No betcha, Chewbacca!

The dramatic tug of war over the lakeside fate of the proposed Lucas Museum project housing movie mogul George Lucas’ legacy . . . has all the makings of a Hollywood drama.

• The storyline: The first museum in America built by an African-American woman.

• The players: “Star Wars” legend George Lucas; his Chicago-bred, financial guru wife, Mellody Hobson; Mayor Rahm Emanuel; and a combative “Friends of the Park” group — which is fighting a new museum on the lake.

Only this is serious. And it’s real.

“This looked like it was a work still in progress, when something happened to unhinge the process last week,” said the Rev. Michael Pfleger, who is a close Hobson friend.

“It’s a stunner. It seemed like things were back on track,” he said.

Sneed is told a hush hush meeting last Wednesday at the offices of Ariel Investments between Hobson (who had just help engineer the DreamWorks Animation/Comcast deal) — and Friends of the Park opponent Juanita Irizarry seemed “friendly and conciliatory,” according to a Sneed source.

OPINION

“The [Friends of the Park] told them to hold on and stay the case, but then something happened/broke loose after their board meeting the next day,” the source said.

“This is crazy,” said Pfleger, who heads the largest African-American South Side Catholic parish. “Mellody loves Chicago. It’s her home. It’s where she was raised and educated and is always giving back. She has been fighting tooth and nail for this. This museum could have gone to Los Angeles and other cities. It was a huge, wonderful gift for Chicago and its children.

“This would have been the first museum in America built by a black woman,” he said. “Imagine what that would do to the empowerment of young black girls.”

Sneed also hears Hobson asked to address the “Friends of the Park” board meeting, but was told it wasn’t necessary.

“What is going on?” Pfleger added.

Stay tuned.

Running with Rauner . . . 

Sneed hears rumbles Gov. Bruce Rauner may not be attending the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, this summer.

“That’s what I hear,” a top GOPer said.

Not surprising.

In early March, Donald Trump — who now seems to be en route to the Republican presidential nomination — didn’t even know Rauner.

“Rauner? Who? Don’t know him,” Trump told Sneed.

“Why? What’s up,” Trump asked.

“The state of Illinois is in a budget nightmare,” I said. “Broke.”

“Well, don’t know him.”

Hmmm. Bet Trump does now.

A royal musing . . . 

My dears. Please note this latest royal revelation from Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge — and future Queen of England if hubby Prince William accedes to the Throne of England.

The royal couple has a new pet for Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

A family rodent.

It is a hamster named “Marvin.”

The royal pet will be housed at the couple’s country home.

Osama drama . . . 

It was “the biggest moment of my life in a professional sense,” former White House chief of staff Bill Daley told a group of PR mavens in Chicago recently.

• Backshot: Thus spoke Daley, whose facial expression in a famous photo op appeared calmly intense in the White House Situation Room while he watched the takedown of Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan on May 2, 2011.

I spy . . .

Boston Red Sox players David “Big Papi” Ortiz and Hanley Ramirez at Carmine’s on Tuesday night, with Ortiz bear-hugging his waiter by lifting him off the ground. . . . Former Chicago Bear and Super Bowl XX MVP Richard Dent dined at Harry Caray’s Water Tower restaurant with friends during the NFL Draft. . . . CBS Sports analyst Deion Sanders spotted at ZipFit Denim shopping for his favorite jeans over the NFL Draft weekend.

Sneedlings . . . 

Today’s birthdays: Adele, 28; Henry Cavill, 33, and Arny Granat, ageless.

WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine are hitting Chicago in the coming weeks for major fundraising events in the city, with rival Donald Trump looking for campaign cash in suburban Bolingbrook.

Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee who makes relatively frequent fundraising stops in Illinois, will be in Chicago on Sept. 29. Kaine, the Virginia senator, has two events on Sept. 14, making his debut in the city as the Democratic vice presidential candidate. Trump is in Bolingbrook on Sept. 12.

In the weeks since the political conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia, fundraising is stepping up, and the Chicago area is a big source of political money, even if the state is expected to go with Clinton. With the nominations official, the presidential nominees joined forces with their respective parties to raise money to help turn out votes for their respective tickets and down-ballot contests.

The tab for Clinton’s Sept. 29 early evening reception, according to an invitation obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, runs from $2,700 for one ticket to $33,400 per table contributed or raised from other people, which includes a photo with Clinton, to $150,000 to donate or raise, which includes a VIP reception with Clinton.

Kaine headlines a Sept. 14 event at the home of Bernadette Keller and her husband, Bill Daley, President Barack Obama’s former chief of staff and President Bill Clinton’s former commerce secretary.

The other hosts at the Daley reception are Globetrotters Engineering CEO Niranjan Shah — who was a major donor to former President Clinton, former now-imprisoned Gov. Rod Blagojevich and others — and his daughter, Smita Shah, who also has become a major Democratic contributor. The other hosts are Susan Berghoef and Craig Martin, both Chicago lawyers.

The tab for the Daley event runs from $10,000 to contribute or raise — which gets the donor into a VIP reception — to $50,000, which includes a photo with Kaine.

Kaine also is the draw at a reception at the home of De and Paul Gray, the art dealer. The other hosts are John Atkinson, the insurance executive and major Democratic donor; Lilli Scheye, a Weigel Broadcasting executive; Jane and Bob Clark, the CEO of Clayco; Grace Tsao-Wu of Tabula Tua, also a major Dem donor, and Steve Cohen.

The price points are $5,000, which includes a photo with Kaine; $7,500 for a photo and a campaign briefing; and $25,000 to contribute or raise, which includes a VIP reception.

As earlier reported, GOP presidential nominee Trump hits Bolingbrook for a Sept. 12 fundraiser targeting major donors from Indiana and the Chicago area.

The organizers are Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar; Illinois Trump Victory Chair Ron Gidwitz; Dan Dumezich, the Trump-Pence Victory Indiana finance co-chair; and Robert Grand, the Trump-Pence Victory National finance co-chair.

The contribution tiers on the invite for the lunch at the Bolingbrook Golf Club range from $1,000 to $250,000.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, the GOP vice presidential nominee, canceled an Aug. 23 fundraiser that was to have been in Chicago’s Loop.

The Hillary Victory Fund is a joint fundraising committee with the Democratic National Committee and 38 states Democratic parties, not including Illinois.

Trump Victory is a joint fundraising committee created by the Trump for President Committee, the Republican National Committee and 11 state GOP parties, not including Illinois or Indiana.

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Go Cubbies!

Hey! Hey!

Flotsam and field notes hot off the steamin’ Cubbie ballpark:

• Covering all bases: Sneed is told Joe and Marlene Ricketts, the conservative Republican/anti-Trump parents of Chicago Cubs’ Tom Ricketts, are expected to hit the Cubs playoffs next month, as well as Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, a Donald Trump supporter.

• Covering all beds: It’s no secret Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo, one of two cancer survivors on the Cubs (and pitcher Jon Lester) has a rep for reaching out to children with cancer — especially at Lurie Children’s Hospital. But Rizzo, a former Hodgkin’s lymphoma patient, is primarily under the radar when he visits the kids. “He does it a lot and without alerting the press,” a Cubs source said. “He really makes the kids part of his life. This guy is so charismatic. It’s no wonder he’s the leader of the clubhouse.”

• Covering all covers: Sports impresario Grant DePorter tells Sneed the Cubs momentum leading to the playoffs is so intense his numbers at the 29-year old Harry Caray’s eatery, named after the legendary Cubs sports announcer, are up 33.5% over same time last year. “It’s Cubs fever,” DePorter said.

OPINION

Running with Rauner . . . 

Hmmm.

If Gov. Bruce Rauner’s campaign fund, Citizens for Rauner, just gave $16 million bucks to the Illinois Republican Party this year — which was only able to raise an additional $400,000, Sneed poses this question.

What’s going to happen to the Republican Party if Rauner stops writing checks?

Trump ’em . . . 

Phew!

The Donald, who has yet to visit Chicago since the UIC debacle last March, still plans to hit a top GOP luncheon at the Bolingbrook Golf Club this month — but, whoops, there has been a Trump scheduling change.

• To wit: Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar, who succeeded in snagging Trump for a lunch in the burbs, tells Sneed the Sept. 12 fete is now rescheduled for Sept. 19 — but it’s still being held in the Ronald Reagan room at the clubhouse from 11:30 to 1 p.m.

