Russ Stewart: Hispanic politicians fight to be "King of the Mountain"

"Among Hispanic politicians in Chicago and Cook County, there are dozens who aspire to be the proverbial "King of the Hill," or "Rey de la Loma." They have staked out their turf, and they will do battle to protect it from encroachment by other ambitious Hispanic politicians.

But no Hispanic has emerged as a viable contender to become the "King of the Mountain," or "Rey de la Montana," which means Chicago mayor or the Cook County Board president.

However, with the Daley Administration enmeshed in scandals concerning the Hired Trucks program, the Building Department, car towing, O'Hare contracts and minority businesses; and with Mayor Rich Daley raising taxes to close a budget shortfall, the possibility of an incumbent-free 2007 Chicago mayoral election has dawned on quite a few Hispanic politicians. The time for a Hispanic mayor could be near.

As disclosed in a recent poll by McCulloch Research and Polling, conducted last November, there is no consensus among Hispanics as to their political leader. In a survey of 600 Hispanic voters, 58.5 percent proclaimed that there is no local Hispanic leader of comparable stature to that, among blacks, of the late Mayor Harold Washington, U.S. Senator Barack Obama or U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. Of the 32.8 percent who professed that there is such a Hispanic leader, 10.7 percent named U.S. Representative Luis Gutierrez, 5.7 percent named former city treasurer Miriam Santos, 3.5 percent named Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner M. Frank Avila, 2.8 percent named losing 2004 U.S. Senate primary candidate Gery Chico, and 2.2 percent named Alderman Manny Flores."

http://www.russstewart.com/1-12-05.htm

Great long article focusing on Hispanic politics in Illinois.

The article mentions that Gutierrez would love to run for governor. I'm not sure that Illinois would elect a non-white governor anytime soon though. Then again, we do have a good track record of two African-American senators in the last 15 years. Lord knows Obama would win in a cakewalk.

HUGE Hispanic community there, and I know some Hispanic politicans were a little disappointed that the lines didn't get redrawn to get a few more Hispanic judges in places like Waukegan.