New Poll: Karen Lewis Beats Rahm By NINE POINTS

Things are starting to heat up in Chicago, and it's not the temperature. Rahm "F-ing R**" Emanuel, Mayor of the city that I love, is finding himself in very hot water with the voters. Whether it's his staged "press events" where the Press doesn't get to ask him anything, to his most perfidious crime of hiring a Broadie to destroy public education in Chicago by closing schools, firing teachers and replacing them with SCABS with five weeks of "training", and selling the lot off to the lowest bidder, Rahm has aroused a lot of anger among the people. So much so, that he is being viewed as a one-term Mayor. So far, two Aldermen have entered the race, but they are polling rather behind Rahm. The top possible contender to date is Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.

Enter Karen Lewis. Lewis is the fiery head of the Chicago Teachers Union, the group most in the line of fire of Rahm and his minions. Rahm got a wake-up call from teachers a couple of years ago when 90% of them voted to authorize a strike. You see, Illinois thought they had "fixed" that situation by requiring a minimum 75% threshold of votes to legally authorize a strike.

That's the kind of leader Karen Lewis is. She's not afraid to get in Rahm's face and let him have it. Especially as schools are closed and teachers fired. She's right there with the angry parents, who flock to School Board meetings in their hundreds and thousands only to be ignored.

It had long been speculated that Karen Lewis may make a run at Rahm for Mayor. However, some of the Conventional Wisdom, even here on the Great Orange Satan, was that she could never win because she was "too abrasive" and "only the teachers would vote for her".

Well now there are polling numbers.

The Chicago Sun-Times commissioned a poll by We Ask America (electronic) on the Mayor's race.

Karen Lewis beat Rahm by NINE POINTS 45%-36% with 18% undecided. MOE of +/- 3.1%

It was even worse when placed against Preckwinkle. She beat Rahm 55%-31%

As was thought, Lewis polled the best with Black and Hispanic voters, those whose schools have been most affected by the closings. She did not do as well with White voters.

Which brings us to today's big news part one:
Toni Preckwinkle has RULED OUT a run for Mayor of Chicago.

Which clears the field for Lewis, and indeed, "an exploratory committee is in the works"

Lewis revealed on Monday she already has an unofficial exploratory committee in the works, a chairperson has been named and her camp is working to have a representative in each of the city’s 77 neighborhoods.

Since an Early & Often poll released Sunday put Lewis at a 9-percentage-point advantage over Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Lewis’ phone has been ringing non-stop, she said.

“They’ve been coming from all over the country,” Lewis said in an interview Monday. “Facebook is blowing up. Twitter is blowing up.”

Lewis lashed out at Emanuel camp’s initial response to the poll published by the Sun-Times political portal. An Emanuel political spokesman called the poll numbers “laughable.”

“There are a variety of ways to look at these problems, but laughable isn’t one of them,” said Lewis, the mayor’s top critic during the closing of 50 schools. “That is how people feel — that they’ve been laughed at and ignored.”

She is beginning to draw support from serious players in Chicago politics:

“I don’t think there’s any doubt in anybody’s mind, that she’s viable,” said U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill. “She doesn’t have to create name recognition, she has it. She has a loyal cadre of followers. … She has created a level of excitement among lots of people in Chicago, in different communities. I think lots of people are waiting to see what she’s going to do before they decide where to hang their hat.”

Davis said Emanuel’s decision to close 50 schools in poor neighborhoods wrankled voters, not to mention Davis.

“[Lewis)]certainly has an interest in educating the children,” he said. “From what I have seen of Karen Lewis, many of the positions and expressions that she has made I am in agreement with.”

Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th), the son of a onetime Chicago Mayor Eugene Sawyer on  Tuesday dropped his past contention that Lewis was a one-issue candidate after talking with Lewis advisers in recent days.

“I believe Karen Lewis, if she decides to run, would bring a light on a lot of issues that I think to a certain degree have been pushed aside by the current administration,” Sawyer said.

But she faces immense obstacles. Namely Rahm's $7 Million war chest, a Super PAC ready to explode, and contacts with some BIG money and BIG names--like Clinton.  Lewis is relying on grass roots door-to-door campaigning and small donations. When asked about Rahm's money, this is what she had to say:

“I’m not interested in the same people he’s interested in,” Lewis said.  Of his $7 million, she said: “Good for him, I don’t know those people. [Lewis contributions] would come from people who I would know and meet and shake hands with and be part of the process.”

Lewis said she has a “great working relationship” with the Chicago Public Schools, but the mayor gets in the way of “very important progress” being made.

Now you know the second Lewis says she's in it, Rahm's Super PAC will be on the air with negative ads. And as a teacher AND a union President, she's going to be in for a double whammy. We're going to see "blame the teacher" and "blame the union" ads like you have never seen a Republican do in your worst nightmares.

When 85% of MoveOn Chicago wants a "more progressive" Mayor, when you are Barack Obama's former Chief of Staff and are polling this badly in Barack Obama's hometown, if you run a scorched earth campaign, you are going to alienate a LOT of voters and they will remember it if you win.

Now I realize that there is a significant fraction of people on this very site who are just as into the "blame the teacher for everything" meme as Rahm and others. But Rahm needs to retire from public service.

It's time for a teacher.

It's time for Karen Lewis.