“While the charge against Bailey was brought in good faith based on witness accounts and identifications, additional information has developed … that warranted the dismissal,” Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said…Bailey’s mother said the three weeks of custody had changed her son’s life forever. Bailey had no previous criminal record, according to prosecutors. ”Can anyone imagine that kind of pain?” she said referring to his time in custody.

Oops.

• Our emails are written by real people, and we sign them as our own. You won’t get an email written by a campaign staffer that says it’s from David…[or] template pleas written by campaign finance professionals.
• Let us know… whether we’re contacting you too much or too little…
• A good amount of our communication is via  Twitter and Facebook. We like it, because it…allows you to have greater control over how you get our messages…”

On Friday, Hoffman’s opponent Alexi Giannouilas launched his own “personal Twitter page!” to go with the @alexi4illinois‘ ”campaign account, filled with staff & volunteer updates!” (One of those staff or volunteers is apparently a fan of John Edwards.)

The third major candidate in the Race to Replace Roland, Cheryle Robinson Jackson officially launched her campaign last week. Jackson’s Twitter style is much more personal and informal than her opponents, and she shares details on her campaign activities:

• On the horn dialing 4 $$$s all day! Going pretty well. Just had a great intv w/Roll Call n DC. Getting attn of natl media! How bout that!
• N DC 4 a rnd of mtgs w/Emily’s List, CBC & supporters. Gotta knock’em dead! BTW — it’s hot here! DC stole Chi’s summer – LOL!

While Twitter is still too new to have right or wrong approaches, we can conclude that the Hoffman campaign is more sparing than its opponents in the use of  exclamation points.

On the GOP side, Mark Kirk re-entered Twitter to announce a “site redesign” after about 6 weeks away. (The Kirk campaign had a rough Twitter summer, in case you missed it.) Last week’s fastest rising Senate candidate, Republican businessman businessman Patrick Hughes, hasn’t written anything in 3 weeks.

Elswhere on the ballot, Cook County Board President candidate Toni Preckwinkle’s campaign shared a photo of the candidate “hard at work making fundraising calls” and pushed out a survey on ” the most important issue facing Cook County government.” GOP Treasurer candidate Dan Rutherford conducted a more personal poll, via YouTube, about his grooming. (”Who wants a slick, greasy-haired, pinky-ring-wearing state treasurer?” snarked Illinois Review.)

The challengeris @2016olympicbid, the feed of the NoGamesChicago movement– or perhaps of No Games organizer Tom Tresser. 1835 followers, following 1939. (Not sure if the misleading id earns negative or extra points.) If @chi2016’s taste the last few days has been for the random celebrity, @2016olympicbid’s focus has been on factual nuggets peripheral to the bid:

• U.S. Olympic Cmte (USOC) interim CEO Stephanie Streeter is on the board of the Green Bay Packers
• As Oprah plays politics more, disrupts life for average Chicago people and considers herself elite, the queen’s TV ratings have slipped 7%
• Chris Kelly, Blago fundraiser, got millions in roofing contracts at O’Hare thanks to his buddy, Mayor Daley. The Chicago Way
• Chicago Mayor Daley opposed Barack Obama’s campaigns for Illinois State Senate, U.S. Congress and U.S. Senate primary
• Chicago, Soldier Field, Mayor Daley and Bears co-owner Pat Ryan charge the highest parking rates of any venue in the NFL

@2016olympicbid wins the Tweet-off on the 5th ballot, for joining the righteous chorus against the Olympics propaganda messages on CTA buses. (CTA Tattler notes that “we riders don’t really have any control over which city actually wins the Games on Oct. 2, so why subject us to these “commercials”?.) At this point, we could ask the same thing of the twitter campaigns….

So we took a glance at the Party’s calendar page to find the details on when and where the meeting would take place– perhaps a list of which candidates will present when, maybe even a link to a candidates questionnaire. As you can see, there is no mention of today’s meeting or any of the candidates, though there is a big graphic announcing John Fritchey’s campaign kick-off from 7 months ago.

