By Neal Pollack
The Rush for Mayor Walk for Change, as his campaign was calling it, consisted of Rush, his press secretary, Bess Bezirgan, and a few campaign staffers, followed by about a dozen reporters and cameramen as well as a couple of bodyguards. They left the fruit market and stopped in at Captain Nemo’s, a sandwich shop at the corner of Clark and Jarvis. Rush extended his hand to the man behind the counter.
“I’ll take your soup,” Rush said, “but could you put a lid on that? I’m walking for change here. What I really want to do is hear your concerns as a voter of the city of Chicago.”
“Every soul to the poll!” he shouted again. “Time for change!”
The campaign initially wanted to visit a different neighborhood every day. On January 19 the walk went into Edgewater, but it didn’t resume again until the following Saturday, when it traveled along Devon from Western to Rockwell. Then Rush stopped walking for change.
Rush turned to leave, handing the man a button.
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With three weeks left to go until the election, the Rush campaign finally released its first official policy paper on the morning of Tuesday, February 2. Just before midnight on Monday, a fax was sent out announcing a press conference for 11 AM the next day, when Rush would “discuss his vision for the CTA and release his position paper on public transportation.”
