re of Chicago politics in the post-Richard Daley era, when Democrats and Republicans both campaigned against Harold Washington (who successfully became Chicago's first black mayor) on thinly-veiled racial platforms, the pressures on the Moseley-Braun family would have been as much from exterior sources as from the usual conflicts within.
Although carrying a full load as attorney-mother-and-social maverick, in 1978 Carol Moseley Braun set off on her own in the legislative world by running for the Illinois State Legislature - and winning. According to Sue Purrington, Moseley Braun's legislative aide during those early years:
It was immediately obvious that Carol was in her element. She like the power play and the control (Schneider & Tamarkin, p. 45).
This was her first foray outside the world of Chicago politics - and by all accounts she was comfortable in it. She became noted for her ability to bring prosecutorial fervor to her debate-floor advocacy of whatever issue she was championing (usually of a traditionally liberal-Democratic bent). In a like mann
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