• Pssst! And there have been no requests for Trump steaks, Trump vodka or any Trump products to be served. “It’s a luncheon,” added Claar. “And I might add, his votes are in the suburbs.”

Roger that.

The numbers game . . . 

Who’s on? Who’s not?

Yipes!

Former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley came in as number FIVE in a top 100 list of Chicago’s most connected business people just published by Crain’s Chicago Business — and his brother, former Mayor Richard M. Daley — didn’t make the cut, coming in at number 168!

“In London. Back Friday. Crazy,” texted Bill Daley.

In case you’re wondering, private investment mogul Lester Crown came in on top.

Sneedlings . . . 

I spy: Cubbie pitcher extraordinaire Jon Lester and the missus dining front and center at Chicago Cut Steakhouse last Friday; Olympic Gold medalist Conor Dwyer, who hails from Winnetka, spotted at il Porcellino last week, dining in the eatery’s private back room before heading next door to Studio Paris. . . . Stand-up comedian Tom Dreesen, Chicago’s pride and Frank Sinatra’s sidekick on stage, is being honored for his 48 years in show business at the Museum of Broadcast Communications on Sept. 27. The event, “An Evening With Tom Dreesen: Celebrating A Life In Comedy” will be hosted by WGN’s Dean Richards. . . . Today’s birthdays: Bernie Sanders, 75; Brooke Burke, 45, Ruby Bridges, 62, a belated 87th birthday wish to wife of the legendary Harry Caray, Dutchie, and a belated 60th birthday to Gery Chico.

Hillary is coming!

It’s still on!

Sneed is told Hillary Clinton, who is set to exit bed rest Thursday after a bout of pneumonia, is keeping Chicago on her month’s end schedule for a flurry of fundraisers.

And powerhouse attorney Dan K. Webb has tossed his fundraising net.

A die-hard Republican who went public urging his party to vote for Clinton the day before Donald Trump’s Chicago fundraiser in July, Webb is now part of an aerie of legal eagles raising Clinton cash.

“Look. We can do this,” Webb said.

“We Republicans who voted for Mitt Romney in the last election — we could bring her over the line.”

“It would just take 2 to 3 percent of those Romney voters. It wouldn’t take that many of us.

“I’m not abandoning the Republican Party. I want to help America.

“But Trump will destroy America as we know it.”

OPINION

Webb tells Sneed his decision to publicly back Clinton drew a lot of hate calls.

“It was pretty nasty,” said Webb, a former U.S. attorney and and mega-special prosecutor.

“When it was announced I had abandoned the group of Trump Republicans, I got a lot of anonymous phone calls condemning me for choosing to support Hillary,” Webb tells Sneed.

“They were more than inhospitable. It was downright mean stuff. And they left the messages after hours on my phone, so they knew how to reach me.”

“But I also got a lot of phone calls from mainstream Republicans commending me for choosing to support Hillary. They left their names, commending me for going out front due to their disdain for Donald Trump.”

The Kaine scrutiny . . . 

Ka-ching!

Former White House chief of staff Bill Daley (and wife, Bernie) who was listed as number FIVE in a recent top 100 list of Chicago’s most connected business people by Crain’s Chicago magazine, feted Dem veep candidate Tim Kaine Wednesday night at his North Shore home.

• Top gun: Also invited was private investment mogul Lester Crown, who topped Crain’s list.

Ai! Ai! 

It’s the Cuban beat!

Musician Emilio Estefan, husband of singer Gloria Estefan, was in the bongo seat Tuesday night.

• Translation: Estefan, a mega musical producer and 19-time Grammy Award winner, stopped by Paladar Restaurant and Rum Bar with an entourage including former TV/radio mavens Bob Sirott and Marianne Murciano — and wound up hitting the stage and joining the musicians.

“It was incredible,” Murciano said.

“I met Gloria when I was 14 years old at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Miami,” she said. “I remember during our free period in school, she’d sit by the grotto and play Carly Simon songs on her guitar. It was amazing. We stayed friends, so when we heard Emilio was in town, we joined him for dinner.

“When he played the bongos with the Afro-American Jazz Crusaders on stage, it was magic.”

Sneedlings . . .

Today’s birthdays: Prince Harry, 32; Tommy Lee Jones, 70, and Dan Marino, 55.

WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton’s team asked Bill Daley to push Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, who is also the chair of the state Democratic Party, to move back the March primary to April, according to a new batch of hacked emails that WikiLeaks released.

Wikileaks has been posting a trove of hacked emails from John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chair.

In Illinois, Clinton’s political goal was to build to a firewall in her native state, always counted as solid Clinton territory. That is, if she were running behind in the primary, Illinois would be there to help bolster her bid.

In 2008, Madigan switched the usual March Illinois primary to February to help Barack Obama defeat Hillary Clinton for the presidential nomination — and wasn’t inclined to do it again, even with the inducement of getting 10 percent more delegates.

Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook wrote to Podesta in November 2014 about getting Daley involved, suggesting the key contacts to get to Madigan were through Tim Mapes, his chief of staff, and Mike McClain, a Springfield lobbyist.

The tone was urgent because the window was closing on Illinois lawmakers to act if the 2016 primary date were to be changed.

“The overall goal is to move the IL primary out of mid March, where they are currently a lifeline to a moderate Republican candidate after the mostly southern Super Tuesday,” the hacked email says. “IL was a key early win for Romney in 12.

“Our preference would be for them to move all the way to May, but if they at least move to April 12 or April 19 they will have the day to themselves and presumably garner a lot of coverage. They will also be influencing a big northeast primary day on April 26.

“They will receive a bonus of 10% extra delegates if they move to April and 20% if they move to May. Mapes has said repeatedly they don’t care about that.

“As we discussed, they don’t really care about being helpful and feel forgotten and neglected by POTUS. The key point is that this is not an Obama ask, but a Hillary ask. And the Clintons won’t forget what their friends have done for them. It would be helpful to feel out what path, if any, we have to get them to yes. This will probably take some pushing.”

As we know, the primary date was never changed, and Clinton, on a closer-than-expected margin, beat Democratic competitor Bernie Sanders.

WASHINGTON — A new batch of Wikileaks’ hacked emails, released on Monday, reveal the backstory of Hillary Clinton’s “endorsement” of Senate contender Tammy Duckworth and how Clinton loyalists fumed about comments from David Axelrod.

The hacked John Podesta emails span about 10 years, providing a trove of usually impossible to obtain information from a circle of people in the orbit of Podesta, who plays key roles in the Obama and Clinton worlds.

DUCKWORTH AND CLINTON

In 2015, Duckworth, a House member in her second term, was locked in a Democratic primary in which her main rival was attorney Andrea Zopp.

Bill Daley, who was Bill Clinton’s Commerce secretary and a chief of staff for President Barack Obama, was backing Zopp, who would ultimately be defeated by Duckworth in the March 2016 Illinois primary.

Duckworth is now in a November battle with Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill.

OPINION

On Oct. 5, 2015, Daley tapped out a message on his iPad to Podesta, the chairman of Clinton’s campaign:

“John the sun times is reporting that HRC endorsed duckworth in Ill senate primary can u have someone confirm that for me or let me know truth. Thanks iam helping Andy Zopp opponent, AA women former head of urban league.”

I understand why Daley was puzzled.

So was I, when word drifted to me that Clinton was backing Duckworth. It did not make sense to me on several levels.

Clinton didn’t need to get in the middle of an Illinois Democratic Senate primary and get folks mad at her when she would need them in March.

Second, a Clinton primary endorsement was a very very big deal. Why keep it quiet from the Illinois media?

Clinton seems to have slipped up. She wasn’t supposed to jump in a contentious Illinois primary fight. So her backing was kept quiet.

Eventually, a video of Clinton’s late September comments made during a Quad Cities stop, surfaced.

“Let’s really do the right thing by getting everybody talk to your friends, your neighbors, your family, about people you work with about Tammy Duckworth and why she should be the next senator of lllinois,” Clinton said at a Quad Cities event.

Clinton was stumping in the Illinois side of the Quad Cities in advance of the Iowa primary. Duckworth was also at the event.

“I cannot imagine anybody who can better represent the dreams and aspirations of the people of Illinois. . . . So please, before you leave today, commit to doing everything you can to making her the next senator.”

Clinton was backing Duckworth, even if she did not say the magic word “endorse.”

