Illinois State Sen. Ricky Hendon appeared on the Don and Roma Show on Chicago’s WLS radio to discuss his candidacy for Mayor of Chicago.
It is expected that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel will resign his position with the Obama Administration to announce his candidacy this week. Hendon bristled at the prospect of Chicago’s favorite son, Barack Obama, endorcing his long-time ally Emanuel. He outlined the issue for the WLS audience in stark, racial terms.
While Emanuel is expected to announce his departure as White House Chief of Staff this week, Hendon says it would be a detrimental mistake for President Barack Obama to endorse him as mayor.
From WLS:
“If Barack never wanted to be president again, let him go right ahead. But I guarantee you if he endorses Rahm or [Tom] Dart, uh, he’ll never be president again,” Hendon said.
Hendon said that Obama would be alienating even more of his already dwindling base which included 90 percent of the nation’s African-American vote in the 2008 election.
“Why would you want to do something to make them worse? Why would you want to alienate people who worked for him in various states just as hard as Rahm did. I’m not putting Rahm down. He did a lot. But I guarantee he didn’t knock on as many doors as I knocked on, or Emil Jones or Danny K. Davis,” Hendon said.