Message

Bobby Rush
Mayoral Announcement of Candidacy
November 23, 1998

Thank you. I stand here today a happy, humble, and proud man.

I am happy because I am here with my wife, Carolyn, our family and friends on a very important day in my life and the life of our City.

I am humble because I am about to embark on a trail that has been blazed by one of my personal heroes, the late Harold Washington.

I am proud because I know that this is not simply a moment in my life. It is a moment that represents the hopes and aspirations of hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans whose support has brought us to this time and place.

My journey began 45 years ago, when my mother, Cora Rush, and her children boarded a Trailways bus from Albany, Georgia. Who would have guessed that Cora’s son would stand before you on his 52nd birthday and say, "Today, I declare myself a candidate for Mayor of the City of Chicago!"

I seek this office because I love this City. Like others who came here during the great migration from the South or who arrived from foreign lands, I've been able to aspire to heights I could not have dreamed of as a small boy asleep in the back of that Trailways bus. Today, I am a Member of the United States Congress. I hold degrees from Roosevelt University, The University of Illinois, and McCormick Seminary.

I seek this office because throughout my life a set of values instilled by my mother has inspired me to work for myself, my neighbors, and my community. Be it boy scout, soldier, Black Panther, Alderman, or Member of Congress, I have always been motivated by her values. At our kitchen table, she taught me to be responsible for my actions, to treat others as I would like to be treated, and to always remember that everyone is equal in God’s eyes.

I seek this office because the Chicago we have is not the Chicago we need, nor is it the Chicago we deserve.

Chicago, the City that Works has become Chicago, the City that Works for a few. Downtown grows, the Loop flourishes, while the City’s neighborhoods and communities are neglected.

The success of a city should not be measured by flowerpots on downtown streets or a Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier. These things have their place, but can never substitute for decent jobs, affordable housing, and safe streets.

The national prosperity that has bolstered economic activity in the downtown area will not be with us forever. Already, the storm clouds of international economic turmoil can be seen on the horizon. And as Joseph foresaw in his dream, the years of plenty are inevitably followed by the years of want. Chicago, with no real plan, is squandering the years of plenty.

We must reclaim our City from those who manage it as a personal fiefdom for the benefit of a small group of cronies -- pinstriped patronage. We must move all of Chicago forward.

As Mayor, I will manage an administration that values inclusion, empowerment, and co-operation. The Daley administration values exclusion, croynism, and suffers from a lack of vision. His Chicago uses the cosmetic, the quick fix, the spin and the cover up as a substitute for the search for real solutions to the city’s problems.

My administration will speak to the Soul of Chicago -- its people.

The Soul of Chicago is the janitor who can’t get to his job at night because the CTA has closed his El stop. It is the grandmother forced to leave the home where she was born because a Daley-connected developer wants the land. It is the honor student who is arrested because a policemen thinks he looks like a gang member.

Yes, the Soul of Chicago is hundreds of thousands of African-Americans, Latinos, Greeks, Poles, Italians, Irish, Asians, and other Chicagoans who live, work, and pay taxes in this City...yet are ignored.

The Soul of Chicago is all of Chicago’s people. We must move all of Chicago forward.

The soul of Chicago is not measured by the success of downtown or the wealth of investors. It is measured by our children’s hope for the future. The economic security of our families. And the safety of our community. The Daley administration has not done enough to advance in these critical areas. We will do better in a Rush administration.

Chicago has a school system in crisis. Half our students don’t graduate. Local school councils are stripped of control of their schools. Teachers and administrators are manipulated by fear.

We need a school system where teachers and administrators join hands with parents in a partnership to educate our children. We want a school system that will hold our families to a higher standard of responsibility and will give them resources to meet that standard.

A Rush administration will devote its resources to truly educating our children, and not to public relations and media hype.

We deserve a Chicago where youth are considered an asset to be cherished, nurtured, and cultivated. The Daley administration sees them as a threat to public order and seeks to criminalize them, even by resorting to unconstitutional means.

In two weeks, the City will argue before the Supreme Court that it needs the power to arrest young Chicagoans who are guilty of nothing more than having nothing to do.

Our children must be given the appropriate outlets for recreation, and must be taught responsibility and decorum.

Chicago has become a less affordable place for far too many people. Citizens are priced out of their neighborhoods. They can’t afford to own. They can’t afford to rent. They can’t afford to park their cars in the loop or in their neighborhoods.

The Daley administration had an opportunity to ensure Chicagoans decent incomes, but chose not to do so. Instead, Daley hammered through the City Councils a watered-down living wage ordinance as camouflage for a $21,000 raise for himself and a $10,000 for members of the Council. A Rush administration will support a REAL Living Wage ordinance.

The Daley administration has mis-handled economic development. Its policy is centered around the overuse of the Tax Increment Financing program. TIFs are intended to restore prosperity to blighted areas of the City. But Daley uses them as a devise to reward a small set of privileged campaign contributors.

Furthermore, Daley has wasted opportunities for economic development. For example, Senator Carol Mosely Braun and I secured a 100 million dollar Federal Empowerment Zone grant for Chicago. Other cities have leveraged these grants into millions of dollars and thousands of new jobs. But not Chicago.

The Daley administration has little to show for this grant but a critical Federal audit charging inadequate control of funds, incorrect reporting of activities, and over-stating of accomplishments.

Nowhere is the Daley lack of leadership more apparent than in our police department. Though the vast majority of officers live up to their motto, "To Serve and Protect," -- a police culture which permits harassment, cover ups, and the false arrest of our young people has flourished.

I can remember a time when police officers served as children’s mentors and role models and were not men that children feared. I can remember when police created a Future Astronauts program for youth based out of the police station. I can remember when police were not just enforcers of the law, but had a relationship of mutual respect, trust, and cooperation with the community.

My administration will help create a new police culture of responsibility, openness, fairness, and respect.

In the next 90 days, I will conduct a campaign for Mayor of Chicago. It will be a conversation with the people. I will take my message of inclusion, empowerment, and cooperation from the Lakefront to Austin, from Ravenswood to Chatham.

In my campaign, I will ask a simple question. In whose interest is your City being run? If you believe, as I do, that the measure of our success as a City is in how we raise our children, strengthen our families, and protect our neighborhoods, then it is time for a change. Listen to my campaign.

Join me.

Vote for change.

Vote for Bobby Rush.

Let’s move all of Chicago forward.