About two hours after Daley sent his email to Podesta, Podesta’s top assistant, Sara Latham, emailed Podesta a reply she got from “Marlon.” Marlon Marshall is the Clinton campaign director of state campaigns and political engagement. “from Marlon — HRC gave her props at a event in IL and said “should be the next Senator from Illinois!” etc Wasn’t a full fledged endorsement and wasn’t in her talking points and we haven’t sent anything out on it publicly. But it was reported on in the press as an endorsement.”

Which it was.

AXELROD

A few days ago, I reported on an email about the Clinton team’s frustration with David Axelrod because he was giving on-the-record interviews deemed critical of Clinton.

There are more emails on this point.

Now-former Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines wrote to Podesta on Dec. 17, 2014, and other top Clinton figures following Axelrod quotes he didn’t like in a story.

“We had discussed the utility of reaching out to David Axelrod, but Is he on HRC’s — or anyone’s — call sheet? I hate to reward bad behavior, but this seems like one headache we could easily neutralize.”

On Jan 7, 2015, Clinton’s longtime staffer Huma Abedin passed along an upbeat tweet from Axelrod, adding, “…We got into a conversation about his public comments. He assured me that he is 100 percent supportive of HRC and that she will be the nominee and understands that we might be frustrated with what he has said.

“I sense that he is disappointed that we have talked to everyone else in Obama world except for him and I assured him that HRC would be in touch soon. I think we are now in a good place with him but she needs to call him and I conveyed that to her. Will try to get it done this week.”

Holy Cow!

What’s in a color?

Here’s what.

Sneed is told Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office is planning to dye the Chicago River BLUE if the Cubs win the World Series.

It will follow in the Chicago tradition to dye the river green on St. Patrick’s Day.

In addition, Sneed has learned the city is planning a ticker-tape parade, perhaps on Thursday, if the Cubs clinch the World Series title against the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday in Ohio.

That part, of course, is still fluid. The Cubs need a win on Sunday and a sweep in Cleveland to make that happen.

OPINION

Click! Click!

Snap. Pop. Whaaa?

Sneed hears there is an empty space on the City Hall wall of photos of Chicago’s former mayors.

Hmmm.

It’s missing a picture of former mayor Richard M. Daley, the city’s 54th mayor and its longest-serving one — the predecessor of Mayor Emanuel, the city’s 55th hizzoner.

Hmmm.

It’s no secret a glacial chill has developed between Richie and Rahm, who pretty much blames the city’s financial woes on what came before, which is the administration of Daley — although he never mentions his name publicly.

Huh?

Is that the reason?

It’s no secret brother Bill Daley, President Barack Obama’s former chief of staff, helped engineer Rahm’s entry into the mayor’s office when Richie decided he wanted to pull the plug on his political career.

Sneed hears informed whispers the Richie camp is none too pleased his photo is not hanging on the  mayoral wall of fame, which includes 44 of the city’s 54 former mayors — and abruptly ends with former mayor Eugene Sawyer, who was selected by the City Council on Dec. 2, 1987, and served until Richie was elected in 1989.

“It’s noted and it’s really petty,” said a Daley devotee.

Hello, Rahm?

Still waiting for an answer.

Hey! Ho!

Take it to the bank.

Sneed hears Mayor Emanuel is planning to run for re-election and has been doing polling that shows a ratings improvement.

The dog house . . . 

A bowl in the Oval Office?

In case you didn’t already know, if Hillary Clinton moves into the White House, she will be not only accompanied by hubby Bill, but by Maisie and Tally, the family dogs. Tally is a white and black toy poodle mix; Maisie is a mix doused with a mosh of poodle.

• Bow wow: Please note: Donald Trump has no dog, nor a cat. Being a germaphobe, the Donald would probably have to wash his hands after each pet pat.

Driving Tom Dart . . . 

Pssst!

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who is known for trying to cut costs for out-of-town trips, drove himself to Washington, D.C., recently to speak at the Brookings Institute forum on re-entry programs for the formerly incarcerated.

Sneedlings . . .

 I spy: Cubs players Kyle Schwarber, Javier Baez, David Ross and Justin Grimm spotted at Chicago Cut this week. The entire dining room gave the Cubbies a standing ovation when they entered. . . . Saturday’s birthdays: Gabrielle Union, 44; Winona Ryder, 45, and Miguel Cotto, 36. . . .  Sunday’s birthdays: Janel Parrish, 28, Ivanka Trump, 35, and Gavin Rossdale, 51.

Sneed exclusive . . .

Sneed has learned that Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who was once President Obama’s White House chief of staff, has been summoned to summit duty.
• Translation: Mayor Emanuel tells Sneed he has been asked by President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, to attend a meeting of all former White House chiefs of staff with President-elect Donald Trump’s new White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, on Friday in Washington, D.C.

It was Priebus who suggested the meeting; McDonough heartedly agreed to oblige.

“It’s going to be some get-together,” said Emanuel, who plans to attend. “Denis asked if I’d help out.”

Consider: At least four former White House Chiefs of staff come from Chicago.
• Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
• Former U.S. Secretary Bill Daley, who was Rahm’s successor at the White House.
• Samuel K. Skinner, who was chief of staff under President George H.W. Bush (41)
• John Podesta, who was President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, and who basically ran Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated campaign against Donald Trump.

Sneed hears Joshua Bolten, who served under George W. Bush (43); Dick Cheney, who was President Gerald Ford’s chief of staff; John Sununu, who served under George H.W. Bush (41), and James Baker and Ken Duberstein, who served under Ronald Reagan, also have been invited.

Sneed is told all four Chicago former White House chiefs of staff are planning to attend.

OPINION

“It’s not unusual for such a meeting to be called, but it is interesting considering the intelligence rifts caused by Trump’s tweets which is going to give Priebus a migraine — if he doesn’t have one already,” said a top Dem source.

Rahm: Take two

Returning from several weeks of travel, including a trip to Rome for the investiture of Cardinal Blase Cupich; a business trip to Mexico; and a flurry of meetings in Washington, D.C., a very tired Mayor Emanuel appeared buoyant at the after-party following opening night of the amazing Joffrey Ballet production of Christopher Wheeldon’s version of the “Nutcracker,” which brought the Auditorium Theatre audience to its feet Saturday night.

“I’ve always told you there is no more flexible mayor than I am,” Rahm chirped. “I used to be a ballet dancer.”

Sneedlings . . .

Today’s birthdays: Taylor Swift, 27; Dick Van Dyke, 91, and Jamie Foxx, 49.

WASHINGTON – Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the first chief of staff for President Barack Obama, returns to the White House on Friday for a transition tradition — a lunch for the incoming chief of staff.

Emanuel and Bill Daley, the Chicagoans who served as chiefs for Obama, will be among those present at the gathering hosted by current Chief of Staff Denis McDonough for President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus, who is stepping down as the Republican National Committee Chair.

Emanuel was in Washington last week for a forum and to make the rounds to squeeze every federal dollar out of the Obama administration he can before Obama leaves office on Jan. 20. Emanuel also has a Pentagon visit on his Friday schedule.

One of the biggest federal items for Chicago still outstanding is a $765 million full funding agreement for the CTA’s Red and Purple lines modernization program. The paperwork needs to be completed in the next few days. Last week, Emanuel had an appointment with Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.

Christopher Kennedy brought his famous family political name to Chicago some 30 years ago, and for most of that time, Illinois Democrats have been waiting for him to run for public office.

On Wednesday, Kennedy finally took the leap, announcing his candidacy for governor with a video in which he promises to “restore the American dream to the people of Illinois in a single generation.”

I’m not sure the people of Illinois will be that patient, although that could be the most honest assessment yet of how deeply we’ve dug the hole for ourselves.

Kennedy has flirted with campaigns so often in the past that some stopped taking him seriously, but he has never gone this far.

OPINION

And indeed, there is every indication behind the scenes, where he has been making the rounds of Democratic groups and assembling a campaign team, that he is committed to the contest.

Then again, you’ll recall that the other great Hamlet of Illinois Democratic politics—former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley—announced his campaign for governor in June of 2013 and had pulled out by September.

Until candidates actually file their nominating petitions and take a few punches on the campaign trail, you never know whether they will run the distance.

Kennedy’s early entry may give pause to some of the other candidates looking at entering the Democratic primary, but it seems unlikely to deter billionaire businessman J.B. Pritzker, who is more than capable of matching Kennedy’s ability to self-fund a campaign.

