Down to the wire for Preckwinkle and Lightfoot as Chicago mayor

Toni Preckwinkle

It’s getting close to the wire for Chicago mayoral candidates Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle, for next Tuesday’s election, as they exhaust themselves, running from pillar to post, in appearances across the city, making their voter pleas in what is bound to be a historic election: the city’s second elected black mayor, and with Lightfoot, an open lesbian in a city known for its strong LGBT community with a multitude of organizations, political pull, and money.

Both candidates have received significant endorsements: Preckwinkle from the Chicago Teachers Union and Service Employees International Union, all very powerful organizations, but Lightfoot has received the endorsement of former mayoral candidate rival Gery Chico and LiUNA Laborers, who were key supporters of Susan Mendoza, giving her increased support from the Latino community on the city’s Southwest Side

She also has an endorsement former Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who previously forced Emanuel into a runoff, at the last election, giving her a winning edge.

Notably, Lightfoot has also received the endorsement from all of her other former rivals, while Preckwinkle has received none, despite her influence as Democratic party head and county board head, and close relationships with the Black South Side elite, such as Valerie Jarrett, and former President Barack Obama, and his wife Michelle, whose spokesperson says that they will be endorsing neither candidate.

Preckwinkle was seen as seemingly invincible, to many, and in her current positions, practically oozed front runner status, until the primary, in February, that saw her lead crumble under the weight of her association with, now disgraced, long time Alderman Ed Burke, facing federal racketeering charges for attempting to shake down a local Burger King franchise.

With strong liberal credentials on a host of issues: equal sentencing guidelines for black prisoners and support for fair drug laws, and incarceration, the former school teacher seemed ready made as a progressive.

Preckwinkle initially denied any association with Burke and said that she was only a friend of his wife Anne, until the Chicago Tribune revealed that she was the beneficiary, not only of a private fundraiser at his home, but also the intended beneficiary of the Burger King shake down money, creating a whopper of a mess.

Her reputation was further shattered after Chicago Tribune investigations revealed that she hired Burke's son, for a county job, for security duties, associated with Homeland Security, having worked for Sheriff Tom Dart.

While the hire itself, was not the problem, what was, is that he was “under internal investigation for allegedly making inappropriate sexual comments at the sheriff’s office when Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s administration hired him to a nearly $100,000 per year job, newly released records show,” reported the Chicago Tribune.

Taxes also came into play this past year, when she added the sweetened beverage tax that limited household income, and included some layoffs for those working in the beverage industry and, while condemned by many who objected to yet another increased tax, (along with an existing 7 cents city shopping bag tax); which after public hue and cry, was later rescinded.

Critics also felt that Preckwinkle was attempting to boondoggle them with her attempt to push the tax through with a “funded” report by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the University of Chicago, who seemed all too willing to take the billionaires money, a move that the media called unethical.

For those with long memories, some may also remember when becoming county president, she promised to lower the taxes from her predecessor, Todd Stroger, only to increase them later, by bumping sales tax to its current level of 10.25 percent, now increasing the cost of everything from a latte, to a Buick.

Lightfoot attacked on several fronts

Lightfoot, while gaining in popularity, and votes, faced a vicious attack for her sexuality with “gay agenda” flyers placed on the car windshields of worshipers, one recent Sunday, at black churches; a move that was decried by local bishop and influential community leader, Bishop Larry Trotter, the senior pastor of Chicago's Sweet Holy Spirit Church.

Trotter, “who lobbied against same-sex marriage in Illinois in 2013, also condemned the flyers, (along with Preckwinkle) saying they are “not reflective of any black church in Chicago,” in his media statement, reported by nbcnews.com

She also faced a partisan attack came from fellow Democratic lawmaker, an old-school black activist, the legendary Bobby Rush, who said this week that “If any young black male or female is killed by a police officer, under a Lightfoot administration, then the blood would be on those voters’ hands who elected her,”

Critics say that Rush, who supports Preckwinkle, has a horse in this race, to keep his elder statesman status in a city council where he might not fare as well with the younger Lightfoot as mayor, and in concert with newly elected younger alderman, many of whom may have no memory of his 70s era activism.

If all this sounds precedent shattering, then it is, and Rush’s critics often assail his long-term reign as indicative as another example of machine politics, albeit with a different complexion.

“Lori Lightfoot has made an alliance with the devil,” he said.

