By Bill Cameron, WLS-AM News

(CHICAGO)  President Barack Obama has endorsed State Rep. Ken Dunkin’s (D-Chicago) opponent, Juliana Stratton, in the Democratic primaries. Bill Cameron has  Mayor Emanuel’s take.

Rahm is Obama’s former chief of staff and says his very unusual endorsement of Stratton over Duncan the maverick means Obama wants an end to the budget deadlock in Springfield.

“It’s time for us to get a budget,” Emanuel said. “It’s time for us to work together to get a budget to put the people first. From education, where we are now literally holding back poor kids who are accomplishing great things educationally,  they aren’t funding it correctly. So the fact that we now have kids leaving college because our state government doesn’t have the right budget priorities. That’s what the endorsement’s about. Its not a political endorsement. It’s an endorsement to move forward and finally get the city and the state, most importantly, moving forward.”

But if Dunkin wins, it would be a big embarrassment for Obama.

@ 2016 WLS News