Aldermanic Rematch of a sorts...

Ald. Stone and Naisy Dolar will face off again on the ballot this February -- but not for alderman. This time, they will represent the Clinton and Obama campaigns in their respective slate of delegates for the Democratic National Convention.

Greg Brewer was also asked to run as a delegate by a presidential campaign, but he declined.

This development constitutes a change in apparent support for Berny Stone. Last February, Stone and the Democratic Club of the 50th Ward attended Barack Obama's kickoff in Chicago with a big banner declaring their support for Obama.

Jan Schakowsky was largely responsible for the selection of delegates in the 9th Congressional District. Convention delegates are selected by Congressional District. Schakowsky had previously endorsed Dolar in her aldermanic race. I seem to recall Stone swearing revenge on Schakowsky for this breach in political etiquette (according to Stone's idea of this), although I hadn't noticed an opponent showing up in Jan's race. Of course, Stone has his hands full in his race for Democratic Committeeman with Ira Silverstein. And we saw how far his influence extended when he ran Mike Moses against Lou Lang.

I presume, but do not know, that Stone was frozen out of the Obama slate by the Congresswoman. But that doesn't explain why he would turn against Illinois' favorite son to run on the slate put up by Hillary Clinton. Nor does it explain why he would be slated at all. His history of falling asleep at City Council meetings follows him into political meetings, whether inside the 50th or at the Cook County Democratic Party level. Maybe Stone will send his proxy, if he gets selected -- in fact, Stone's history of sleeping may open the door for Naisy to vote at the Convention (she's running as an alternate). How a delegate gets selected to go depends on how well the presidential candidate they prefer does in that Congressional District, as well as how well the delegate did. Democratic rules require a balance of men and women delegates, so that plays a part as well. I'd bet that the fact that Berny is male had a lot to do with his inclusion on Hillary Clinton's slate.

Still, there's something poetic about Naisy and Berny squaring off again, even if indirectly. Whether intentional or not, the candidates they prefer reflect the message each ran with less than a year ago.