Lightfoot called the remarks hate-filled and asked Preckwinkle to denounce them, reported local NBC affiliate Chicago 5.

“While I’m saddened by what we heard on Saturday, I know that Chicagoans will reject the rhetoric of division,” Lightfoot said in a statement. “I know because I have been talking to people from one of this city to the other, and it’s clear that they want and deserve a better government.”

Lori Lightfoot

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Preckwinkle, in a tart response, said Rush is “a pillar in the civil rights movement in this city and is more than capable of speaking on his beliefs.”

“What I can speak to is that we cannot overlook the concerns of black and brown communities about the fairness of the criminal justice system. Lori has been a part of that system and there are many people that have real fears about how that would impact her ability to work for real reform.” Preckwinkle added in another statement.

“If Lori had more experience working with these communities she would know that and respond to those concerns instead of demeaning them. Lori's response to this is the definition of divisive. By not recognizing the legitimacy of their feelings, by trying to silence and remove them, by choosing to condemn rather than engage, Lori marginalizes the most vulnerable,” she continued.

Marshalling all forces, for some, means commingled opposition to Lightfoot and United Working Families (UWF), “an independent political organization formed by progressive labor and community organizations, today released a video in support of the #StopLightfoot campaign helmed by young Black organizers and activists on the frontlines of the fight to end police violence.”

Representing a redefinition of progressive, UWF represents older established organizations, individuals, smaller progressives, such as “Action Now, Chicago Teachers Union, Cook County College Teachers Union, Grassroots Illinois Action, SEIU Healthcare,” to name a few, has noted that "At a time when James Cappleman, who approved the Lincoln Yards giveaway, and Joe Moreno, who oversaw massive gentrification and displacement in Wicker Park, call themselves 'progressives,' we think the term needs some clarification," said UWF Executive Director Emma Tai.

The hot button issue of police brutality toward young black men in Chicago has become a defining issue for many, and after the shooting of Laquan McDonald, and Lightfoot's role as former head of the police review board, this has fueled opposition to her candidacy, not only from Rush.

"Protecting Rekia Boyd's killer is not progressive. Being the face of Rahm Emanuel's 'police reform' is not progressive. And turning closed schools into cop academies is not progressive, said Tai, in a statement, and also, "We stand in solidarity with the Black organizers and activists who are drawing a line in the sand on this. Lori Lightfoot is not progressive."

Lightfoot has also received a large check from a so-called “dark money group, designated as a 501 ( c ) 4, which is not required to reveal its identity and is anathema to progressives; and, which Preckwinkle immediately denounced, in an interview with a local public radio station: “My opponent portrays herself as progressive and this is antithetical to progressive values,” Preckwinkle told WBEZ on Wednesday. “By definition, these dark money PACs are not transparent, so it’s hard to know who’s attempting to influence the race or the next mayor.”

Polls and negativity continue

NBC 5 has reported “With a little over a week left until the runoff election in Chicago, a new poll released Monday showed Lightfoot with a large lead in the race. The Temkin/Harris Poll, conducted in partnership with Crain’s Chicago Business and WTTW News, polled 500 likely voters by phone last week and showed Lightfoot up 53 percent to Preckwinkle’s 17 percent. Twelve percent of respondents were undecided.”

As the election gets nearer, the negativity among the two women increases, and Preckwinkle has publicly chastised, some say from her weakened position, about Lightfoot's role in 2004 “for allegedly mishandling evidence following a fire that left four children dead. It was the subject of a lawsuit about operations at the 9-1-1 center, said CBS Radio, WBBM in a preview of a joint appearance on its weekly political show, “At Issue” airing this Sunday.

“You have to take responsibility and try to fix things and not cover up,” Preckwinkle said.  “In this instance, I think it’s quite clear the judge felt that there was a coverup.”

“Lightfoot, onetime chief of staff of the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, countered that using the deaths of children to score political points is beyond the pale.”

Looking back at the incident the Chicago Sun Times recalled the details: “The fire happened Sept. 24, 2004, at the Funches family home at 5056 W. Huron. The parents were at a nearby church event, and three of their children were home, along with a godson.

The fire appears to have started in a TV set, records show.

A number of people called 911 to report the fire, but central to the Funches’ lawsuit was that early calls were ignored or dropped by dispatchers, delaying a response by firefighters.”

There was some back and forth on whether Lightfoot handled a request for information correctly by assigning it to a secretary, court records show; and also, her recollection of events, and procedures, which some, say are sketchy, yet she herself admitted that her memory may have been faulty.