The largest political donation Kennedy ever made in Illinois was $10,000 to Pat Quinn in 2014, which raises questions about how much he’s even willing to spend.

Video campaign announcements have become commonplace for many candidates in recent years. It allows them to more carefully control their message.

But Kennedy’s decision to take that approach will receive extra scrutiny because of his previously expressed distaste for facing groups of reporters.

Kennedy baffled the news media at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia this summer when he gave a well-received speech slamming Gov. Bruce Rauner’s leadership, then fled afterward when reporters tried to question him about his remarks and whether he planned to run.

It resulted in a bizarre scene with him trapped in an elevator that I’m sure you’ll be seeing replayed.

Kennedy, who was four years old when his father Robert F. Kennedy was slain while campaigning for president, explained to me after the Philadelphia incident that he refuses to participate in the media scrums that are a staple of political campaigns, preferring one-on-one interviews instead.

I can’t blame him for disliking those impromptu question-and-answer sessions, known in the business as “gang bangs.” So do I.

But it speaks to the fact that he is different kind of cat than we usually see in politics, the complexities of which have yet to be explored.

He joked to our Tina Sfondeles on Wednesday that, “Clearly my elevator speech needs a little bit of work,” a display of self-awareness that previously had been missing.

The truth is that despite all these years of Kennedy’s name being floated for this office and that, even residents of Chicago don’t have much of a handle on who Chris Kennedy really is.

Kennedy has proven himself in many arenas since coming to Chicago to oversee the family’s business interests at the Merchandise Mart—as a businessman, as a concerned member of the community through his efforts to feed the hungry, and as the chairman of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees.

He still has a lot of work ahead of him, though, to prove himself to voters as someone who should become the next governor of Illinois.

Chris Kennedy.

He possesses an old, legendary family name.

But will his bid for governor of Illinois, which Sneed tipped exclusively Wednesday morning, translate as a fresh new face?

Here’s what Kennedy told Sneed.

“Mike, here is what I’ve learned from my family about politics.

“If you’re in it to win, you’ll lose.

“If you’re in it for money, you’ll be indicted.

“If you’re in it for glory, you’ll get shame.

“If you’re in it to make friends, you’ll have none.

“If you’re in it to serve, you’ll succeed.”

OPINION

Kennedy, 53, is the eighth of 11 children of Ethel and Robert Kennedy, a former U.S. attorney general and a U.S. senator from New York who was assassinated in 1968 while seeking the Democratic nomination for president.

Four years old when his father was killed, he is also the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963.

The Daley file . . .

Former U.S. Commerce Secretary Bill Daley, who is supporting Chris Kennedy’s bid to unseat Gov. Bruce Rauner, describes him as the Kennedy from Illinois.

“Chris is no visitor,” Daley said.

“He has been here for decades, part of this community. Everybody thought he’d probably leave. But he became one of us.

“He’s a suburbanite who takes the train down from his home on the North Shore. He has raised his kids here. His wife is from here.

“He has the potential to be a very strong candidate in the primary as well as the general election. The Dem party is looking for new faces; I think he has a real opportunity to be that face. Rauner won’t be easy to beat. He has all the money in the world. Nothing is easy anymore in politics,” added Daley.

“I hope I can be helpful to him.”

The Pritzker file . . .

Hmmm: Looks like J.B. Pritzker, a highly respected billionaire businessman who has been gauging a possible gubernatorial bid, is still keeping his foot in the door despite Chris Kennedy’s announcement.

“As many people know, I’m seriously considering running for Governor,” Pritzker emailed Sneed. “I’ve listened to people throughout Illinois, and it’s clear that our government isn’t working effectively for them.

“Gov. Rauner has failed to address the real needs and concerns facing our state. We need a new leader with a record of getting results, who wakes up every day thinking about improving the lives of working families and people all across Illinois.”

Sneed hears Pritzker, a huge supporter and fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, has told one source he will make a decision around Passover in April.

It’s in the mail!

Mayor Rahm Emanuel sent a pacifier to all city employees late Friday to take it easy regarding federal actions dealing with immigrant and refugee status.

“Chicago is a welcoming city in both law and spirit,” he stated.

“These federal actions have made many people uneasy and uncertain,” said an Emanuel source. “So the mayor sent a letter to all city employees to make clear that everyone is safe, secure and supported in Chicago. He also asked the heads of all the sister agencies to send similar letters to their employees.”

Whispers in the nave . . . 

Sneed hears Father Michael Pfleger, who has invited three voices who represent those “disenfranchised” by President Donald Trump to speak at the 11:15 a.m. Mass on Sunday at his St. Sabina church — should be prepared to remove their shoes.

Why?

Pfleger plans to wash their feet.

• To wit: “Following the sharing of their circumstances, Father Pfleger plans to follow in the tradition of Pope Francis by washing the feet of a Muslim, a Latina and a former gang member to demonstrate the respect, dignity and honor of every human life,” a church spokesman said.

• Quoth Pfleger: “In the seriousness of our times we must not let our pain divide us. Rather, it should join us together in unity in the fight for justice.”

Those invited to speak are Rami Nashashibi, executive director of Inner-City Muslim Action Network; Lillian Jimenez, attorney advocate for immigration rights; and Curt Toler, a former gang member and now a St. Sabina PeaceMaker.

A rose is a rose is a . . . 

First lady Melania Trump just appointed a White House social secretary: Anna Cristina “Rickie” Niceta Lloyd, whose hubby is the grandson of the late social stellar Bunny Mellon, who helped create the famous White House Rose Garden.

Sneedlings . . .

Today’s birthdays: Tom Hiddleston, 36; Michael B. Jordan, 30, Joe Pesci, 74.

Kennedy. Daley. Byrne.

Is it all in the family?

Well, sort of.

Chris Kennedy, scion of the legendary Kennedy dynasty who just threw his hat into the gubernatorial ring, not only has the support of Bill Daley, a member of Chicago’s political dynasty, but he’s incorporated help from Carol Sexton, sister of the late Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne.

“I have a long history with the Kennedy family,” said Sexton, who has been named chairman of the Kennedy for Illinois Committee, where she will act as a trusted top Kennedy adviser and help organize volunteers.

• Translation: “Carol was the first Illinois volunteer to work for my uncle’s presidential campaign,” said Kennedy, the nephew of the late President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963.

• Backshot: “I worked for Sargent Shriver, the founder of the Peace Corps who was JFK’s brother-in-law, when he headed the Merchandise Mart during my summer break from college,” she said.

OPINION

“I got caught up with the Kennedy mystique when JFK ran and lost a bid for vice president when I was in high school,” Sexton said.

“So his dynamism stayed with me and inspired me to major in political science in college.

“Then when JFK announced he was going to run for president in 1960, Sargent Shriver opened up a campaign office at 333 N. Michigan Ave., which I think was JFK’s first campaign office. I was asked to supervise the workers,” she said.

“The response was amazing. Young people. Printers. Typesetters. African-Americans. All wanted to volunteer because a new chord had been struck in America.

“Sadly, I had to go back to college,” she said.

“But it was then my sister, who was so depressed after her husband had been killed on military duty, was encouraged by our mother to go to work on the Kennedy campaign.

“And the rest is history. She took to it like a duck to water. That was the beginning of her political career.”

Sexton, who claims her energy isn’t what it once was, said they are still trying to figure out the exact formula for the Kennedy for Illinois committee. “But I plan to give the campaign my best shot.”

“It’s time. And it’s time for Chris. The state is in a mess. It’s true the Kennedy mystique draws you in and Chris draws people to him, but he actually can make a difference. He’s all about service, and now is the time in his life to make a difference.

“A Kennedy difference.”

Burke’s law . . . 

The Rx ax: Watch for Ald. Ed Burke (14th) to introduce a City Council ordinance later this month in hopes of preventing dangerous mistakes in dispensing medicine.

“It would limit the hours pharmacists can work and hopefully tighten up pharmacy operations, causing them to become overworked and harried,” Burke said.

“It patterns a state bill being pushed by State Rep. Mary Flowers, but I believe we can make this the law in Chicago much faster than the state can act,” he told Sneed. “And our efforts would give impetus to passage of a statewide law.

“It would also provide whistleblower protection mandating pharmacies maintain a record of mistakes,” he added.

Burke hopes public hearings on the proposal would delve into the numbers of prescriptions dispensed daily in Chicago and determine how many pharmacy errors occur annually.

