In February, Democratic politician Lori Lightfoot suffered what the NY Times called “a resounding defeat” in her bid for re-election as the mayor of Chicago.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/28/us/chicago-mayoral-election-lightfoot-vallas.html
But now she has bounced back! Today it was reported that she has accepted Harvard’s generous offer to teach a course tentatively titled “Health Policy and Leadership.” The Powers That Be (at Harvard) seem to believe that Lightfoot demonstrated health policy leadership during her time as Chicago’s mayor.
Would Lightfoot have received such an offer if she were a Republican rather than a Democrat? Her Harvard teaching gig is paid for by the Menschel Fellowship. . . which does what exactly? “The Menschel Fellowship is designed to bring distinguished leaders from government and other sectors to campus to share their experiences with our students.” Or so says Harvard.
As the Chicago Sun Times points out, “Previous Menschel fellows have included former mayors and governors. Last year, former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and former Boston Mayor Kim Janey were fellows.”
Hmmm. Blasio – Democrat. Janey – Democrat. Lightfoot – Democrat. . . A PATTERN BEGINS TO EMERGE!
Where is the list of Republican former elective-office-holders who have been offered teaching positions by Harvard’s Menschel Fellowship? . . . No such list exists because no Republicans were offered the fellowship. (Or perhaps one or more Republicans were offered the fellowship but chose not to accept it, though that seems unlikely.)
When I checked the entire list of former U.S. politicians honored with the Menshel Fellowship at Harvard over the last ten years, here is what I found:
2023: Lori Lightfoot – former mayor of Chicago, IL – DEMOCRAT
2022: Bill de Blasio – former mayor of NYC, NY – DEMOCRAT
Kim Janey – former mayor of Boston, MA – DEMOCRAT
Stephen Benjamin, former mayor of Columbia, SC – DEMOCRAT
2021, 2020: no U.S. politicians received the Menschel Fellowship
2019: Peter Shumlin, former governor of Vermont – DEMOCRAT
Jeffrey Sanchez, former member of the Mass. House of
Representatives – DEMOCRAT
Jay Nixon, former governor of Missouri – DEMOCRAT
2018: Ted Strickland, former governor of Ohio – DEMOCRAT
2017: Donna Shalala, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services – DEMOCRAT
Gina McCarthy, former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – DEMOCRAT
Steven Beshear, former U.S. governor of Kentucky – DEMOCRAT
2014: Jim Doyle, former governor of Wisconsin – DEMOCRAT
2013: JudyAnn Bigby, former secretary of Health and Human Services for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts – DEMOCRAT
