Reflecting on Endorsements

Political endorsements can be important. Or they can be exagerrated. Here is a case in point.

Jim Ginderske, candidate for 49th Ward alderman, has gotten dozens of important endorsements in his bid to unseat incumbent Joe Moore. More on that in moment, first I need to digress...

Another of Moore's challengers, some dude named Don Gordon, recently trumpeted an endorsement for his candidacy from wealthy developer Dan Sullivan. "Wow," you're supposed to think, "Gordon must be great if he got an endorsement from Dan Sullivan." In fact, Gordon has become deluded by the endorsement, to the point of being so foolishly opitimistic that he recently quit his day job.

There are several things going on here that nobody else has addressed, so I will.

Dan Sullivan is just one guy. Okay, he's a gentrifying, capitalist guy with lots of money and a quick smile, and he makes a great cup of coffee and serves up a nice bagel. I've had pleasant conversations with him, and I'm not going to say anything bad about Mr. Sullivan. He's a nice enough guy, I guess, but wake up, people. He is a single individual. Jim Ginderske has received many endorsements from ... wait, I'm still digressing. I'll get to the Ginderske endorsements in a moment.

Not a heck of a lot of people outside the elite circle of developers and gentrification enthusiasts even know who Dan Sullivan is. So the average person in the 49th Ward hears that he endorsed Don Gordon, and says to himself, who the hell is Dan Sullivan? Oh, he's a developer? Why the heck should I care what some fat cat says about Gordon? That's the impact of the highly trumpeted Dan Sullivan Endorsement.

Oh yes, I was going to mention the endorsements that Democrat Jim Ginderske has received. Let's see. There's me, but I'm not vain enough or significant enough to loudly trumpet it. I'm just a guy screaming on a soap box. But how about the hundreds of people who wear Ginderske buttons? How about countless Ginderske signs you see in the windows of homes and small businesses? Each sign and every button is an endorsement of Jim Ginderske, and the fact that the people sporting the signs and buttons are not fat cat developers does not make any one of those endorsements any less significant that the single endorsement by one individual known as Dan Sullivan.

In fact, they are better than any endorsement by Dan Sullivan, and here's why. The people wearing Ginderske buttons are not special interests. The people wearing Ginderske buttons and who put Ginderske signs in their windows are ordinary people, not people who are hoping for favorable zoning changes from a guy that they've given gobs of money to for his campaign.

Sometimes the endorsements you don't get can be important, too. Ginderske has not been endorsed by any big money interests. All of the other candidates - Adams, Gordon, Moore - have been. Ginderske has not taken one dime from any developers. All of the other candidates have. Ginderske is clean. None of the other candidates are.

So the next time you hear Don Gordon or his people bragging about Dan Sullivan's endorsement, remind yourself that Mr. Sullivan is simply one person. No more, no less. And every button and sign for Ginderske is a better endorsement. Much better.