THE LATINO SWING VOTE: CHICAGO BRANDON JOHNSON TEAM “CHEWS” ON HOW  TO GET CHUY GARCIA SWING VOTE SUPPORT?

Ever notice how so-called progressives and union bureaucrats always presume an operational unity with no pretense of explaining what their candidates will do for the Latino community.? Even in Chicago, the Johnson wing thinks they have the support of Chuy Garcia in the bag without making any real overtures to our community in Chicago. Perhaps even more troubling is that Rep. Chuy Garcia, the selected successor to replace our retiring beloved brother Congressman Gutierrez, is a city-wide leader, not just a “Latino” leader. Like what the progressives in New York did when they packaged Cynthia Nixon in the gubernatorial election and refused to explain what she would do for the Latino community? Not even a pretense of a visit to Puerto Rico or “speaking Spanish”. Lol, the reason why disgraced Gov. Cuomo received 80% of our vote that year. Latinos must renegotiate their relationship with our African American brethren serving as mayors of cities like Chicago, New York, Buffalo, Houston, and Los Angeles. What is the nature of their commitment to power-sharing? How many Latinos will be in this administration? We know Mayor Adams has fallen short.  The late legendary political scientist Angelo Falcon did a study of how Latinos faired under African Americans. To his surprise, he discovered they did not fare any better than they had under white Mayors. One needs only ask how many Latinos in policy-making positions did Bill de Blasio have during his mayoralty and compare it to Adams. Different name same game.

So, if mayoral candidate Brandon Johnson wants our support, he must reach out to the Latino leadership and present his plan for Latino inclusion in the administration. Kwame Nkrumah once reminded us that unity is not an act of charity but one of mutual interests. The white candidate Paul Vallas is leading in the polls in Chicago, so Chuy Garcia is a crucial swing vote. Notice from the article he had “no comment.”  Another example candidate for Mayor Adams in NYC garnered 70% of our vote, and outside the African American vote, we were his biggest supporters. Yet since his election how many high-level Latino appointments have you seen under Adam’s governance? Do you find Latina’s faces? Latinos of any stripe — Afro-Latino, Latinx, Boricua, or Hispanic, you all know whom we are talking about. No se hagan. Some of us elders yearn for the return of the days when our beloved brothers Harold Washington and Luis Gutierrez formed an unbreakable African American-Puerto Rican political block joined at the hip and inseparable in our commitment to social justice.

In short, Chicago demographically, once a Puerto Rican stronghold, has more Mexicans and together, must have mayoral candidates address the needs of our community as part of their agenda — not the customary, secondary hypocritical concerns. Rep Garcia should not let the so-called pseudo-liberal/progressives and union bureaucrats put him on the “defensive” with their hypocritical “are you a real progressive?” litmus test while invisibilizing our community. Chuy can take a political break and choose to stay home. I will be watching to see how our beloved brother Rep. Chuy Garcia wisely uses his “swing vote” status. Chuy whether you stay home, support Johnson or Vallas, we who are steeped in Latino political history know where your heart is. (https://chicago.suntimes.com/…/chicago-mayor-election…