Liberals across the country are cheering on Cook County Commissioner Chuy Garcia in his bid to defeat Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in their run off election on April 7, seeing him as the second coming of New York's far left mayor Bill de Blasio.

In truth, Garcia is making all the right noises but is a terrible campaigner and has little money compared to Rahmbo's war chest. But as the New York Times explains, the Garcia-Emanuel contest has implications far beyond Chicago:

But after Bill de Blasio’s mayoral victory in New York City and the rise of Senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts as a political force, progressive groups here and nationally are hoping to deal a blow to the Democratic Party establishment and its ties to business and wealthy donors. They believe that the election of another unabashed liberal as the mayor of a leading American metropolis would reverberate from City Hall to Washington to the 2016 presidential campaign.

“I think the whole country’s watching Chicago,” Mr. Garcia said in an interview at a law office in the downtown Loop with a view of Lake Michigan. “And it has implications for the Democratic Party and the elections next year in terms of Congress and the presidency.”

[...]

There are also local ideological factors at work. Mr. Emanuel is seeking re-election at a time when liberal activists here are deeply concerned about the moves by Gov. Bruce Rauner of Illinois, a Republican elected in November, to limit the influence of labor unions.

“There is general angst among labor and on the left because of Rauner,” said Thomas Bowen, a Democratic strategist in Chicago. “Rahm is the election in front of them right now.”

In a debate last week, Mr. Garcia repeatedly attacked Mr. Emanuel as a tool of the “rich and powerful” in Chicago. He said Mr. Emanuel was interested only in the priorities of “millionaires and billionaires.”

Still, Mr. Emanuel has been moving up in the polls since he was forced into a runoff, and his advisers say the left will find it difficult to defeat him.

Pressure from activists on the establishment is pushing Hillary and other Democratic candidates further left than they wish to go. This is happening at every level and opens up a golden opportunity for the GOP. This is especially true in the race for the White House. The closer Hillary gets to Elizabeth Warren's shrill, radical brand of liberalism, the easier it will be for the Republican nominee, whoever it is. to contrast his candidacy with Clinton's. Outside of Massachusetts, California, and a few other deep blue states, Warren/Clinton radical liberalism is electoral death. It would be an election where Clinton would be put in a position of not only defending Obama's liberal policies, but coming up with even more radical proposals.

A Republican nominee should be able to do very well if that scenario comes to pass.