“In the interest of transparency, the city may also want to mandate that all of this information be made available to the public online,” Burke said.

Rahm ’em . . . 

Sneed hears Mayor Rahm Emanuel has his mojo back and is acting like all is in order these days.

• The big question: Is President Donald Trump about to send greenback support to pay for federal support in the city’s high-crime areas?

Stay tuned.

Sneedlings . . .

I spy: Actress Leslie Uggams spotted Monday at Hugo’s Frog Bar. She was in town filming “Empire”. . . . “Hustle and Flow” film director Craig Brewer at Hugo’s on Wednesday. Brewer is in town directing an episode of “Empire”. . . . Today’s birthdays: Emma Roberts, 26; Uzo Aduba, 36, and Laura Dern, 50.

WASHINGTON – In the heated race to become the next chair of the Democratic National Committee, Bill Daley is endorsing South Bend Mayor Peter Buttigieg, who hits Chicago on Sunday to rally support for this bid.

The two leading contenders for the top party post are former Labor Sec. Tom Perez and the first Muslim elected to Congress, Rep. Keith Ellison D-Minn.

Buttigieg is emerging as the leading alternative to the better known Perez and Ellison, whose battle is seen as a proxy war between the Obama/Clinton and Sanders/Warren wings of the Democratic party.

Buttigieg, 35, is seen as a rising star in the party, which, during the Obama presidency, has seen losses in the number of Democrats holding Congressional, state and local offices.

Add to that the surprise defeat of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump. Buttigieg is an officer in U.S. Navy Reserve, who took a leave of absence from his mayor’s job to serve in Afghanistan in 2014.

And he is also openly gay. And he is an elected official in the home red state of Vice President Mike Pence.

Ellison has the backing of Sen. Tammy Duckworth D-Ill.
Daley, a former Obama chief of staff and a Commerce Secretary under Bill Clinton in endorsing Buttigieg told me he is a “nice fresh start for the party.”

Daley likes Perez, who has picked up the backing of former Vice President Joe Biden. But Perez or Ellison at the helm means “a continuation of the Obama/Clinton versus the Sanders/Warren” feuds.

“Let’s get beyond this and focus on all these places other than Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami that seem to have a problem with Democrats,” Daley said.

Buttigieg will be introduced around on Sunday at two receptions, one hosted by Susan Axelrod, the wife of Obama former strategist, CNN commentator and University of Chicago Institute of Politics founder David Axelrod, and their son Michael.

Axelrod told me because of all his connections, and his friendships with several people running for DNC chair, “I tend not to put my name on things. But when Susan and Michael wanted to do something, I surely didn’t object.”

The next DNC chair will be elected by the 447 voting members of the party. That’s ten people in Illinois.

In Illinois, the voters are DNC members state House Speaker Mike Madigan D-Chicago, the state Democratic party chairman; former Rep. Jerry Costello D-Ill.; Ald. Carrie Austin (34th); state Senate President John Cullerton D-Chicago; Rep. Danny Davis D-Ill.; former Comptroller Dan Hynes; state Sen. Iris Martinez; Downstate activist Jayne Mazzotti; Cook County Record of Deeds Karen Yarbrough and former state Sen. Carol Ronen D-Chicago.

Ronen is backing Perez. “I think Tom Perez is what the Democratic Party needs right now,” she told me. “…The Demoratic Party does best when we speak forcefully about our values, and he will,” Ronen said.

Madigan is officially neutral. A guess is that he is Perez friendly; daughter Attorney General Lisa Madigan worked on programs with Perez when he was at the Justice Department. Martinez is for Perez. Davis is not committed. Yarbrough is for Ellison.

Ellison came through Chicago last month. Among other elected officials backing him: Rep. Jan Schakowsky D-Ill.; Cook County Clerk David Orr and Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.

It was a massacre.

It wasn’t pretty.

There was no forewarning; it happened quickly and abruptly.

And Sneed hears there is more to come.

To wit: While Gov. Bruce Rauner’s press and policy troops were busting their butts during budget negotiations, plans were already afoot to make a hard right politically — clean house and bring in a new team.

OPINION

First up!

On Monday morning, Rauner personally ousted his Chief of Staff Richard Goldberg, who was described by his troops as fiercely loyal to the governor and his mission.

It would be the only one the governor would personally fire.

“Everyone was in shock,” said a Rauner staffer who asked to remain anonymous.

“I mean everyone came to work Monday morning. But when we were told Richard [Goldberg] was out, we had a feeling if he could do that to him — who was a leader and fiercely loyal — who wouldn’t they do that to?

“Over the next 24 hours everyone was a wreck,” the source added.

“Staff fear was at its height. Doors were shut. People were crying. We then watched one person’s head roll after another. When you see a friend you respect who has worked so hard get dismissed just like that, it’s very difficult.”

• On Tuesday morning, Rauner’s communications director, Brad Hahn, was fired by Rauner’s new Chief of Staff Kristina Rasmussen — who had served as president of the Illinois Policy Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank.

• The buckshot: Hahn was calmly told his services were no longer required and was asked to clean out his office before being escorted out of the building.

Laurel Patrick, who worked for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, is now head of communications.

• On Tuesday evening, Catherine Kelly, deputy director of communications for Rauner’s administration, was also abruptly fired by Rasmussen.

Kelly, however, who was also asked to clean out her office before being escorted out, was in the process of delaying an anticipated move to Texas in August, where her husband had been offered a job with a law firm.

Did he see the handwriting on the wall?

Lance Trover, the gov’s prickly deputy chief of staff for communications, had given his notice last month.

• The big question: Will Mike Mahoney, the governor’s policy chief, be told to leave?

“Mike was the guy who kept the troops together, but the expectation is that there is a lot more to come in the cleaning house department,” a Rauner source said.

“It’s been tough. The morale is bad. People are afraid. It has been a coup d’etat type of environment. The conservative Illinois Policy Institute has taken charge.”

Sneed hears Rauner and his wife, Diana, were planning on making these changes earlier — especially in the communications department — but surprised some of their advisers on how quickly they moved to do so.

“I knew a few heads would roll, but am told there’s more to come.”

Moving on . . . 

Meanwhile, Rauner and his wife, Diana, headed out to New Hampshire to attend a daughter’s college graduation.

A Jarrett jot . . . 

News may have surfaced yesterday via the Viking Press former White House BFF Valerie Jarrett is writing a book.

But then again, Sneed told you that exclusively June 30, when I wrote . . .

Yes . . . yes . . .

Former White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, who is Barack and Michelle Obama’s BFF, is writing a book.

• The big buzz: Will Jarrett have the guts to talk about all the people in the White House’s West Wing she detested . . . and vice versa?

A Jarrett jab. . . 

So who were the people Jarrett disliked?

How about Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Bill Daley and David Axelrod?

Sneedlings . . . 

Today’s birthdays: Harrison Ford, 75; Yadier Molina, 35; Cheech Marin, 71; and Vito Burdi, ageless.

Long-simmering tensions between Mayor Rahm Emanuel and former Mayor Richard M. Daley boiled over on Friday, with William Daley rising to the defense of his older brother.

The final straw was Emanuel’s decision to blame his predecessor and political mentor Thursday for the avalanche of tax increases needed to solve Chicago’s $36 billion pension crisis.

“It’s unseemly to keep blaming the previous administration, which has been gone seven years,” William Daley, who followed Emanuel as White House chief of staff under former President Barack Obama, told the Chicago Sun-Times on Friday. “It’s kind of like Obama blaming Bush after seven years and saying, ‘I’ve got this problem in the Middle East, and George Bush did this.’ Come on. Put the big-boy pants on, and move on. It’s kind of sad.

“If [Emanuel] didn’t know…the reality of what they took over, then he should ask his floor leader, who was there for 22 years, the Finance Committee chairman, his own CFO, who worked for the previous administration. And ask half the City Council, who were there under the previous administration and made those decisions.”

That Emanuel laid the blame at Richard M. Daley’s door without mentioning the former mayor’s name didn’t appease William Daley.

“Oh, come on. Come on. Come on. Come on,” the former mayor’s brother said in an interview. “He didn’t mention his name. OK, fine. There’s only one person he’s talking about. You and I know, and he knows: The previous administration that was there for 22 years. Period.”

William Daley said it’s “tough to be in politics today” and that he “appreciates the difficulty of the job” Emanuel has to do.

But he said that’s no excuse for disrespecting the former mayor, whom he said has shown “class” by not sitting in judgment of his successor.

