Our friends at pubdef.net – that is www.pubdef.net (free advert for a black journalist going it alone, here … yes, folks, that website is WWW.PUBDEF.NET) – noted yesterday that Alderman Lewis Reed has filed a committee to raise money for his campaign against Jim Shrewsbury for president of the Board of Aldermen.
The EYE spoke earlier this week with one of Reed’s colleagues in the Black Aldermanic Caucus. He said it’s too early to give out names of Reed’s deepest supporters, lest his opponent have time to go after him, but “hell yeah, Lewis has a lot of support, and he has the funds to back it up,” the alderman said. “There’s been quite bit of development in his community, and he has sources outside of the city. Lewis is a better reflection of this city than Shrewsbury. He’ll do more to help the more disadvantaged wards grow – to help the city grow as a whole, instead of Downtown and the South Side getting most of the TIF and tax abatement preferences. If Shrewsbury has his ear close to the political ground, he ought to be scared.”
That’s all fine and dandy, but if Reed’s colleagues and African-American civic leaders can’t turn out the vote – as Shrewsbury has shown he can do – then he’ll be yet another beautiful, black loser.