Rahm slammed for using ‘back door’ to settle old scores

You’d think Rahm Emanuel would have stayed far away from Tuesday’s primary election.

The mayor has enough problems of his own right now. Less than a year before Emanuel is up for a third term, voters remain in an ornery, anti-incumbent mood.

It probably wouldn’t have helped his friends in the primary race to be seen with him these days anyway.

But while Emanuel tried to keep a low profile during this election season, the mayor’s political-action committee still was writing some checks to the campaigns of a few primary candidates.

The contributions from his PAC included a big pile of cash that ended up being used in a hotly contested Cook County Board race — against a close ally of Emanuel’s longtime critic Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.

Let’s follow the money:

The mayor’s Chicago Committee gave $15,000 on March 10 to the 12^th Ward Regular Democratic Organization, according to campaign finance reports.

Four days later, in turn, the 12^th Ward Democrats contributed exactly $15,000 to County Board candidate Angie Sandoval, the records show.

Despite the 11^th-hour infusion of campaign cash from the 12^th Ward and a huge overall fundraising advantage, Sandoval lost to Alma Anaya. She’s the Garcia aide who’s running to replace Garcia on the county board.

Garcia won the Democratic nomination to succeed Luis Gutierrez in Congress on Tuesday. At the same time, Garcia led a primary slate that included Aaron Ortiz — who unseated state Rep. Dan Burke — and Anaya.

Garcia lost a runoff election for mayor to Emanuel in 2015, and he was talking about challenging the mayor again next year.

Although that rematch now won’t happen in the 2019 mayoral race, the funneling of the $15,000 from Emanuel’s PAC to a foe of Garcia’s protégé suggests the feud between the two men remains very much on.

Garcia didn’t return calls seeking comment Friday. But the Chuy-istas on the Southwest Side and other left-leaning allies of Garcia across the city say the mayor’s involvement in the Sandoval-Anaya race was noted — and not at all appreciated.

Emanuel “could have done it directly, instead of trying to hide the fact of what everybody knew, which was that he was in Angie’s corner against Alma,” said Clem Balanoff, the veteran political operative who worked on Anaya’s and Garcia’s campaigns.

“It certainly doesn’t do him any good in the long run,” Balanoff added. “I, for one, will not forget he thought it was worth jumping into this race, especially against a quality person like Alma.”

Pete Giangreco, the spokesman for the mayor’s political campaign, declined to comment. The Chicago Committee also made a few more, smaller contributions in the primary. But the $15,000 check to the 12^th Ward Democrats was larger than the rest of the contributions combined.

It also placed Emanuel squarely on the side of the Southwest Side’s Machine politicians in their long-running vendetta with Garcia and his independent allies.

The 12^th Ward Democratic committeeman is state Sen. Tony Munoz — who got his job 20 years ago by knocking off Garcia. In that 1998 race, then-Mayor Richard M. Daley’s Hispanic Democratic Organization targeted Garcia and backed Munoz.

Last month, Emanuel and Munoz appeared together at a news conference to call for state legislation that could deter the rising number of carjackings in Chicago.

Asked why Emanuel would have taken sides in the race without issuing a formal endorsement, Balanoff said he didn’t “really know what goes on in his mind.”

“He pretends he’s not involved in any races, and then he tries to do it by the back door,” said Balanoff, who is head of Our Revolution Illinois, a group that grew out of Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign.

“They’re ashamed of what they do, so they try to hide it. But in the end it all comes out.”