“Rich believes in the dignity of the office,” William Daley said. “He’s left office, and he’s not gonna be commenting. He’s shown class. That’s a real contrast between the two styles.

“I watched my brother for 22 years and my dad for 21 years deal with issues in a tough way. But, seven years in, I don’t think my dad was blaming Mayor [Martin] Kennelly. And Rich, seven years in, wasn’t blaming Gene Sawyer and Harold Washington.”

RELATED: Emanuel blames Daley for avalanche of tax increases — without saying his name

William Daley (left) with former Mayor Richard M. Daley shared a laugh as they waited for the start of the Chicago White Sox opening-day game in April against the Cleveland Indians at U.S. Cellular Field. | Ashlee Rezin / Sun-Times

In 2007, Richard M. Daley created a 32-member pension commission drawn from labor, business and banking. It turned out to be an exercise in political avoidance. After two years of study, the commission concluded that reduced employee benefits, higher worker contributions and “new revenue” would be needed to bail out four city employee pension funds then due to run out of money by 2030. But there were no specific recommendations on which revenues to raise.

On Friday, William Daley acknowledged his brother’s failure to solve the city’s $36 billion pension crisis. But he argued that “everybody in politics for the last 40 years owns a piece of the crisis, as do the unions” that bought into “every deal on the pensions,” including pension holidays.

“Anybody in the City Council who voted for all of those budgets was part of the problem,” he said. “But they did the best they could. They had to weigh decisions on raising taxes in the middle of an economic crisis, homeowners stretched, all of the problems.

“Were they perfect? No. Did Rich Daley do everything perfect for 22 years? Of course not. Did he solve the pension problem? You’d be an idiot to say he did. He didn’t. Did he do incredible things for the city over those 22 years that obviously some people want to forget any of it and, when there’s positive, take credit for that and, when there’s negative, blame the last guy? It’s kind of unseemly.”

Over the past seven years, Emanuel has criticized and undone virtually everything Daley did, though never calling him out by name.

That’s the unwritten agreement the two men made in exchange for what appeared to be an orchestrated election that saw William Daley succeed Emanuel as White House chief of staff under Obama and Emanuel follow Richard M. Daley at City Hall.

But Daley’s decision to punt the pension crisis left the heavy lifting to Emanuel.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday blamed his predecessor and political mentor for the avalanche of tax increases needed to solve Chicago’s $36 billion pension crisis — but never spoke the name of former Mayor Richard M. Daley. | Max Herman / Sun-Times files

“I would love nothing else in my life if somebody else had done it…The question isn’t what I did. Part of the question has to be what wasn’t done beforehand that required that action” Emanuel said Thursday during a taping of the WLS-AM program “Connected to Chicago,” to be broadcast at 7 p.m. Sunday.

“Had this been taken care of before, it would have been taken care of at a much cheaper price,” Emanuel said. “People chose their politics over the progress of the city. They kicked the can down the road….Was the problem left here? Did I create this problem?….I did not create it. But, I was gonna be determined to do something different, which is to fix it.”

William Daley said: “He hasn’t solved it, either. He’s made some proposals, but none of those solve the pension problem. He tried to make it a little easier and buy time until 2023. But that doesn’t solve the problem.”

William Daley was so incensed by Emanuel’s attack that, after initially calling a Sun-Times reporter to complain about how “unseemly” it was, he called back to draw a contrast between Daley’s silence and Emanuel’s finger-pointing.

He said Emanuel’s latest insult would have been easier to take if he ever credited the former mayor for the good he did.

“They tout their school successes — and those were really started under Rich Daley,” William Daley said. “Yes, we’re seeing the fruition of them today. And that’s great, and everybody celebrates that. And he takes credit for that. But the truth is, many of those reforms and improvements were started years ago.”

In 1989, Emanuel used his Type-A personality and relentless fund-raising tactics to raise $7 million in just 13 weeks for then-mayoral candidate Richard M. Daley.

After serving as Daley’s financial muscle man, Emanuel did the same for presidential candidate Bill Clinton, with Daley’s help, before joining Clinton’s White House staff.

In 1999, he was Daley’s choice as vice chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority. Three years later, Daley endorsed Emanuel for Congress, a step the mayor rarely took in Democratic primaries, and went all-out to get him elected.

Emanuel’s congressional campaign was managed by former Daley aide Greg Goldner, a sidekick to Victor Reyes, who headed the Hispanic Democratic Organization, a Daley political army. Emanuel also was among those to benefit from the army of political workers commanded by First Deputy Water Commissioner Donald Tomczak, a top Daley aide who went to prison in the Hired Truck scandal.

When Daley chose retirement rather than run for a seventh term, Emanuel stepped down as White House chief of staff and was replaced by William Daley.

Since taking office, though, Emanuel has worked to change much of what Daley did, including the widely despised parking-meter deal, as well as making key changes regarding city and school finances, labor negotiations, city services, the Chicago Public Schools and the City Colleges of Chicago.

Emanuel also has proposed a wave of ethics reforms, as if to turn the page from the Hired Truck, city hiring and minority contracting scandals that cast a cloud over Daley’s 22-year reign at City Hall.

Emanuel also succeeded where Daley failed by securing a federal loan to build the downtown Riverwalk, getting Chicago out from under the federal Shakman decree on hiring and the costly constraints of a federal hiring monitor and by identifying funding sources for all four city employee pension funds.

All of that strained the relationship between the present and former mayors.

Asked whether he thinks Emanuel deserves to be re-elected and whether he’ll have the support of the Daley family, William Daley would say only: “It’s almost a year away. There’s a lot that can happen — good and bad. But it’s tough to get re-elected for anybody in politics today. Third terms are not easy — for anybody anywhere.”

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday offered a dispassionate response to William Daley’s emotional demand that Emanuel “put on his big-boy pants” and stop blaming former Mayor Richard M. Daley for tax increases needed to solve Chicago’s $36 billion pension crisis.

“Within the first minutes of becoming mayor, I praised Mayor Daley at my inaugural. … I know he loves the city. And I believe that. And I still believe he cares about it,” Emanuel said after announcing yet another strategic deployment “nerve center,” this time in the Chicago Lawn police district.

“In answering the question of what it takes to right the ship fiscally and on the pensions, I was actually and, I still believe, dealing with the situation up-front, handling what was handed to me and the city and making sure we didn’t run away from it, but dealt with it up-front. And that is the truth.”

Emanuel said he meant no disrespect to his predecessor and political mentor.

“I believe…the mayor loves the city and served the city. But, we had a situation, given what was happening on both the education front, the finances at the schools [and] the fiscal condition of the city that explained why we had to address what we had to address to….stabilize our finances, stabilize our pensions, which created an environment for unprecedented corporate and business relocations in the city of Chicago,” Emanuel said.

“It’s unseemly to keep blaming the previous administration, which has been gone seven years,” William Daley told the Chicago Sun-Times. “Come on. Put the big-boy pants on, and move on. It’s kind of sad.” | Rich Hein / Sun-Times files

Last week, long-simmering tensions between Emanuel and the Daley family boiled over, with William Daley rising to the defense of his older brother.

The final straw was Emanuel’s decision to blame Chicago’s longest-serving mayor for the avalanche of tax increases needed to solve the pension crisis.

William Daley was so incensed by Emanuel’s attack, he called the Sun-Times twice to unload. The first time was unsolicited to talk about how “unseemly” it all was. The second time he called to draw the contrast between Daley’s silence and Emanuel’s finger-pointing.

“It’s kind of like Obama blaming Bush after seven years and saying, ‘I’ve got this problem in the Middle East and George Bush did this.’ Come on. Put the big boy pants on and move on. It’s kind of sad,” William Daley said in mocking tones.

William Daley was not appeased by Emanuel’s decision to lay the blame at Richard M. Daley’s doorstep without ever mentioning the former mayor’s name.

“He didn’t mention his name. OK, fine. [But], there’s only one person he’s talking about. You and I know and he knows: The previous administration that was there for 22 years,” William Daley said.

William Daley said he “appreciates the difficulty of the job” Emanuel has to do.

But that’s no excuse for disrespecting the former mayor, whom William Daley said has shown “class” by not sitting in judgment of his successor.

“Rich believes in the dignity of the office. He’s left office and he’s not gonna be commenting. He’s shown class. That’s a real contrast between the two styles,” William Daley said.

