Cubs Owners the Ricketts Thursday "moved to control the fallout from a now-disavowed plan to politically attack President Barack Obama reportedly funded by family patriarch," Joe Ricketts, according to Harris & Dardick of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. A plan had been submitted to Joe Ricketts to use $10M "to fund Super PAC advertisements linking Obama to the controversial preaching of his onetime pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright." Cubs Chair Tom Ricketts, "who has been pushing a plan to get government help in rebuilding Wrigley Field," issued a statement distancing himself and the organization from that plan. The issue "was widely viewed as threatening to upend the delicate talks" between the Ricketts, the city and the state of Illinois to "work out a deal" that would involve using $150M in city amusement taxes for a $300M renovation of Wrigley Field. Chicago Mayor and former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel "blasted the proposed political attack on the president as an insult to the nation." The aide said that the Ricketts family "has tried to contact Emanuel to discuss the situation, but the mayor declined the overture" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 5/18).
A WRENCH IN THE WORKS? In Chicago, Spielman & Pallasch write, "The threat to resurrect the Wright controversy that Obama thought he put to rest during the 2008 campaign is poorly-timed for Joe Ricketts’ four children." The Cubs "were hoping for a vote on a state borrowing plan to bankroll the Wrigley renovation using tax-exempt bonds during the final two weeks of the Illinois General Assembly’s spring session, paving the way for construction to begin in October." City Hall sources said that before the controversy erupted this week, "talks with Emanuel were continuing with a 'sense of urgency' to accommodate the Cubs construction timetable'" (SUN-TIMES.com, 5/18). Also in Chicago, David Haugh writes Tom Ricketts has "worked hard at cultivating an Everyman image, and anybody who has spent time with him realizes how genuinely down-to-earth he has remained." One of the "hardest things for Ricketts to consider is the way this episode reminded everybody how elite his family's lifestyle truly is." Haugh: "A more pressing question for Ricketts looms: How can he repair his relationship with Emanuel, who reportedly was livid hearing plans to target his former boss in the White House?" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 5/18).
OIL AND WATER? In N.Y., Rutenberg & Zeleny note Cubs BOD members Pete and Todd Ricketts "attended the meeting in Chicago last week to review the advertising proposal, which was titled, 'The Defeat of Barack Hussein Obama.'" Meanwhile, Cubs BOD member Laura Ricketts is "one of the top contributors to Mr. Obama's re-election bid and is a member of the campaign's national finance committee." Tom Ricketts said that he "was not politically active" (N.Y. TIMES, 5/18).
