What Change Will Obama Make?

Alice Palmer

Alice Palmer represented the 13th senatorial district on Chicago’s South Side from 1991 to 1997, prior to the election of Barack Obama to that seat. Born in Indianapolis in 1939, Palmer was editor of the Black Review Press, a Marxist political organ. According to an article on CNSNEWS.COM, in 1986, she traveled to the Soviet Union to report on the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. According to the official newspaper of the Communist Party USA, she had nothing but praise for what she saw. “We Americans can be misled by the major media,” Palmer was quoted as saying in the June 19, 1986 issue of the People’s Daily World, currently called the People’s Weekly World. “We’re being told the Soviets are striving to achieve a comparatively low standard of living with ours, but actually they have reached a basic stability in meeting their needs and are now planning to double their production,” she added. The subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union exposed just how inaccurate were Palmer’s reports.

Palmer gravitated to the Chicago area to work for former mayor Harold Washington. As a member of the Illinois State Senate, Palmer left no record of legislative accomplishment. She was a reliable advocate for big government programs, universal health care, abortion rights, gay rights, and income redistribution. She was in the back pocket of organized labor, particularly the teachers unions. In that sense, she represented the views of the blacks and white liberals in her senatorial district which encompassed the Hyde Park community surrounding the University of Chicago.

In a rare act of political courage, however, she opposed the parole of Larry Hoover, leader of the 20,000-member Gangster Disciple street gang from his 150-year sentence for murder. Palmer was among just four area lawmakers to oppose the parole, which was supported by the criminal gang which had gained significant political clout in the city. Hoover’s support in the black political community, however, exposed the degree of gang influence over Democratic politicians and the corrupt nature of Chicago politics. It is not surprising that a candidate of Barack Obama’s ilk could emerge from this political environment.

When Congressman Mel Reynolds was forced to resign from his Second District U.S. House seat in 1994, Palmer was prompted to run in the subsequent Democratic primary to replace him. She eventually finished third in a three-way race, behind Jesse Jackson, Jr. who eventually captured the seat.

In anticipation of trading her state senate seat for a seat in Congress, Palmer supported Barack Obama as her successor. It was in the home of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, former members of the Weather Underground, that Palmer introduced Obama to Democratic political activists in her Hyde Park neighborhood.

Although she had anointed Barack Obama as her successor, she reversed course and decided to run for re-election to her state senate seat. Obama successfully challenged enough nominating signatures to disqualify her and three other candidates, ultimately running unopposed. It was a telling example of Obama’s ruthless political ambition, a subject which received scant coverage in Chicago area newspapers. The incident caused a falling out between her and Obama. Palmer eventually endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. Later, Obama told the Chicago Tribune “I liked Alice Palmer a lot. I thought she was a good public servant. It was very awkward. That part of it I wish had played out entirely different.”

More on Palmer:

Los Angeles Times article
Article on Palmer - 2nd article on page
Wikipedia