As boxer Mike Tyson famously said, \u201cEveryone has a plan until they get punched in the face\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
When\u202fLa Shawn\u00a0Ford got punched in the face\u00a0\u2014\u00a0or more aptly, hit below the belt\u00a0\u2013\u202f by\u00a0a multi-million dollar\u00a0attack ad campaign by cryptocurrency interests, he hit back. But he stayed on plan. He had insisted since last fall that his campaign strategy was not to raise millions of dollars and carpet the neighborhoods with mailers, but to focus on the people\u00a0he has met\u00a0in the 7th Congressional\u00a0district, and\u00a0rely on a network of political allies to bring in the vote beyond his 8th State House district power base.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ford said some people had urged him to reach out and connect with big money donors and spend \u201chours and hours\u201d\u00a0soliciting\u00a0funding. He\u00a0chose\u00a0another way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI spent hours and hours connecting with people in the community,\u201d he said. \u201cI was just hopeful the people who voted for me over the years, who saw me get up every day and work for them, would respond and listen. I put out my record, which is to be ready, on day one, to serve.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
As expected, Ford was outraised by three rivals.\u00a0Jason\u00a0Freidman raised $2.5 million, Dr. Thomas Fisher raised $800,000 and Melissa\u00a0Conyears-Ervin raised $620,000. Ford took in $495,000. But what he\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0have planned for was contending with an\u00a0unprecedented\u00a0amount of outside PAC money spent both supporting his main rival\u00a0Conyears-Ervin and attacking him in\u00a0starkly\u00a0personal terms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition,\u00a0Conyears-Ervin, the current Chicago\u00a0city treasurer,\u00a0benefitted\u00a0from $4,968,000 in supportive advertising by The United Democracy Project, which is\u00a0affiliated\u00a0with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
The next closest 7th Congressional\u00a0District\u00a0candidate in outside support advertising, Anthony Driver, had $457,000 spent by union PACs for his campaign, less than a tenth of\u00a0Conyears-Ervin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But no one in an Illinois Congressional race this primary had the amount of money spent attacking them as Ford; cryptocurrency PAC\u00a0Fairshake\u00a0spent $2,464,000 on two TV ads and at least one mailer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The ads implied that Ford had been convicted of felonies related to bank fraud, that he was part of a pattern of corruption and had engaged in a \u201cmisuse of power\u201d as a\u00a0state representative.\u00a0Both Ford and current Congressman Danny K. held separate press\u00a0conferences\u00a0denouncing the innuendo and outright falsehoods in the ads. \u201cIt could be so damaging to my reputation,\u201d Ford said at the time. \u201cIt could have an impact on the outcome of the election.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Days before the election, Ford announced he had sent a cease-and-desist order to\u00a0Fairshake, demanding they stop airing the ads.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There\u2019s\u00a0no sure way to\u00a0determine\u00a0what if any impact the ads had, but they\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0sink Ford\u2019s candidacy. As the votes were\u00a0tallied\u00a0election night,\u00a0Conyears-Ervin was able to stay slightly ahead of Ford in the\u00a0city wards.\u00a0With 277 of 299 precincts reporting, she had 23.8 percent, 14,543 votes, to Ford\u2019s 23.64 percent, 14,445 votes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Ford took 7,720 votes in Oak Park, River Forest and much of Proviso Township, far outpacing\u00a0Conyears-Ervin\u2019s 4,462 votes, 24.4 percent to 14.1 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Conyears\u00a0Ervin,\u00a0was gracious in defeat. \u201cTonight, I spoke with Rep.\u00a0La Shawn\u00a0Ford and congratulated him on his victory,\u201d she said. \u201cI pledged to work closely with him as\u00a0city treasurer\u00a0to lift up the West and South Sides and address the financial literacy gap within the Black community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ford said he made the decision to stay with values\u00a0he\u2019d\u00a0held through two decades in the Illinois House, \u201cThe old-time way of campaigning, knocking doors and phone calls.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of course, he had some things that money\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0buy, including the support of the incumbent he\u00a0sought\u00a0to replace. \u201cDanny K. Davis\u2019s endorsement was major,\u201d he said. He also had the backing of Speaker of the Illinois House Chris Welch, who played a key role for Ford in Proviso township.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ford said he planned to contact each of his primary opponents and ask them to be part of a unity gathering soon, saying, \u201cIt\u2019s very, very important those people are at the table with their ideas.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ford said he has consistently supported progressive goals that help his constituents. He said those goals must sometimes be tempered by patience, and that he plans to take that patient and respectful approach to Washington. Just as with voters, he said, trust is crucial in working with fellow lawmakers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have to know they can trust you,\u201d he said. \u201cWithout that trust, it\u2019s difficult to get things done. Being a legislator for 19 years,\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0been to Washington (D.C.)\u00a0and met with leadership and\u00a0rank and file. The best way to get things done is to get to know people, not go in blazing, and pushing members on progressive ideas before getting to have a relationship with them.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As boxer Mike Tyson famously said, \u201cEveryone has a plan until they get punched in the face\u201d\u00a0 When\u202fLa…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":678598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,125569,5386,1818,280230,280744,141653,43273],"class_list":["post-678597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-chicago","tag-chris-welch","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-jason-friedman","tag-la-shawn-ford","tag-melissa-conyears-ervin","tag-mike-tyson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116284840060088122","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}