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First, on the day he backed out of a mayoral campaign, Jesse Jackson Jr. refused to rule out endorsing Mayor Daley, even though he’d spent the previous two years blasting his leadership. A couple of weeks later, former Daley opponent Bobby Rush said he thought Daley had done a great job and deserved another term, and a pair of wealthy black businesswomen held a Daley fund-raiser. Yesterday, reverend and state senator James Meeks—who spent his summer ripping Daley’s educational leadership as racist—appeared with the mayor and dismissed the notion of backing anyone else in the February election. “I probably won’t be endorsing anyone who can’t win,” Meeks told reporters.
As expected, Brown held another press conference today to respond to Meeks’s remarks. But this time, whether she was overtaken by emotion or overtaken by a campaign plan to show some, it was a different Dorothy Brown talking to reporters.
“All right, Dorothy,” said campaign manager Paul Davis. “Just take your time.”
Brown gripped the podium and gazed back at him. Maybe she couldn’t get outraged—not on public display, at least—but she could show everyone that she was serious. “Yes,” she said. “I’m in this race to win it.”
