Illinois State Representative Derrick Smith who was arrested last week and charged for accepting a $7000 bribe from a government informant, to write a letter supporting a state grant for a day care center, had no trouble winning his democratic primary last night in Chicago.
Smith received strong support this week from U.S. Congressman Danny K. Davis, who made headlines by urging voters to look past Smith’s legal troubles, to avoid a loss to former Cook County, Illinois Republican Party Chairman Tom Swiss, who ran against Smith as a democrat.
Davis told a crowd at a rally for Smith, “We know that our colleague is charged with criminal activity, but we also know that a charge is not a conviction….We want to make sure that we don’t elect a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
Just last week we brought you video evidence of Danny Davis’s close relationship with the Communist Party after being filmed receiving an award from People’s World, a publication dedicated to the ideals of Marxism and boasts of its special relationship with the Communist Party U.S.A at the CPUSA’s headquarters in Chicago. Davis also shares a special relationship with President Obama, also documented in our video coverage, with footage of Barack Obama declaring to the Teamsters Union in 2004, that “Danny Davis is one the greatest congressman in the country….because he shares our values….”
This leads to suspect another possible reason for Davis’s strong support of Smith who may also share Davis’s and Obama’s values. In the photo below, Smith is seen addressing a crowd at the May Day Haymarket Riot Reenactment last year in Chicago, where he addressed the crowd by declaring his support for labor unions.
While Smith’s remarks were kept short, he stuck around at the event, which featured many outspoken opponents of free market capitalism, or any type of capitalism for that matter, from organizations such as the Industrial Workers of the World (known as WOBBLIES). The event celebrated the Haymarket Riot, which marked the success of anarchist activists who are credited around the world for winning workers the eight hour work day and is known as the birthplace of the international labor movement. This was on displayed in a full scale reenactment of the riot.
Given Smith’s support of labor unions at a prominent anti-capitalist affair, and Davis’s ties to the Communist Party and early years as a New Party member in Chicago with President Obama, is it any surprise Davis would so staunchly support Smith?
Maybe not.
But what is still baffling, are Chicagoans’ willingness to support and embrace candidates such as these, who are not only willing accomplices and acquaintances to an international anti-capitalist movement, but also throw weight behind one who is publicly arrested and suspected of breaking the law and defying the public’s trust.