Carol Moseley Braun Loss: Due to Unfulfilled Financial Commitments by Black Business Leaders?

One of the most interesting political events in America was the race to become mayor of Chicago. After yet another seemingly endless regime under the Daley family, black Chicago had a chance to elect one of their own. Carol Moseley Braun, the seasoned politician and history-making former Senator, positioned herself to be the great black hope for the city of Chicago.

Unfortunately, the Moseley-Braun candidacy was simply not meant to be. After a series of missteps, Rahm Emanuel used the power of President Obama's backing to convince the vast majority of Chicago citizens, white and black, to give him their support. Apparently, unspoken endorsements from Barack Obama and Bill Clinton goes a long way, even if you can't readily prove that you've done very much for the African American community.

Some give Carol a hard time for attacking her opponent, Patricia Van-Pelt Watkins, for being strung out on crack, and I certainly agree that much of the criticism is warranted. At the same time, Rahm once said that liberal Democrats were "F*cking retards," implying that neither he nor Moseley-Braun is above losing their temper. The problem for Carol, however, is that her nasty words came in a public forum, signalling a clear lack of discipline that made Chicago citizens shudder. Just when they were hoping she would (as Obama did) give them a reason to bolster their support for her, she reminded them of why they needed to simply play it safe. Had Obama displayed a similar blow up early in his campaign, he never would have come close to being president. In fact, when Rahm Emanuel was ruled (temporarily) by a court to be ineligible to run for mayor, Moseley-Braun was in a better position politically than Barack Obama was when he was endorsed by Oprah Winfrey.

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Chicago Violence

Ron Holt, father of Blair Holt who was killed on a Chicago Transit Authority bus in May 2007, speaks at a rally in downtown Chicago, Tuesday, April 1, 2008, where several hundred Chicago Public School students joined by politicians, school officials and church leaders, gathered to remember 20 classmates killed by gun violence since September 2007 and call for stiffer gun control measures.

National Portrait Gallery

BlackVoices.com

Chicago Violence

Neighbors gather at a home where five people were found dead on Chicago's South Side Wednesday. The discovery comes in the wake of a violent weekend in the city, where nine people died in 36 shootings -- some of which were gang-related.

Chicago Violence

More than 20 Chicago public school students have met their deaths from gunfire in the last six months. Here, students, friends and supporters at the city's Crane Tech High School hold a memorial March 10 for student Ruben Ivy, who was shot and killed nearby three days earlier.

Chicago Violence

Officials confer at the scene of Wednesday's discovery. The three men and two women, all in their 20s, appeared to be shot in the ransacked home. Vanessa Mathis, whose mother lives nearby, said the area was not crime-infested and that many older residents live there. "We've never had anything like this to happen before," she said.

Chicago Violence

Crane Tech students Corey Woods and Brittney Waters comfort each other during the memorial. Officials launched a program to escort students who live in nearby public housing complex after more than 100 of them stopped coming to school class for fear of retaliation after Ivy's shooting. Source

Chicago Violence

According to the New York Times, the most critical problem for the Moseley-Braun campaign was a lack of money. Carol's campaign raised an embarrassing $550,000, compared to the $12 million raised by Rahm Emanuel. In fact, the total amount of money raised by the Moseley-Braun campaign was less than the $800,000 Emanuel raised from Southern California donors alone.

Both Carol Moseley-Braun and Rep. Danny Davis confirm that many of Carol's financial backers did not hold up their end of the bargain. Like a poker player being forced to fold his hand, Davis was bluffed by black business leaders in Chicago, who called to inform him that they were going to raise $2 million dollars and throw their support behind Carol. At the end of the day, their promises were nothing but air.

The Chicago Mayoral race of 2011 will go down as one of the most humiliating and disappointing black political events in American history. The city could have finally elected a political leader with a genuine concern for the plight of the poor, jobless and homeless. Instead, we were simply fed a debacle.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here. To follow Dr. Boyce on Facebook, please click here.