President Obama's Impact on the 49th Ward

I am tardy in getting back to you about a question I left unanswered. The question came in a post I wrote last week, titled “President Obama, Congressman Joe Moore, Alderman David Fagus.” I wrote that if Obama becomes our next president, various local officials would all get a bump up the ladder of power.

To review:

If U.S. Senator Obama becomes President, leaving his Senate seat vacant. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky is appointed to fill that seat.

With Schakowsky's seat in Congress vacant, 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore would probably be named to fill her seat, thus becoming Congressman Joe Moore.

David Fagus, currently the 49th Ward Democrat Committeeman, would most likely be selected to be the ward’s alderman. He would become Alderman David Fagus.

I said I’d answer it earlier this week. Okay, better late than never. The question was, “So who will fill Fagus's vacated Committeeman position?”

Hmmm. This is actually tougher than the other positions to predict. But The Bench’s best guess is one of these three likely possibilities:

Katie Hogan
Co-owner of The Heartland Café in Rogers Park, Katie has been a local apparatchik of the 49th Ward Democrat Machine for years. She and fellow traveler Michael James are avowed socialists, verging on communists, but since there are no communists in power they settle for the likes of Joe Moore. Hogan has done a lot of footwork for the local Machine. She’s never met news crew she could resist chasing after, or a microphone she didn’t want to felate. Hogan, it is said, has dreams of running for alderman of the 49th Ward. But Fagus is more experienced and better connected. He knows where the money and bodies are, more so than Hogan. But Hogan is owed favors, and Democrat Ward Committeeperson would suit her.

Rene Camargo
Smart money is not on Camargo, DevCorp employee known by many Rogers Park merchants as “The Weasel.” Hogan is merely annoying. Camargo, on the other hand, is threatening. He comes off as a charming (too charming) fellow if you’re not the owner of a struggling retail business in Rogers Park. But if you have a small retail store, odds are good that Rene Camargo has pressured you to make aesthetic changes to your business even though they are not required by code. One example of this: Camargo (with help from Alderman Moore’s office) frequently tells merchants who are not in violation of code that they must remove the protective grating from their front windows. Why? Rene doesn’t like the way they look. They’re legal, however. Merchants rightfully ask, "If bad guys bust a window and steal merchandise, is Camargo going to cover the losses?"

Kevin O’Neal
Another Joe Moore suck up, O’Neal might get the offer but he would probably turn it down. He’s too busy putting out propaganda for the rich physicians represented by the special interest lobbying organization known as the American Medical Association (AMA). Between his AMA work, heading up a CAPS group and writing anonymous and weird blog comments, O’Neal would probably beg off.

Perhaps the “office” of Ward Committeeman should just be done away with. It is an unpaid position. The sole purpose of a ward committeeman is to promote the political agenda of his or her political party (each ward has a Democrat and a Republican committeeman). The committeemen are the geniuses who select election judges. You know, like the ones who insist they were trained in the use of the Invisible Ink pens used on Super Tuesday, February 5 in Rogers Park. They were only used, by the way, in Rogers Park.