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Public Affairs coverage from our award-winning staff |
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Some Chicago Clinton Supporters Not Going For Obama
Produced by Tony Arnold on Wednesday, June 25, 2008
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(AP Photo/Tina Fineberg) |
Later this week U.S. Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will hold their first joint appearance since Obama became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. There the two are expected to reach out to one-time Clinton supporters, hoping they'll turn out for Obama after what was a long and sometimes contentious primary. But there are signs Democrats still have some work to do to keep the family together.
Merri Monks from suburban Oak Park doesn't mind talking about her devotion to the Democratic Party.
MONKS: I've been a registered Democrat since I was 18 years old and I'm now 55 so it's a lifetime commitment.
But wait. That's not the end of her sentence.
MONKS: So it's a lifetime commitment that I've made the decision to step away from.
Monks still supports Hillary Clinton's campaign for president. She's a librarian who works in the Loop and has contributed almost $2,000 to Clinton's campaign. And she plans to keep giving to help Clinton get rid of her debt. The one person she says she won't contribute to is Barack Obama. In the course of our conversation, Monks rolled out a list of problems she sees with his candidacy.
MONKS: He has the thinnest resume...I see nothing that the man has to offer... Every time the man opens his mouth all I hear is word fog...I miss Hillary Clinton's clarity...I do not feel that he has the qualifications or the character to be the President of the United States...
Monks says she feels Clinton was not treated fairly by the Democratic Party, and, as a result, she's leaving the Democrats to be an Independent. That's the kind of move Chicago Alderman Danny Solis wants to prevent.
SOLIS: We can't cut our nose to spite our face.
Solis was one of few Chicago politicians to support Clinton's candidacy, but he's now backing Obama. He joins his sister, Patricia Solis-Doyle, who was Clinton's campaign manager. Alderman Solis says it's not just about the Democratic Party, but about the direction the country is headed.
SOLIS: The nomination is over and Barack won and we can't let our anger or resentment or our personal feelings affect a very serious decision in terms of what we gotta do for the general election.
Solis says he's willing to do whatever Obama's campaign wants him to do to help the senator get elected, which Tom Bevin of the Chicago-based web site Real Clear Politics says seems to be the trend. Bevin points to some recent polls which show the majority of Clinton supporters are going to Obama. But there are still enough stragglers to raise eyebrows in big swing states, like Ohio and Pennsylvania.
BEVIN: This is not a crisis for him, but I would say it's a lingering issue that I think the Obama campaign should be concerned about in key states.
Bevin says the important thing to remember is that the general election is still a ways away and there's plenty of time for Obama to change the minds of Clinton supporters hesitant to back his candidacy. But librarian Merri Monks says if the election were tomorrow, she'd vote for Republican U.S. Senator John McCain. Monks says it wouldn't be a protest vote. Instead she says it would be a vote for a candidate she feels would serve Americans at a higher level.
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