With Friends Like This: in Chicago, GOP Donors Rushing to Rahmbo's Support

Of course they are. After all, they don’t call it the Combine for nothing:

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel received a big cash infusion to a super PAC supporting his re-election bid in the last weeks before the April 7 Democratic Party primary runoff election he faces against Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.

Standing out among the big contributions to Emanuel’s super PAC, Chicago Forward, is a $500,000 donation — more than half of the group’s fundraising haul for the month of March so far — from hedge fund billionaire and Republican donor Ken Griffin. Chicago Forward money is now being used to attack Garcia with negative television ads.

Raising money from Republican donors might seem odd for the former chief of staff to the Obama White House, but Emanuel’s campaign and super PAC have received millions from wealthy benefactors from the opposing party. In total, Republican donors have put more than $2.3 million behind Emanuel’s re-election since Jan. 1, 2013, according to Illinois campaign finance records. These contributions account for 10 percent of all donations Emanuel and his super PAC have received in that period of time.

I guess the new Republic motto is: in a battle between a red-diaper Lefty and a Hispanic Lefty, go with the other guy. Yeah, that’ll really help win over the Latino vote.

Emanuel has come under attack from Garcia and the coalition of progressive groups and labor unions backing him for siding with wealthy billionaires rather than working-class Chicagoans on several issues. These range from the closing of public schools to the direction of public pension money into hedge funds and other alternative investment accounts to the privatization of parking meters, roads, subway cards, school maintenance and other pieces of the city’s infrastructure.

All of this has been a boon to many financial investors. It just so happens that many of Emanuel’s Republican backers are wealthy investors themselves.

How about that! The Permanent Bipartisan Fusion Party takes care of its own.