“I recall that by Saturday morning, and it’s possible earlier, there were allegations that calls came into 911 and that they couldn’t get through or they were hung up on,” Lightfoot said, according to a transcript of the deposition. “And so part of what I set about doing that day was working with staff to track down every single call that came in in connection with that fire, and to get the tapes and to listen to the tapes to understand exactly what was what”, the Sun-Times noted.

It was later discovered that despite her orders, some tapes were actually destroyed.

Money is in the picture

As a coda to the negativity, last week saw a massive influx of TV ads for Lightfoot, and none from Preckwinkle, leaving some to feel that the former has run out of money, forcing her to keep the heat on Lightfoot.

Speaking of money, and in another context, both candidates have not addressed, at least in specificity, how Chicago’s economic hole can be filed with what some are saying is a $32 billion deficit, with much of that coming from pension obligations -- as tax weary Chicagoans don’t want further increases, after a plethora passed by incumbent Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

In July of 2018, Reuters reported that, “Under Illinois law, the city must make actuarially determined contributions to its police and fire funds starting in 2020. The analysis shows city payments to its four retirement funds will climb from $1.02 billion this year to $2.13 billion in 2023,” further noting that, “Chicago’s budget gap is projected to grow to nearly $252 million in fiscal 2020 and $362 million in fiscal 2021.”

There is the specter of a commuter tax and a real estate transfer tax, both of which would not endear either woman to Chicago’s powerful business community that seems to be at odds on who to support after a tight relationship with the outgoing Emanuel, with most favoring Bill Daley.

After the February primary, Crain’s Chicago Business opined that, “Left out in the cold, or at least in the position to have to make some amends fast, is the city's business community. It threw substantial support to apparent third-place finisher Bill Daley, with some privately cheering for Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza. Now it will have to choose between two self-declared progressives, including one, in Preckwinkle's case, who is extremely close to organized labor.”

Now closer to the runoff election, Crain's Chicago Business, in an editorial, gave lukewarm, or faint praise at best, for either Lightfoot or Preckwinkle’s statements on the financial problems seen previously, noting that “Neither Lightfoot's nor Preckwinkle’s rhetoric on the campaign trail inspires confidence that they appreciate the scope of Chicago’s financial problems or possess the will and the know-how to make the unpleasant choices the next mayor must make to fill a budget gap projected to grow to more than $360 million by fiscal 2021.”

Perhaps, In a nod to a possible Lightfoot victory, they now claim: “On the financial front, Chicagoans must urge Lightfoot, if elected, to make balancing the budget job one. When asked, she cites the Civic Federation, a nonpartisan government watchdog, as a trusted resource—and that’s a good thing. Now those who care deeply about the city’s future as a place to live, work and invest must hope she will follow that reliable organization’s advice and surround herself with the right fiscal stewards to steer Chicago back toward solvency. If she fails to do this, then all the other promises she has made on the campaign trail will amount to little more than hot air.”

Affordable housing

One of the more important issues is the lack of affordable housing and to help, by lifting the statewide ban on rent control, one bound to raise the ire of that same community, but as the city sees a significant exodus of Chicago residents each year -- with a large percentage objecting to higher housing it cannot be wholly ignored.

“In the eight years since Emanuel took office, Chicago’s skyline has become more crowded and its biggest businesses wealthier. But how to expand that success to a wider swath of Chicago has been a central point of this year’s local elections. Despite the surface-level image of a thriving metropolis, the city faces major economic challenges on several fronts. Chicago’s population continues to decline on an annual basis, led by an exodus of residents from its most blighted neighborhoods,” said Chicago Agent Magazine.

“As this campaign unfolds, both candidates are going to need to make an argument to the business and real estate communities on how they are going to address these problems, beyond platitudes,” said Brian Bernardoni, Chicago Association of Realtors senior director of government affairs and public policy.

Brian Bernardoni

“Clearly, rent control is an important issue for us,” he added, referring to CAR’s opposition to recent proposals to repeal the statewide ban on rent control policies, which would open the door to rent restrictions in Chicago. Of the two remaining candidates, only Preckwinkle has specifically voiced support for lifting the rent control ban, saying in a statement that she believed the option to restrict rents “should be given back to local municipalities so they can decide how rent control would best work for them.” At CAR’s Jan. 28 mayoral candidate forum, though, Preckwinkle was reluctant to discuss the issue, saying “I don’t think rent control is the issue we need to be focused on right now.”

