Who is Valerie Jarrett? |
Chicago crony? Rezko type slumlord? She may have hired Michelle Obama Four Times. |
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Editors published 11/9/2008 5:20:00 PM
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Valerie Jarrett is Obama’s choice to replace him in the Senate. Who is she exactly?
After a quick review, it's clear that Valerie Jarrett is a Chicago crony.
Valerie Jarrett is Michelle Obama's closest friend and may have hired her as many as 4 times over the years.
The Boston Globe says she may have a rather sorted past with housing corruption in a Rezko-type scheme. Human Events says "Valerie Jarrett, an Obama fundraiser and advisor, was the chief executive of a company that managed a housing complex that became so run-down it was seized by the federal government."
She is Michelle Obama's closest friend
Valerie Jarrett, a Chicago real estate developer who is one of Barack and Michelle Obama’s closest friends. “She’s poised to be one of the most influential people in politics, and particularly among African-Americans in politics,” [Obama pollster] Belcher told me. “She may be the next Vernon Jordan.” [actually she is Jordan's grand niece]
She hired Michelle Obama (maybe 4 times), according to Wiki
[Jarrett] Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor Richard Daley, during which time (1991) she hired Michelle Robinson, then engaged to Barack Obama, away from [the Chicago office of the law firm Sidley Austin].
[Michelle Obama] was hired as an Assistant to the Mayor, and as Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development.
Jarrett served as Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development from 1992 through 1995.
Jarrett is also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago Medical Center, Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago.
Michelle Obama served as the Associate Dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago, where she developed the University's Community Service Center. In 2002, she began working for the University of Chicago Hospitals, first as executive director for community affairs and, beginning May, 2005, as Vice President for Community and External Affairs.
Jarrett is also the Iranian of the Day.
Jarrett is a member of African-American and Chicago royalty. But her story and her life begin in the Middle East, not the Midwest. She was born in 1956 in Shiraz, Iran, about 570 miles south of Tehran. Her parents moved to Shiraz, known for its poets, wine and flowers, as part of a program that sent American doctors and agricultural experts to developing countries to help jump-start their health and farming efforts. Her father was on the staff of the brand new Nemazee Hospital, where Jarrett was born.
Newsweek says "Jarrett was Michelle Obama's mentor."
Even CBS agrees that Jarrett is one of the Michelle Obama's closest friends
Jarrett has now known the Obamas for 17 years, and is one of their closest friends, Couric reports. Her title on the campaign is senior adviser - which means she often serves as Obama's surrogate at meetings and events he can't attend. After Michelle, Valerie Jarrett may be one of the people he trusts the most.
The Boston Globe says she may have a rather sorted past with housing corruption.
Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Obama's presidential campaign and a member of his finance committee. Jarrett is the chief executive of Habitat Co., which managed Grove Parc Plaza from 2001 until this winter and co-managed an even larger subsidized complex in Chicago that was seized by the federal government in 2006, after city inspectors found widespread problems.
The squat brick buildings of Grove Parc Plaza, in a dense neighborhood that Barack Obama represented for eight years as a state senator, hold 504 apartments subsidized by the federal government for people who can't afford to live anywhere else.
But it's not safe to live here.
About 99 of the units are vacant, many rendered uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage. Mice scamper through the halls. Battered mailboxes hang open. Sewage backs up into kitchen sinks. In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale - a score so bad the buildings now face demolition.
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