Ray Hanania on the Outside
Hanania sued the paper for $2 million and filed a union grievance. The suit was thrown out of court, and the grievance ended in one of those secret settlements that each side promises the other to describe as “amicable” until hell freezes over. Hanania turned consultant and launched the Urban Strategies Group, a big name for a one-man shop above Daley Plaza. An overnight celebrity, Santos didn’t look back; in the cruelest send-up of last April’s Gridiron show, the Tribune’s Jessica Seigel warbled, “Don’t cry for me, Hanania. The truth is, I had to leave you. I’m glad I knew you, but I outgrew you. It’s just a new way for me to screw you.”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The 38th District runs along both sides of the Cook County-Will County line in the southwest suburbs. The area’s so Republican that no Democrat bothered to file for the primary, and afterward party leaders asked Hanania if he wanted to take a shot. It wasn’t as if Hanania had too many other things to do.
Hanania’s running against Republican Larry Wennlund, an assistant minority house leader who’s already been endorsed by the Tribune, the Sun-Times, and the Southtown Economist, where Hanania once worked for seven and a half years. He’s not surprised, though being a reporter himself he’d thought that just maybe . . .
A wordsmith, Hanania composed the campaign motto, “Let’s give Illinois politics a wake-up call” and the billboards “Elect Ray Hanania for state representative. UH HUH.” These appeals to a galvanized citizenry have not fetched celebrity Democrats to his side. Have you campaigned with Braun? we asked him. “No,” he said. “I’m not exactly the most popular magnet with other candidates. This may go back to ‘Oh, Mayor Daley doesn’t like him. The Sun-Times fired him.’ I sent out letters to people asking if they’d come to my fund-raisers, and I only got two responses from politicians–Maria Pappas and David Orr.”
What’s in an Endorsement?
