Chris Kennedy. Welcome to Chicago!

Illinois millionaire candidate for governor Chris Kennedy spoke yesterday.

“We’re cutting off money for schools, cutting off money for police, allowing people to be forced to live in food deserts, closing hospitals, closing access to mental health facilities,”

“What choice do people have but to move, to leave, and I think that’s part of a strategic gentrification plan being implemented by the city of Chicago to push people of color out of the city,,”

“I believe in the tone at the top. I believe the mayor is aware of what’s going on, and I think he is allowing that to occur and in some ways encouraging it.”

“I believe that black people are being pushed out of Chicago intentionally by a strategy that involves disinvestment in communities being implemented by the city administration.”

“And I believe Rahm Emanuel is the head of the city administration and therefore needs to be held responsible for those outcomes.”

All true.

But when exactly did Christopher Kennedy discover this strategic plan that has resulted in the loss of an astonishing 300,000 African Americans from the City since Harold Washington was Mayor in the 80s.

Did he just get off the train?

I’m glad he has decided that the African American vote in Chicago is important enough that he is finally getting around to mentioning school closings, food deserts and economic disinvestment in Chicago’s Black and Latino neighborhoods.

But the guy has been in Illinois since he went to work for Archer Daniels in the 80s. He’s been running the Merchandise Mart since 2000.

Did he just wake up, slap his head and say, “What the f***!”

It is good that the leading candidates for governor are fighting for the African American vote and the votes of progressives.

Remember that in 2016 the Bernie Sanders campaign turned a 20 point deficit three weeks before the Democratic primary into a dead heat with Hillary.

They need those votes and more should be demanded of them to get them before they get them.

David Faris, an associate professor of political science at Roosevelt University, writes:

Here’s the reality: While the state faces some unique structural economic challenges that will be a drag on any Democrat, the party does not need a billionaire to win this year’s gubernatorial election. In fact, they probably just need someone with a pulse who isn’t a criminal or a serial sexual harasser.

The calculus isn’t difficult: Rauner is a deeply unpopular executive in a state that Democrats usually win in a walk. His most recent approval rating, from September, was 25 points underwater. To compound the governor’s self-inflicted problems, there is every indication to suggest that outraged Democrats are going to turn out in 2018 at presidential-year levels, overwhelming any advantage Rauner might otherwise have by virtue of owning an all-you-can-write checkbook. Turnout in last year’s elections in Virginia and Alabama was much higher than normal for an off-year election, and President Trump is likely to continue riling up the left with his despicable theatrics, incompetent governance, misogynist ramblings, racist tirades, and gratuitous stupidity. In other words, Illinoisans are going to be out in force this year, and they are not expending all of that energy just to send someone from President Trump’s party back to Springfield.

If Democrats could stop panicking for five minutes about Rauner’s enormous stacks of money, they might take a moment to seriously reflect on who the best progressive candidate for governor in this state actually is. Illinois is a lot like its biggest city — a place that thinks it’s much more forward-thinking than it actually is. Despite the dominance of Democrats in state and national politics for a generation, Illinois looks nothing like the kind of progressive model that it should be based on its underlying partisan dynamics.