It's still the economy, Barack
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By Greg Hinz
Jan. 09, 2008
(Crain’s) — Not so fast.
The message New Hampshire voters sent Tuesday was reverberating from South Carolina to Chicago and Nevada on Wednesday, as all sides in both political parties sought to parse the geometry of what now appears to be the most wide-open presidential race in decades.
Hometown favorite Barack Obama was licking his wounds but showing immediate signs of picking up crucial labor support in Nevada, the next state where Democrats will compete.
Meanwhile, a revived Hillary Clinton campaign took delight in proving legions of pollsters and pundits wrong with its comeback from losing the Iowa caucuses, and declared itself in the contest to stay.
“We’re in great shape,” declared J. B. Pritzker, a senior member of the Chicago Hyatt Hotel clan and national finance co-chairman of the Clinton campaign. “We’re fighting in every state for every delegate. This certainly is a competitive race.”
“Anyone who thinks they know how voters are going to respond at this point is misleading themselves,” said Mr. Obama, according to the Associated Press. “Voters are not going to let any candidate take anything for granted. They want to lift the hood, kick the tires. They want us to earn it.”
The Democratic race indeed is impossible to call now, said David Wilhelm, a former Chicagoan who managed Bill Clinton’s successful run for the presidency in 1992.
One key matter to watch is how long third-place New Hampshire finisher John Edwards stays in the contest.
“He’s splitting the change vote with Obama,” said Mr. Wilhelm, who had backed now-departed candidate Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware. “If Obama comes out soon with a one-on-one race against Clinton, I think his chances are pretty good. If it’s a three-way race, then Hillary’s chances improve.”
Mr. Wilhelm said the Obama camp also needs to quickly ratchet up its focus on the economy.
With a possible recession looming, Ms. Clinton fared better than Mr. Obama among New Hampshire voters worried about economic matters, exit polls indicated. “Obama cannot leave that field to her,” Mr. Wilhelm said.
New Hampshire indeed was "a learning experience" for the Obama campaign, Illinois' senior U.S. senator, Democrat Dick Durbin, said in a midday appearance Wednesday at Mr. Obama's volunteer headquarters in the West Loop
"We're hearing more from the voters about the economy. Barack will be speaking more to economic issues," Mr. Durbin said. "The (coronation) scenario that was written after Iowa just wasn't sustainable."
Among Republicans, the situation is, if possible, even more divided.
Three different state contests have yielded three different winners so far, with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee winning the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney taking the Wyoming caucuses on Jan. 5 and Sen. John McCain emerging on top in New Hampshire.
A fourth candidate with a lot of backing in Illinois’ business community, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, bypassed those contests in hopes of breaking through in Florida on Jan. 29 or in the “Super-duper Tuesday” contests here and in 23 other states on Feb. 5.
For Democrats, the next state to watch is Nevada. The state will hold its first caucuses ever on Saturday morning, Jan. 19.
Mr. Obama in the past 24 hours picked up potentially very helpful support from the Service Employees International Union there, and reportedly will be endorsed today by the 60,000-member Culinary Workers Union.
The South Carolina primary follows a week later, on Jan. 26. The question there is whether the state’s huge African-American population will back Mr. Obama with the same margins as female voters who turned out for Ms. Clinton in New Hampshire. And how Mr. Edwards fares in his native South could indicate if his campaign has legs.
Mr. Obama is scheduled back in town later this week; he may attend a fundraiser at Peoples Gas President Desiree Rogers’ Gold Coast home on Thursday evening. Ms. Clinton is not yet scheduled to return here, but aides said it is quite likely both she and her husband will be in the Chicago area before the Feb. 5 primary.
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Glenn, I didn't realize JB was backing Hillary...Penny is Obama's finance chair and I think several other branches of the Pritzker family back Obama too...here's an interesting article that came out a while ago...
Her money is on Obama. His? Clinton.
J.B. Pritzker to lead Citizens for Hillary, going head-to-head with Obama's finance chairwoman -- his sister Penny
By John McCormick
Chicago Tribune staff reporter
May 14, 2007
As sister and brother, Penny Pritzker and Jay Robert "J.B." Pritzker have fought over everything from toys to how to divide a family fortune worth billions.
