I'm off the campaign trail because, for Tsunami Tuesday, it's criss-crossing the nation, not an individual state. But I'm still covering the election for the Afro American Newspapers. Illinois is one of the 22 states the candidates are competing in this Tuesday so I've made a bunch of phone calls to my contacts here and I've filed another story for the Afro.
Below is the story I wrote. Click here for the edited version on the Afro.com website.
Obama expected to sweep Clinton in Illinois
By Monroe Anderson
Chicago, Il--Tsunami Tuesday is matter-of-factly believed to be the day Barack Obama will sweep away his opponent, Hillary Clinton, on Tuesday’s primary election in Illinois. The latest poll predicts that the Illinois senator will beat his New York challenger by 2 to 1—almost to no one's surprise in his home state. 
While the latest Gallup poll has Clinton leading Obama nationally 48 to 41 percent, a Chicago Tribune/WGN-TV poll found that Obama had the support of 55 percent of likely Democratic voters in Illinois, Clinton had only 24 percent.
That projected margin of victory matches the actual vote in the South Carolina primary eight days ago.
“Obama’s got the momentum and the wind at his back after South Carolina,” said Dick Simpson, professor of political science at the University of Illinois Chicago and a former independent Chicago alderman.
Illinois' favorite son is in the enviable position of commanding the support of a wide spectrum of his party's voters from independent to traditional Democrats, from young to old and from black to brown to white.
Simpson was predicting that Obama would garner 10-20 percent of the state's popular votes on Super Tuesday even before Saturday's Chicago Tribune WGN-TV poll was released.
Although Clinton was born and raised in a Chicago suburb but has not lived in the state for more than three decades, “Illinois is in love with Obama from the top to the bottom,” said Robert T. Starks, professor of political science at Northeastern Illinois University and chairman of the Task Force for Black Political Empowerment.
“All the Democrats in the state of Illinois are supporting Barack Obama,” Starks said.
He said that pre-primary votes have been coming in at a record number and that about 60 percent of those votes are between the ages of 18 and 40, which is the age-group where Obama is strongest. Starks said that the Obama campaign has a volunteer unit in almost every college campus in the city and several colleges downstate.
“I’ve been impressed with the enthusiasm of young people which seems to grow greater after each debate,” Starks said.
"Obama has the unusual circumstance of having the support of the Daley machine and the reformers," explained Simpson, while Clinton “is just fighting for a handful of delegates here in Illinois. There are 153 Democratic delegates at stake in the state.
As a state senator, Obama earned a good reputation among independents in Illinois when he successfully carried through reform legislation while working with the late U.S. senator from Illinois, Paul Simon, Simpson said. As a candidate for the U.S. Senate, Obama got the backing of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, Simpson said, noting that both men also share David Axelrod as their political consultant.
Obama is so popular in the Land of Lincoln that “everybody running has Barack on their palm cards,” Simpson said. “They’re hoping that everyone voting for Obama will drop down and vote for them for Congress or water commissioner. Whatever they’re running for.”
His political strength in his home state, particularly in the metropolitan Chicago area, even extends to two groups where polls say Clinton has either wrapped up or splits with the Illinois senator in other states–Hispanics and black women.
“He’ll do well with the Latino vote here,” said Miguel del Valle, Chicago City Clerk and a former Illinois state senator.
Obama got the lion’s share of the Latino votes when he ran for the U.S. Senate four years ago, del Valle said, pointing out that he outpaced a strong Hispanic contender, Gerry Chico, in the primary contest for the party’s U.S. Senate nomination.
He said that Obama is popular among Illinois Hispanics because of his support for immigration reform and that the main distinction between the Illinois senator and the senator from New York is that “we felt that Barack is committed to taking that issue on early in his administration.”
Although Hillary Clinton is admired in Illinois, Obama’s popularity is strong among women in the state, said Sandra Finley, president/CEO of the League of Black Women, a Chicago-based national organization that fosters the leadership potential of African American women.
She predicts that he’ll do well in Illinois because Super Tuesday is occurring after other state primaries. “He’s had the advantage of time to answer the questions,” Finley said.
Before the other primary contests, women wondered whether Obama was true presidential timber, she said. “They now know that he is.”
They also wondered if the Obama, who could become the first African American Democratic party nominee for president, would address their interests on health care, the economy and education. “He answers that,” she said.
Tim Wright, a Chicago attorney who is a former Clinton White House appointee and former chief of staff to Congressman Bobby Rush, argued that the New York senator is going to do better in Illinois than the polls and pundits predict.
“She’s not a stranger here. She’s from here. She’s a native daughter,” he said.
And because Clinton is from the state, Illinois is no different from the rest of the nation with family members are split in their support between Obama and the former First Lady.
One of the nation’s wealthiest families, the Hyatt Hotel’s Pritzkers, is split between Obama and Clinton. Penny Pritzker is Obama’s national finance chair. Her brother, J.B. Pritzker is national co-chair for the Clinton campaign. The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson and his son, Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. have endorsed Obama, while the civil right’s leader’s wife, Jackie and their son, businessman Yusef Jackson, are Clinton supporters.
“I’m caught in the middle. It’s like a family feud,” said Wright, who is on the Clinton steering committee but has acted as an Obama mentor in the past. “It’s a toss-up for a brother.”
Contributing to her performance here will be a greater share of the black vote than is expected, because Obama has avoided talking about hard core black issues. “Hillary talks about them more than he does,” Wright said.
Professor Starks disagreed. “The Clinton people will be lucky if they get 20 percent of the black vote,” he said.
Stumble It!
