Covering Chicago's nine political influencers
Emanuel Campaigns for Obama While Chicago Murder Rate Spikes
Mayor Rahm Emanuel wasn't in Chicago when a record-breaking murder was tallied. He was in Ohio for Obama.
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Mayor Rahm Emanuel spent the weekend campaigning in Ohio for President Obama – but you won’t get the mayor’s press team or the Obama press team to say just where he spent his time, whom he met with and what he had to say. We've asked.
A Google search reveals a cookie crumb trail of events for the Chicago mayor in Ohio this weekend. Emanuel visited suburban Cleveland, Youngstown and Toledo during a trip through the Rust Belt swing state currently acting as Obama's firewall.
He may have been among the final campaigners.
The mayor told the Chicago media Monday that the president is absolutely doing the right thing by leaving the campaign trail and focusing instead on Hurricane Sandy.
"His first and foremost concern is to make sure emergency operation of the federal government is up and running.”
Could the same be said for the mayor when it comes to the homicide crisis in Chicago? This weekend's murders put the city above it's rate for 201, but the mayor bristled at the suggestion that his time may have been more valuable to a Chicago under seige of violence than to a swing state twice removed from Illinois.
