out their transition.6

  On December 2, the veto session’s final day, the Illinois Supreme Court upended everyone’s holiday plans by unanimously striking down the Safe Neighborhoods Act of 1994. Article IV, Section 8(d) of Illinois’s 1970 Constitution mandated what was popularly known as the single-subject rule: “Bills, except bills for appropriations and for the codification, revision, or rearrangement of laws, shall be confined to one subject.” The framers’ goal, as the court stated, was “to prevent the passage of legislation that, standin
g alone, may not muster the votes necessary for enactment” or, in other words, to prohibit logrolling, which the court in 1974 had held was “both corruptive of the legislator and dangerous to the State.” Earlier that year the court had held that “unrelated provisions that by no fair interpretation have any legitimate relation to one another” rendered a bill unconstitutional, and the important 1994 enactment failed that test: “We discern no natural and logical connection between the subject of enhancing neighborhood safety” and the bill’s additional “amendments to the civil WIC Vendor Management Act, or the creation of the Secure Residental Youth Care Facilities Licensing Act,” because “these purely administrative licensing provisions are not germane to the subject of safe neighborhoods.”

  The state supreme court’s unsurprising holding created controversy because one provision in the 1994 law, upgrading public possession of a firearm from a misdemeanor to a felony, had led to a firestorm two years earlier when savvy National Rifle Association (NRA) lobbyist Todd Vandermyde sought its repeal. Insisting that most members had been unaware of the upgrade’s inclusion in the 1994 law, pro-gun legislators successfully championed passage of a bill reinstating the misdemeanor penalty by publicizing cases in which U.S. Marine recruiters, a well-known professional football player, and a pizza deliverywoman who had successfully fended off muggers had all faced felony charges after telling police they had a gun in their car. The Senate had passed that repeal measure 36–14–9, with Barack voting present, but Chicago law enforcement officials reacted with horror, insisting that the felony provision was the “single most significant piece of legislation” for taking gun-toting gang members off the street. Mayor Richard Daley agreed, and three months after the bill’s passage, then-governor Jim Edgar had vetoed it, with no override vote attempted.