Big crowd for Sanders in Summit; Clinton hits Chicago Monday

SUMMIT – With a big Bernie Sanders rally shaping up at the Argo Community High School on Friday night in this suburb not far from Midway Airport, Hillary Clinton added a Chicago stop on Monday, the day before the Illinois primary.

Expected to appear at the Sanders rally: Ezra Koenig and Chris Tomson of Vampire Weekend.

The Sanders/Clinton showdown in Illinois is also a proxy fight against Mayor Rahm Emanuel, with Sanders’ biggest Chicago area backers the mayors major foes.

The Sanders campaign is even running an ad hammering Emanuel, who is backing Clinton but doing nothing in the campaign because the unpopular mayor is politically toxic.

A new ad features a staunch Emanuel critic, Chicago public school principal Troy Laraviere. In the spot he hits Emanuel saying, “In Chicago, we have endured a corrupt political system. And the chief politician standing in the way of us getting good schools is our mayor. If you have a presidential candidate that supports someone like our mayor, you have a candidate who is not willing to take on the establishment.”

This is more about Emanuel than Clinton.

Sanders and Clinton are both running heavy media and turn-out operations in Illinois in the days before the vote. Sanders, a campaign source said, is up with” broadcast, cable and radio statewide as well as Spanish TV and radio, African American cable and radio, and college cable.”

The Sanders spots that are up:

Works for Us All – Join Us

Social Security

Wheels of Inevitability

The Problem

Transformative Change

Better Possibilities

American Horizon

America 60

Together

Rock

Supports American Workers

Clinton will also be hitting Springfield on Monday, with her extra focus on home state Illinois coming after a surprise defeat in Michigan. As one of her supporters put it, in Illinois it’s better to be safe than sorry.

On Monday, Clinton will deliver a speech on economic opportunity at Plumbers Hall, 1340 W. Washington – and hold a photo op backstage for her new primary donors, according to a invite I saw.

OBSERVATIONS

Security is tight. My banana was seized.

And there will soon be a problem here. There are only three porto-potties.

And checking out the yard signs on the way here: far more for local judicial races than anything else. No Sanders or Clinton signs. After all, they are only running for president, not a Cook County judge.