Keyes sets up house in Cal City (original) (raw)

With the unloading of a bed frame, box spring and mattress from a rented Budget truck, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes moved into the second-floor apartment of a Calumet City two-flat Thursday.

Trying to squelch critics’ claims that he is a carpetbagger running to represent a state where he’s never lived to benefit his public speaking and commentary career, Keyes picked the south suburb because it is “almost a microcosm of Chicago but also of Illinois.” The town is ethnically and racially diverse and Keyes’ new neighbors include African-Americans, Hispanics and Caucasians.

After asking his staffers, “Where do people who have to work for a living live?” Keyes said he found Calumet City to be a place “where the challenges are real, but where the efforts that have been made to address those challenges are also real.”

Calumet City and other nearby towns have suffered a loss of jobs with the closings of many industrial businesses in recent decades.

Two Keyes staffers arrived at the home a little before 8 p.m. and carried the bed parts up the wooden back stairs as downstairs neighbor Yolanda Genus was about to eat dinner.

Although a Democrat and Barack Obama supporter, Genus said she’d be willing to hear out her upstairs neighbor.

“Everybody has their viewpoint,” she said. “I’m willing to listen to what he has to say.”

Genus also believes Keyes will “do some good for the neighborhood” because he may bring more city services. to the area.Keyes, a former UN ambassador who has raised his family in Maryland, entered the race Sunday, replacing former GOP candidate Jack Ryan. Keyes and Obama are vying to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, who’s not seeking re-election.

Keyes’ aides rented the apartment Monday during a quick search for a temporary home that would allow him to establish residence in Illinois.

After visiting the apartment Tuesday, “We went to a restaurant and ate and ending up chatting, I think, three or four hours,” with area residents, Keyes said earlier this week. “It was a lot of fun.”

Keyes had told his aides that he wanted to find a place to “hang my hat,” for the duration of the campaign, and that it should be in a working-class neighborhood out of the way from downtown. Told that his downstairs neighbors were Democrats who support Obama, Keyes replied, “You never know, that might change.”

Keyes said he will have to “consult with my wife” about finding a permanent residence if he wins the Senate seat.

Keyes’ entrance into the race–and the publicity he has generated–have prompted the Obama campaign to consider spending some of its campaign reserves on TV ads. “We are considering going on TV as early as Monday,” said Robert Gibbs, Obama’s communications director. He declined to say how much commercial time might be purchased, but Obama had $3 million in the bank at the end of the last campaign-finance reporting period, which ended June 30.

On Thursday, Obama accepted the endorsement of the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police. The union endorsement was not particularly surprising, since the FOP endorsed another Democrat, Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes, in the primary election.

In backing Obama, union officials cited Obama’s longtime support of gun-control measures, particularly his call for extending the federal assault weapons ban, set to expire Sept. 13. Officials also said that while they have not always sided with the liberal state senator from Hyde Park, they found that he was willing to negotiate meaningful compromises on legislation either backed or opposed by the FOP.

Originally Published: August 13, 2004 at 3:00 AM CST