Mayoral Candidates Bring Snow Into Campaigns
CHICAGO (WBBM/CBS) -- Some candidates for Chicago Mayor are using the snow emergency to highlight their own efforts.
As WBBM Newsradio 780 Political Editor Craig Dellimore reports, Gery Chico's mayoral campaign sent out a YouTube video of the candidate helping to push a stuck car out of the snow Tuesday night.
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The campaign said Chico was trying to push the city in a new direction and isn't afraid to get his hands dirty.
Rahm Emanuel also helped dig out a car that was stuck in the snow near Damen and Ainsle in Chicago on Wednesday.
Asked about the city's response to the blizzard, particularly the decision to leave Lake Shore Drive open until hundreds of cars became stuck in the snow after a series of accidents Tuesday night, Emanuel said, "It's clear that there were mistakes made that we can never let happen again."
Earlier, city Clerk Miguel Del Valle's mayoral campaign announced that with the blizzard, Del Valle is making human services for those in need a high priority, and he toured an agency.
While most of Chicago may be taking the day off, the election is only three weeks away.
And as most Chicagoans know, snow and politics potentially can have a strong link. After an infamous blizzard in January 1979, voters were so disappointed in Mayor Michael Bilandic's failure to clear the streets that he lost the Democratic mayoral primary to Jane Byrne the following month.
The blizzard of 1979 totaled 18.8 inches, 1.4 inches less than the blizzard that socked Chicago Tuesday and Wednesday. But in 1979, there were already 7 to 10 inches on the ground from an earlier snowstorm.
