CHICAGO (AP) — Congressman Danny Davis has a message for former President Bill Clinton: Don't take sides in the Chicago mayor's race — or else.
Davis, a longtime friend of Clinton, warned the
ex-president on Tuesday that he could jeopardize his "long and fruitful
relationship" with the black community if he campaigns for former White
House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel instead of one of the two leading black candidates
running — Davis or former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun.
The warning highlights the stakes in what is
gearing up to be a contentious race for mayor in the nation's third-largest
city. About a dozen people have made it on to the ballot to replace retiring
Mayor Richard M. Daley, who is bowing out after more than 20 years in office,
giving candidates their first real shot at Chicago's top job for the first time
in two decades.
In a news release, Davis, a Democrat from Chicago's
West Side, said Clinton's relationship with the black community may be
"fractured and perhaps even broken" if he comes to town to stump for
Emanuel, who moved back to Chicago this fall to run for mayor and is leading in
the polls.
Davis later told The Associated Press that he
intended the news release to be a personal appeal to Clinton, friend to friend.
"You just wouldn't want your friends to be
campaigning against you," Davis said with a laugh. "I've enjoyed a
great friendship and relationship and have a tremendous amount of affinity for
both the Clintons ... and I'd like to keep it that way."
"I want him to be neutral," Davis said of
the former president.
Emanuel's campaign recently announced that Clinton
was going to head a campaign event in January, but no date or time has been
announced. Campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt declined to comment on Davis'
statement, and messages left with Clinton's foundation weren't immediately
returned on Tuesday.
Blacks make up 35 percent of Chicago's population,
a key voting bloc that has the potential to doom or elevate a candidate. A
recent Chicago Tribune/WGN poll showed Davis leading Emanuel among black
voters, but just barely. Davis was backed by 21 percent of black voters,
Emanuel was backed by 19 percent, but 30 percent were undecided. The poll showed
Emanuel leading with 30 percent among all voters surveyed.
Emanuel held various positions in Clinton's
administration, including senior policy adviser, director of special projects
and political director. Davis also has known Clinton for years, and political
consultant Delmarie Cobb said Davis was among the first black leaders to
support Clinton's presidential campaign before he had widespread name
recognition.
"I can see where Danny Davis would be very
upset," Cobb said.
Braun, the race's other leading black candidate,
joined the U.S. Senate the same year Clinton became president, and he was
always supportive of her, Cobb said. Clinton appointed Braun as ambassador to
New Zealand after she lost her Senate re-election bid.
Messages left for Braun's campaign weren't
immediately returned.
Clinton — who Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison once
dubbed the country's first black president — still enjoys a great deal of
support among black voters, and Davis said part of his concern is about
Clinton's impact on the mayor's race.
"I think he certainly has some sway and
power," Davis said. "He's still a tremendous draw."
But Cobb wasn't convinced that Clinton's popularity
would translate into votes. She and other black leaders want Clinton to stay on
the sidelines because "a president shouldn't inject himself in a local
mayoral race. He's an international figure."
"This is not something he should be a part of,
especially when he has no direct ties to Chicago," Cobb said. "He is
bigger than this."
While Davis said his message to Clinton was meant
to be a friendly appeal, the tone of his statement was more direct, suggesting
that the former president would lose black support if he campaigned for
Emanuel.
"The African-American community has enjoyed a
long and fruitful relationship with the Clintons, however it appears as though
some of that relationship maybe fractured and perhaps even broken should former
President Clinton come to town and participate overtly in efforts to thwart the
legitimate political aspirations of Chicago's Black community," the
statement said.
Cobb echoed that sentiment, saying that if Clinton
visits Chicago for Emanuel, "it would appear that the president was
supporting a white man over Hispanic and African-American and women candidates,
and I'm sure that's not . . . the perception the president wants to
project."
Copyright
2010 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/Paul Beaty, File)