“I watched my brother for 22 years and my dad for 21 years deal with issues in a tough way. But, seven years in, I don’t think my dad was blaming Mayor Kennelly. And Rich, seven years in, wasn’t blaming Gene Sawyer and Harold Washington.”

William Daley did openly acknowledge his brother’s failure to solve the pension crisis. But he argued that Richard M. Daley and the aldermen who supported his budgets “did the best they could” after weighing “decisions on raising taxes in the middle of an economic crisis [with] homeowners stretched.”

He added: “Did Rich Daley do everything perfect for 22 years? Of course not. Did he solve the pension problem? You’d be an idiot to say he did. He didn’t. Did he do incredible things for the city over those 22 years that obviously some people want to forget any of it and, when there’s positive, take credit for that and, when there’s negative, blame the last guy? It’s kind of unseemly.”

Emanuel points with pride to having identified dedicated funding sources for all four city employee pension funds.

But, William Daley said, that didn’t “solve the problem.” All it did, he added, was “buy time until 2023.”

Psst!

It’s the Rahm and Rich show.

It’s no secret Mayor Rahm Emanuel and former Mayor Richard M. Daley have been don’t invitem items lately due to the Rahmster’s “criticism” of the way the city was run before he won.

It brought out the public ire of Rich’s brother, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Bill Daley, who was also former President Barack Obama’s chief of staff.

Sneed is told, however, Rahm was spotted at a boffo congrats party of the city’s Who’s Who honoring Daley’s nephew Peter Thompson, who just got hired by Lazard, a corporate finance advisory company.

It was an evening of ebullient chitchat, but Sneed is told Rich and Rahm were not chatty Chucks.

“I didn’t see them talking with each other,” said a top Sneed source — who described the party at Chicago Cut Steakhouse on May 22 as the “the old guard of Chicago’s political scene.”

“It was like 1968 all over again watching the city’s old political warhorses . . . although some of them seemed not to be tracking,” said a second source  at the party.

OPINION

Melania, where are thou?

Here’s the latest from the FLOTUS follies, a daily countdown on the mysterious disappearance of first lady Melania Trump, who hasn’t been spotted since her kidney surgery May 14.

But, Lo!

Melania speaks!

Umm . . . tweets, er tweaks!

Melania’s electronic missive Wednesday: “I see the media is working overtime speculating where I am & what I’m doing. Rest assured, I’m here at the @WhiteHouse w my family, feeling great, & working hard on behalf of children & the American people!”

The Donald diet . . .

Is President Donald Trump really replacing red meat for Dover sole and slashing his hamburger buns in half?

Is this really his recently reported new diet regimen?

Whaddya wanna bet?

Pass the ketchup.

A Jarrett jot . . .

Former top Obama White House adviser Valerie Jarrett’s class-act response to comedian Roseanne Barr’s vile, racist tweet on Tuesday may result in her running all the way to the bank.

• Translation: Sneed reported last June Jarrett was writing a book (Viking Press).

• Explanation: “This could result in Valerie’s book selling like hotcakes,” said a close friend of Jarrett’s who asked to remain anonymous.

• Buckshot: Barr’s sitcom series “Roseanne” was dumped by ABC hours following her tweet: “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj,” referring to Jarrett.

Barr now claims her tweet was a result of taking Ambien, a sleep medication.

Zzzz.

Ka-ching!

$$$: Good lord!

Sneed is told Big Shoulders, a fund that financially supports 20,000 Catholic school students in the city’s neediest neighborhoods, just broke a record for most money raised by a Chicago non-profit at a dinner event.

A whopping $14.1 million!

Sneed is told an anonymous donor dispatched $1 million in honor of the fund’s chairman Monsignor Ken Velo, who “knows no strangers and does so much for our beloved city,” said Josh Hale, president and CEO.

The Bono beat . . .

Singer and well-known activist Bono hit town recently to promote (RED) his charity advocating a cure for AIDS for Africa.

• Fly ’em: It was a private confab with owners of NetJets, the largest private-jet company in the world.

• Thank ’em: Bono praised former President George W. Bush for being a forerunner for fighting AIDS in Africa.

There ya go.

Sneedlings . . .

Calendar date: The brilliant Yo-Yo Ma will be a high note at the Merit School of Music Gala June 12 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel honoring businessman Howard Gottlieb with a Lifetime of Service Award. . . . I spy: Yes, that was comedian Sebastian Maniscalco, decked out in a high-end leather sports coat on a steamy night Friday with several Arlington Heights buddies at Chicago Cut. Busy place. . . . Today’s birthdays: Clint Eastwood, 88; Colin Farrell, 42; Brooke Shields, 53; and a belated birthday to Larry Wert, ageless and priceless.

Is Toni a sleeping Tiger?

Sneed is told Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who has insisted privately for eons she had no interest in running for mayor, is now eyeing the job.

“She’s been making phone calls,” said a top Dem leader in the African-American business community.

“Toni is definitely checking out the lay of the land now that [Mayor] Rahm [Emanuel] has decided not to seek a third term,” said a second top Dem party source who is a powerhouse in his own right.

“Look, Toni is tough, she’s head of the Cook County Dem party, and she is an established fundraiser who could raise money quickly,” the second source said.

“So many of the mayoral contenders were running against Rahm for vengeance reasons,” the source said. “Toni may not like Rahm very much, but Rahm has now taken himself off the ballot. And other contenders may drop out now that Rahm’s gone.”

OPINION

Described as a woman who handles the race issue well, but suffers the sting of the soda tax aftermath, Preckwinkle is also considered a candidate who could make the money heading to gay mayoral contender Lori Lightfoot, a Rahm foe, fade away.

“If I were a betting man, I’d say Toni could pull it off,” said a top Springfield powerhouse from Chicago. “I think now that Rahm’s out, others will pull out.”

Preckwinkle has also been a close friend of legendary former Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis and this/close to Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.

Preckwinkle did not return Sneed’s phone call Tuesday.

Stay tuned.

Daley Schmooze

Top tip! Sneed hears rumbles former U.S. Commerce Secretary Bill Daley, who was President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, is this/close to announcing his bid for Chicago’s mayor. Daley, brother of former Mayor Richard M. Daley, has never hidden his intense dislike of Mayor Emanuel, and the way he has treated his brother’s legacy.

Sneedlings . . .

Today’s birthdays: Michael Keaton, 67; Lance Stephenson, 28; and Kim Yuna, 28.

RELATED

• Rahm Emanuel not seeking re-election as mayor of Chicago

• Rahm’s out — here’s a list of candidates for Chicago mayor

• Mary Mitchell: Was Rahm Emanuel too cocky for Chicago?

• How Rahm Emanuel’s surprise might shake up Chicago’s mayoral race

• Politicians, public figures react to Emanuel’s decision not to seek re-election

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s decision to “write another chapter” in his life also turns the page on Chicago politics, serving as the prologue to a new, as yet unknown, storyline.

His exit means anything can happen in a mayoral race full of faces Chicagoans may not know very well — with the strong possibility of more big names joining the mix.

Will Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza or Attorney General Lisa Madigan clear the field? They’re both women who have won statewide campaigns, are longtime Chicagoans and are popular with city voters. Both have been officially mum so far.

ANALYSIS

There’s also Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who decided against a City Hall run earlier this year. Might she change her mind now that the seat is vacant and she is the new Cook County Democratic chairman? Sources said she is seriously mulling the race.

Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County Board president. File Photo. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

The time could be right for another female mayor. The city’s only had one.

With Emanuel in the race, it was never a contest of equals. It was a race for second place to see who could force the incumbent into a runoff election.

Now it’s really a race to see who would likely come in first and second, since a run-off is just as likely with no clear frontrunner.

Emanuel stepped out with more than $8 million in his campaign war chest and the capacity to raise millions more with his national network. The money game now becomes more important for his would-be successors.

Candidates need money for TV ads, and to bolster their own campaign staff. Tom Bowen, a Democratic consultant, estimated that “serious” mayoral candidates would need about $5 million in campaign cash. Another consultant said candidates will need the “low millions.”

The field now includes former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, former Police Board President Lori Lightfoot, community activist Ja’Mal Green, former CPS principal Troy LaRaviere, policy consultant Amara Enyia, Southwest Side attorney Jerry Joyce, businessman Willie Wilson and tech entrepreneur Neal Sales-Griffin.

