Charles Thomas: Danny Davis, M.I.A.

Signs that your campaign isn't very serious:

He still has no campaign office or website that this reporter can find, nor has he announced the appointment of a campaign manager or communications director.  And while State Senator James Meeks, City Clerk Miguel Del Valle, Carol Moseley Braun, Rahm Emanuel and Gery Chico are engaged in a discussion of the issues at various levels, physical or electronic signs of a Davis campaign are nowhere to be found.
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In Washington early last week, I asked the Congressman about the mayoral campaign and he sounded like an old Sam and Dave song when he answered "Hold on, I'm coming".


The question remains...when?

Pols began whispering doubts about Davis' mayoral ambitions as long ago as his mid-November announcement.  Many of the prominent Coalition members who named him their "consensus" candidate did not bother to show up.

And Davis' Congressional colleague Rep. Bobby Rush--who was one of the original movers in the effort to rally financial and political backing around a single black candidate--announced his support for Carol Moseley Braun.

There is also whispered concern that Davis has not been able to raise enough cash for a campaign.

Just wondering if Congressman Davis has sat in his US House seat for so long that he may not know how to mount a campaign with a much broader constituency. The city may mostly have Black residents, but you need to get the votes everywhere you can. Besides even if Blacks are a majority of residents in this city you can still roughly divide the major ethnic groups in this city in thirds: Blacks, whites, and Latinos.


Thomas notes that Davis has a lot of things in his favor for this run:

On the 22nd, he led a parade of supporters to the Board of Elections where he presented petitions he said listed the signatures of over 50,000 Chicagoans who supported Davis' candidacy.


  Then on December 1st, Davis won the drawing to be the coveted first name listed on the ballot.
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What Danny Davis does have is great name recognition, an admirable record serving Chicago in Washington and a voter base that stretches from the lakefront to the city limits on the west side.

Thomas also notes that the veteran pol doesn't have a lot of time if he wants to win the race for Mayor. Then again he's been in politics long enough to have survived without having a campaign website or a presence on "social media". But if one seeks office in the 21st Century, using only 20th century methods isn't going to cut the mustard.

I want to refer you to this earlier post about Davis being the consensus candidate. Bouncing off of Charles Thomas' report it was called a "lost opportunity".