Brown v. Vallas

Mark Brown is miffed at Paul Vallas’ turning Republican to run for county board president.  He concedes that V. might reform county government, as he says he would, and that there’s “nothing wrong with dumping Stroger,” which I call an odd way to put it.  I would have said there’s nothing right about keeping him.

But after quoting V. extensively (to good effect for V’s cause) and conceding that it’s “tough” for a Dem reformer to get nominated, he still wishes V. hadn’t switched.  For one thing, and I thought at first it’s the main thing, it’s to oust a black.

Astute readers will have already picked out [I didn’t] the key common denominator among these three Democrats-turned-Republicans [whom Brown cites as losers], and I’m not talking about their short-lived tenures with the GOP.

In each case, they made the switch to outflank an African-American politician, trying to gain some advantage in Chicago’s race-based politics.

That’s bad on its face, Brown implies, his knee jerking as it has in the past, especially in the matter a few months back of Dems not voting for Obama in the primary.

However, Patrick Hickey Hickey [sic] cites another root cause for Brown’s adversary position, a sometime-back dustup with the irate father of a 19^th ward candidate opposing Brown’s main man (source) Mike Quigley of the county board.  The father “had words for Mark Brown,” and it got “ugly – for Mark Brown,” says Hickey.

Don’t know what that’s about, but the Quigley connection is something to keep in mind, and I thank Hickey for alerting me.