Now they are going head-to-head in politics, with the Democratic presidential nomination as their battleground. One is leading the fundraising for Sen. Barack Obama, while the other has a new alliance with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
In an interview Sunday, J.B. Pritzker said he would become the national chairman of Citizens for Hillary, a new campaign initiative that will be charged with grass-roots outreach, fundraising and policy matters.
Until now, the younger Pritzker had stood on the sidelines of the presidential campaign, not drawing attention from his older sister, who is Obama's national finance chairwoman.
The development comes as the New York senator is set to arrive in Chicago on Monday for her first fundraising event here since the start of her presidential bid. The trip is her second visit to the city in two weeks.
The competition over members of Chicago's wealthiest family -- heirs to the Hyatt hotel empire -- underscores the intensity of the presidential money race, with Clinton, Obama and the other candidates waging war in each of the nation's top money centers and on the Internet.
Both 'care deeply,' brother says
As one of the nation's richest men, J.B. Pritzker, 42, will be asked to use his financial and social network to help raise money for the former first lady and build a network of supporters.
But Pritzker, managing partner of a private equity firm that bears his name, said it would be incorrect to suggest that his new role is a form of competition with his 48-year-old sister, who was on an opposing side in a dispute earlier this decade over how the family's fortune should be divided.
"There are a lot of Pritzkers in Chicago, and they are supporting lots of different candidates, some Democrats and some Republicans," he said. "I don't think it should be viewed as anything other than a brother and sister who care deeply about the country and believe in the importance of being involved in the democratic process."
Pritzker said he purposely waited to get involved with any of the campaigns that have been wooing him in recent months out of respect for his sister's top-level place in the Obama operation.
He declined to comment on the status of their sibling relationship, but said he intended to "give her a call before you publish" to inform her of his new role.
Obama's campaign, meanwhile, declined to make Penny Pritzker available for an interview and had no other comment.
'Battle-tested leader'
J.B. Pritzker said he would back Obama should he become the party's nominee. But he said he believes Clinton is more qualified for the presidency.
"She starts out with the experience, with the background and as a battle-tested leader," he said. "In these perilous times, and with all the issues we face internationally and domestically, it is important to pick someone who comes to the job with on-the-job experience."
Until this week, the former first lady had mostly taken a pass on fundraising in Chicago.
During the first quarter, Obama raised nearly 15 times as much as Clinton from Chicago addresses, part of the roughly $26 million each raised nationwide.
But Clinton, who has Chicago-area roots, having grown up in suburban Park Ridge, is seeking to narrow that disparity and in recent weeks has assembled an impressive list of area fundraisers.
She has hired a full-time Chicago finance director and won the commitments of such people as Fred Eychaner, a reclusive local millionaire who is one of the nation's top Democratic donors.
"The favorite-son senator from our state is naturally going to suck a lot of air out of the financial opportunities for all the other candidates," Pritzker said. "But she is quite popular among quite a number of people, who, like me, have been quiet and watching the campaign unfold and now feel it is appropriate to get involved."
Well before relations in the family soured, Penny Pritzker helped finance J.B. Pritzker's ill-fated 1998 bid for the Illinois congressional seat that was won by Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky.
But following a public feud over the family's fortunes, Business Week reported in 2003 that the sister and brother -- at least then -- rarely spoke.
Public family feud
The dispute arose after family members filed a lawsuit in 2002 alleging that others in the family had inappropriately emptied a trust fund of nearly $1 billion.
It was a painful chapter for a very private family that has been exceptionally generous to a variety of causes in the region.
Penny Pritzker is ranked as the 153rd richest American by Forbes magazine, while J.B. Pritzker is ranked 160th. Each has an estimated net worth of about $2 billion.
J.B. Pritzker shares a family interest in politics. His father was finance chairman for Edmund Muskie's 1972 presidential bid and his mother was a top official of the California Democratic Party.
He acknowledges that his "last name doesn't evoke thoughts of grass-roots Democratic politics," but he said he has knocked on plenty of doors and handed out stacks of campaign literature.
"I'm involved in issues, and issues are about grass-roots politics," he said. "When candidates have asked me for support before, they have asked for more than a check."
Clinton campaign officials have downplayed expectations for Monday's fundraiser at the Palmer House Hilton, saying it could draw as few as 50 people, with contributions of $1,000 to $2,300 per person.
The evening event, targeted to lawyers, is expected to raise only about $100,000, although a much larger event is in the works for June.
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