File Photos. Top row, left to right: Paul Vallas. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times; Lori Lightfoot, | Rich Hein/Sun-Times; Mayor Rahm Emanuel, | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times; Willie Wilson. | Michael Schmidt/Sun-Times. Bottom row: Dorothy Brown | Rich Hein/Sun-Times; Neal Sales Griffin| Al Podgorski /Sun-Times; Garry McCarthy. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times; Troy LaRaviere. | Lou Foglia/Sun-Times.

And the list of those considering a bid will no doubt grow in the coming days. Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th), Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th), Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22^nd) Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) are all considering runs.

Other names thrown into the political rumor mill shortly after the announcement included former city and state education board president Gery Chico, former Obama chief of staff and Clinton Commerce Secretary Bill Daley and Chicago City Clerk Anna Valencia.

If Mendoza runs she’d have to have labor or other groups begin collecting her signatures prior to the Nov. 6 election in which she’s running statewide as the Democratic candidate for comptroller. Then she’d have just weeks to announce and collect the rest of signatures — at least 12,500 — before a Nov. 26 deadline for the mayoral election.

Illinois state Comptroller Susana Mendoza. | Rich Hein / Sun-Times

But the candidates already in the race say they deserve extra credit for challenging Emanuel — and his $8 million war chest — first.

Lightfoot, the former president of the Chicago Police Board, has been campaigning for four months. On Tuesday she took shots at any potential candidate who would use Emanuel’s announcement as an opportunity to join the race.

“Anybody who decides to jump in and take advantage of today’s political news, ask them where they’ve been,” she said.

Lightfoot insisted that the news “doesn’t change what we’re fighting for” and “our focus, day to day, does not change.”

Lightfoot has about $552,000 campaign cash on hand. If progressive groups coalesce around one candidate, it might be her. Lightfoot is gay, a woman and African-American. She can reach out to several demographic bases without necessarily needing a geographic base.

Mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot. File Photo. | Colin Boyle/Sun-Times

But a group of black, white and Latino community leaders on Tuesday said they’re embarking on a process to rebuild the multi-racial coalition that elected the late Mayor Harold Washington in 1983 — to unite behind one yet unidentified candidate.

“Those who aspire to replace Emanuel must put forward an urban agenda, a policy that is inclusive from the bottom up, to close gaps of inequity and make Chicago one city for all, following in the footsteps of Mayor Harold Washington, emphasizing neighborhoods where the need is greatest,” the Rev Jesse Jackson Sr. said in a statement.

While unions are taking a close look at Lightfoot’s campaign, there’s also room for another progressive voice in the field, consultants say. They want the most viable progressive they can find.

Lightfoot, too, could become the beneficiary of some of President Barack Obama’s more progressive supporters. But that group also could gravitate to Paul Vallas, the former CEO of Chicago Public Schools.

Vallas announced his run in May and on Tuesday expressed confidence in his chances of winning. Vallas said he expects candidates to see a bump in fundraising with Emanuel out. He currently has about $443,000 on hand.

“I think all the candidates are going to benefit with their respective constituencies, so to speak, when it comes to being a little more successful on the fundraising side,” Vallas said.

Mayoral candidate Paul Vallas is interviewed by Sun-Times reporter Fran Spielman at City Hall Friday, Aug. 17, 2018. | Rich Hein/Sun-Times

Vallas does have some name recognition. He knows government and he knows campaigns. He’s not a new face, and he may not be seen as the most progressive, but he is an expert on the issues. His challenge will be to translate that in an approachable way to voters.

It’s unclear how Emanuel’s exit will fare for former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy. If the Laquan McDonald case was a problem for Emanuel, double that for McCarthy, who was the police head when the shooting happened. The timing of Jason Van Dyke’s trial, which begins on Wednesday, may also not fare well for McCarthy as the graphic shooting will be once again blasted on television airwaves and in newspaper headlines.

Former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy listens to a City Club of Chicago panel discussion at Maggiano’s Banquets on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Hours after the Emanuel announcement, McCarthy revisited the issue, saying “everybody knows that the video was suppressed by City Hall.” McCarthy said in his role as head of police, he could have taken “exactly one step and that was to put the officer on paid desk duty, which is exactly what I did.”

But McCarthy has worked hard to distance himself from the shooting and he’s been a frequent mayoral critic. Emanuel fired him after the video was publicly released.

“We need new leadership and we’re going to get it and it’s obvious that the people of Chicago are tired of bullying politics and pay-to-play and failed leadership,” McCarthy said on Tuesday, adding he thinks he’ll also get a fundraising bump in light of the news.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel stands in Uptown Theatre in June. File Photo. | Colin Boyle/Sun-Times

Several Chicago political consultants say they’re waiting for the dust to settle after Emanuel’s shocking announcement. They’re also watching the City Council for an exodus from some of its most veteran aldermen.

And whoever makes it through the mayoral election will be awarded the daunting challenge of helping the city through some of its worst challenges.

If Emanuel’s commitment to best practices in the latest technology — cameras on police officers and the addition of data rooms to detect gunshots in the most violent areas of the city  — couldn’t stop Chicago’s chronic shooting sprees, what will these candidates do better and differently?

Ultimately, with a crowded field about to get even more crowded, it’ll be partly up to citizens to do their own research about the next mayor. The challenge will be for candidates to differentiate themselves and to get their messages out.

“The debates are going to be crucial because people won’t know all of these people and anybody who wants to figure out who their next mayor is should be an active citizen and go and find out who the people are,” said Kitty Kurth, a veteran Democratic political consultant. “In a way this puts the burden of citizens on the citizens.”

Besides name recognition and cash, voters will have to decide which candidate will do the best to make the city a better place, to curb rising property taxes and end the pension crisis.

The candidates will have to rebuild trust in minority communities, and perhaps take up Emanuel’s bully pulpit against President Donald Trump in a Democratic city that’s fought tooth and nail against his policies.

The path to the fifth floor of City Hall may now be clear, but that doesn’t mean the journey will be easy or without its share of harrowing twists and turns.

Contributing: Maudlyne Ihejirika, Rachel Hinton and Sam Charles

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The dust has barely settled after Mayor Emanuel’s bombshell announcement, but a new telephone poll conducted Tuesday finds there is no clear favorite in the mayoral race.

The We Ask America poll, which collected 1,128 responses by calling both landlines and cellular phones, has former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy with 16.8 percent, followed by Willie Wilson with 15.1 percent and former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas with 10.1 percent. Former police board president Lori Lightfoot had 9.6 percent.

The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, meaning McCarthy and Wilson were essentially tied, as were Vallas and Lightfoot.

Respondents were asked to choose from a list that included some — but not all — of the declared candidates, as well as some of the other big names rumored to be mulling a run.

Of those potential candidates: Valerie Jarrett, onetime adviser to President Barack Obama, scored highest, at 6.6 percent; Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle had 4.6 percent; and Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza came in with 1.4 percent. But, again, the margin of error means Jarrett and Preckwinkle are essentially tied.

Others on the list include former Obama chief of staff Bill Daley, 1.8 percent; Chuy Garcia, 3.9 percent; Jerry Joyce, 3.2 percent and Ricardo Munoz, 1.4 percent.

Not every declared candidate was included on the list of names from which respondents could choose; 8.7 percent said they would prefer someone not on the list (but they weren’t asked who), while 16.8 percent said they were undecided.

Poll respondents also were asked about Emanuel’s job performance; 43.1 percent approved, 42 percent disapproved (essentially a tie) and 14.9 percent saying they had no opinion.

The poll also asked whether it would be harmful or helpful for Emanuel to endorse a candidate. About 45 percent said they would be less likely to support a candidate with an Emanuel endorsement. About 33 percent said it wouldn’t make a difference.

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• Three decades later, David Orr considering ‘return’ to mayor’s office
• Toni Preckwinkle testing the waters for possible mayoral run
• Rahm’s mayoral campaign figuring out how much money donors will get back
• Flash poll finds no clear favorite in Chicago mayoral race
• Rahm Emanuel’s legacy: How will mayor be remembered?
• EDITORIAL: Rahm made tough calls but just couldn’t unite our city. Can anyone?
• What Chicagoans really think about Rahm: ‘I’m glad to see him go’
• Was Rahm Emanuel too cocky for Chicago?
• Surveying the political landscape after Rahm drove a bulldozer through it
• Rahm’s out — here’s a list of candidates for Chicago mayor
• A timeline of Rahm Emanuel’s tenure as mayor of Chicago