"Back over in the 41st on the Northwest Side, where a woman is certain of victory, history will be made. Led by a succession of men, including the late congressman and alderman Roman Pucinski, the ward has never had a female alderman.
Russ Stewart, longtime political analyst for the Nadig Newspapers, calls this runoff race the “E-Team.” The “E” stands for “estrogen.”
“The 41st ward,” Stewart wrote recently, “brims with testosterone, filled with police officers and patriarchal families who view the alderman’s post as a man’s job, in that it oversees the collection of trash, the re-surfacing of streets and other muscle-reliant, dirty-hand tasks performed by men.”
This, says Stewart, will be a precinct-by-precinct fight between “two political organizations in a do-or-die model.”
Gavin, backed by the lone City Council Republican, Doherty, and Chicago’s only Republican state rep, Michael McAuliffe, goes up against O’Connor, who is supported by Democratic state Sen. John Mulroe.
Nobody, least of all the women involved, will confuse this battle with a bake-off"
Saw this in the Sun-Times this morning and am very disappointed anyone would quote Russ Stewert and his sexist crap about the race. That e-team garbage didn't go over well two months ago when he first wrote about it. Russ Stewert is not a well respoected political analyst in the 41st and I wish he would quit trying to write. And he works for that tea party rag the Nadig press.
ReplyDeleteI read this too, and remembered Russ Stewart's hormone theory analysis from a few months ago. Was creepy then and is even creepier now. Not a big fan of gender dividing newspaper articles.
ReplyDeletegroan
ReplyDeletedon't think Nadig is tea party but leans to the right
ReplyDeleteSad, that this is the nonsense written about our ward. I wish someone would write about the really important issues that we are trying to work on here - like the very serious overcrowding issue at all of the schools, the airport pollution and noise problems and the serious neglect of the storefronts and factory section of the ward along northwest highway.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I saw Russ Stewart's name, I turned the page.
ReplyDeleteWhat patriarchial families are they referring to? I live here and never felt like I live in a ward "brimming in testosterone". What does that mean. Stupid article.
ReplyDeleteThis is an article that I'm sure both candidates will go on record as being worthless.
ReplyDeleteStop it already. The Nadig isn't pro Tea Party. The Nadig press has had the most honorable reviews by writer Jason Porterfield. To pick on Nadig is bad form and reeks of either a candidate scorned or competition wishing to move into this market. Get real. Stewert isn't the type of writer that you have to kiss his ring in order to be annoited by him. He's pretty fair. You may not like him, but he's fair! His stuff is pretty funny. And for the record, I like the E-Team stuff. My candidate was on the B-Team and I also liked it. The Sh_ _ was pretty funny, because my guy is a total type-A success story that also laughed it off. If you don't like the system, run for office and see what you can do. Just don't bash on Stewert, because he equally bashed on O'Connor and Gavin and they both made the run off. Signed: Someone in the know with no connections to Nadig or Stewert
ReplyDeleteThere just isn't anything else appealing about this race unfortunately, so you get "hormone theory" analysis from the media. I wish the media had to live here and see what years of neglect has done to the ward.
ReplyDeleteSomeone should dig up the original article Russ Stewert wrote a few months ago, so everyone can see it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.russstewart.com/1-26-11.htm
ReplyDeleteI think Stewart missed the mark with his analysis of the 41st. There were so many initial candidates because of two decades of neglect. Daley ignored the 41st because of the Doherty/Republican connection, so the ward fell into a state of disrepair, under-development and general neglect.
ReplyDeleteSo, many well intentioned candidates stepped up to "fix" the ward. Gender isn't a factor, just a tangent, a local befuddled political commentator made in an attempt to mask the more serious issues, which are much more difficult to address.
The real issue here in the 41st Ward: who can get the ward back on track? And will Rahm work with whoever wins?
It is time for Rahm to step into this race.
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