Other things we picked up from Joe Berrios” site:

• It mis-spells the name of the Party’s City Vice-Chairman, Ald. Freddrenna Lyle.
• An indictment for bribery is not enough to disqualify Alderman Isaac Carothers from serving as the Party’s Executive Vice-Chairman.
• There are some great photos– even if the most recent ones are two years old. We particularly liked this one of the Mayor and Chairman Berrios.

(PS- Steve Rhodes previewed John Cullterton’s new media strategy, and his new site, www.SenateDem.ilga.gov, last month.)

Toni was mostly dry and one could tell she was sort of an unknown to many; her cheering section was very light. Danny was Danny.  The forum was his territory so he had an automatic following.  Dorothy seemed like a preacher and whiny. Stroger did quite well. He made a play for the youth vote by stating his age of 46.  He made a comparison to City government and how Daley has raised taxes many times over the years AND still has a $500 million deficit– Cook has no such deficit.  (Adds fuel to the fire that there is a racial double-standard.) The moderator (Cliff Kelly) was not great– not many could control a sometimes an unruly crowd and a panel of egomaniacs.

It was clearly a black nationalist affair— the few white folks in attendance must have felt uncomfortable when audience members and Stroger blamed the media and the white man for the lies. I like Todd to win again if the others split the anti-Stroger vote—the path is set for a well-financed white candidate to take it.

Apparently, Republicans weren’t allowed on the panel, but at least there was one in the audience, and on Twitter.

@mjcarrjr: Rep. Danny davis says “don’t expect to cut my hair if you ain’t an affirmative action barber.”

@adam_doster also tweeted the forum: ” Hey! There’s Laura Washington! I’ll have to tell her I changed out of my bathrobe before I left the office.” [Background on LW's dig on bathroom bloggers.] Adam also just posted a full length summary at Progress Illinois.

The implication of Dold’s report is that the President’s Senior Advisor, who is involved with nearly every aspect of the administration and spurned attempts to appoint her to the same seat last fall, is thinking of abandoning the White House after 7 months in favor of a hotly-contested, 14 month race with two primary opponents, one a record-breaking fundraiser, protege of the President who holds statewide office, the other a fellow African American woman, and a strong GOP candidate waiting. (The GOP badly wants to win Obama’s seat– imagine if they could defeat his  close friend and counselor while doing so.)

We’re skeptical.

Outside of Dold’s note on Chicago Toight, there has been a discernible lack of chatter online about Jarrett’s possible candidacy. (Meaning none.)  Since Friday evening, the Tribune has mentioned Jarrett four times without tying her to the Senate race.

Dold qualified his report by saying “someone like Valerie Jarrett” might leave the White House to “come back” to Illinois to run. Obama’s only other senior from Illinois is David Axelrod– perhaps Dold is suggesting that he’ll be a candidate?

We’re generally inclined to give the Pulitzer Prize-winning Dold the benefit of the doubt– after all, he’s broken more stories by 9 am than we ever will. Maybe he really does have a bead on what would be one of the biggest political stories of the year, and has chosen not to share it with any of his newspaper’s reporters. But we’re betting that Dold got caught up in the excitement of being on a televised coffee klatsch (with buzzing cell phones) and made a mistake.

Also on Monday, wealthy Northshore entrepreneur Kip Kirkpatrick announced his candidacy for Treasurer. A Democrat (albeit one who supported Republicans Mark Kirk and Rudy Giuliani in the ‘08 cycle, as well as Rahm Emanuel’s PAC), Kirkpatrick co-founded the private equity firm Water Street Healthcare Partners in 2005. Unlike Jackson, Kirkpatrick seems to have divorced himself from his employer, as he is no longer listed on Water Street’s masthead. (Dan Primack of Private Equity Hub explored the potential complications for Water Street should Kirkpatrick win. He garnered a statement from WSHP that it “will not solicit money from any Illinois state pension fund if [Kirkpatrick] is elected to the treasurer position.”)

(Mick Dumke is up with his thoughts on Sandi’s move.)

While 2011 is shaping up to be inopportune for many potential mayoral candidates, there remains a wild card in the from of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald whose team remains, presumably, actively curious about doings in and around City Hall. Likewise,  a lengthened recession, doomsday layoffs, more taxes and an additional PR disaster or two like the parking meter privatization could speed up the political timeline of some of the potential 2015  (’19?) candidates.