“Lightfoot has been even less vocal on rent control, consistently dodging requests for her position and instead highlighting her plans for affordable housing. The movement to lift the ban has gained momentum in Chicago and is likely to continue dogging Realtors and their public policy initiatives.”

“Preckwinkle’s support of lifting the ban is a concern to us,” Bernardoni also said. “We believe that while we’re fighting this in Springfield right now, a pathway to rent control as documented and the pitfalls that can result are of great concern.”

All but for the fighting, say some, and on Tuesday, it will be all over.

Mayoral election in Chicago shows game change

Tuesday’s mayoral election in Chicago was a game change for the city, both a change in gender and race for the top job, for a city long segregated by race, and dominated by machine politics that governed, say its critics, by fiat.

The two front leads, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, and attorney and former police review board chief, Lori Lightfoot are poised to return, the spirit of the late Harold Washington, Chicago’s only previously elected black mayor, and one in who many residents felt was going to change the way government was run, but sadly ended in his death in 1987.

For Lightfoot, who lacked both a large campaign chest, and a troop of foot soldiers, the front lead was an affirmation of her self-identification of not being part of the machine, but also said that Chicago was ready for, and deserved, a change of leadership more associated with a grass roots style that focused on the world outside of the downtown Loop business center, and towards the hundreds of working families, and individuals, who want a more equitable local government.

Chicago has been tainted by scandal, for some time, with the revelation of aldermanic misdeeds, and that of others like former Chicago Public School head, Barbara Byrd Bennett, jailed for bribe acceptance, and falsified teacher training program with a former employer.

The recent raid on the City Hall office of the longtime head of finance on the city council, Ed Burke, has also given notice to most observers, that the end of machine politics may be nearer than previously many would have thought possible.

Reaching even further back there was former U.S. Federal Attorney for Northern Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald who, “As the top federal prosecutor in Chicago, Fitzgerald took down two former Illinois governors, George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich, sending them both to prison for corruption charges.”

For political observers who are sensing a pattern, they might be wise to begin with Fitzgerald.

Preckwinkle was given a surprising second place, as many had thought she should be the first, but her aborted sweetened beverage tax, and her association with a “funded” study by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, earned her the sobriquet of “boss”, just as she was ready to assume the mantle of a crusader for social justice reform: battling the unequal sentencing guidelines for black and white prisoners, and especially for those convicted of marijuana possession.

Then add to that, her denial of knowing Burke, until the Chicago Tribune revealed that she was the beneficiary of a fundraiser at his home, and then the hiring of his son.

Lightfoot on the other hand, untainted by Burke, campaign “donations”, and nepotism began to emerge as a crusader. And, getting added support from the LGBT community for being an openly gay woman, she began to emerge from the field of lesser known candidates.

With the aftermath of the Laquan McDonald shooting, and cries for the resignation of Emanuel, who was accused of hiding the police body cam tape of the shooting by officer Jason Van Dyke, many began to take an earnest look at her work on police accountability boards as a future mayoral candidate.

Some are scrambling, like the business community, for how to approach either woman, since they supported Bill Daley, as Crain's Chicago reported.

There may be a menu of long-neglected items forthcoming, and especially if Lightfoot wins the April runoff election: much needed work in the infrastructure outside of downtown, a sustaining need for Chicago Public Schools, especially in black neighborhoods, and the continued growth, sought by some with the end of moratoriums on charter schools, seen by the Chicago Teachers Union as siphoning off money from neighborhood schools.

Change also came for definite changes in the aldermanic races when a distinct left turn -- notably with the Democratic Socialists of America, where the lead was taken by a DSA veteran, Carlos Ramirez Rosa, and others; a total of five after the April election>

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that “If their success on Tuesday carries over to the April runoff election, as many as five members of the Democratic Socialists of America could be on the Chicago City Council — the most in more than a century.

“Shadowing the Congressional elections and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, prompted Ramirez-Rosa to state: “The oligarchs are shaking in their boots tonight,” Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) told supporters Tuesday at Puebla Restaurant celebrating his re-election over challenger Amanda Yu Dieterich,” reported The Chicago Sun-Times.

“Our continued organizing and movement-building over the last four years is paying dividends. And it appears to be a total transformation of political power at City Hall from the bottom up.”

This is not hubris say supporters, but a reflection of a new political reality.

The other, