Driving through the south side one day last week, Seventh Ward alderman Darcel Beavers realized that there was something oddly familiar about the campaign billboards lining the streets. They showed her opponent, Sandi Jackson standing with her husband, Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. “I’m thinking, ‘I’ve seen that picture of the congressman before,’” Beavers says.
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Then it struck her. The image of Congressman Jackson was identical to the one that adorned campaign posters last year during the primary and general elections, when he posed with several candidates he’d endorsed: circuit court judge Joy Cunningham, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District candidates Frank Avila Jr. and Debra Shore, and state treasurer Alex Giannoulias. In each Jackson wears the same dark business suit, the same blue tie, and the same frozen half smile. As it happens, it is the same photo, one that’s been repurposed for multiple candidates, including his wife.
But Avila went along with it. Among other things the poll asked voters whether an endorsement from Jackson and his ally, state senator James Meeks, would “make you much more likely, more likely, less likely, or much less likely to vote for Frank Avila Jr.” It also asked participants if they held favorable or unfavorable opinions of Mayor Daley, Congressman Luis Gutierrez, and Jackson.
“I’m looking at that billboard right now,” says Wallace Davis Jr., another challenger in the tight Second Ward race against Madeline Haithcock. “Jackson’s got that blue tie and that dark suit and Kenny Johnson’s got the red tie. Makes you wonder who’s running for alderman, Jackson or Johnson? I tell everybody that when I get elected you won’t have to run down to Operation Push for no building permit.”
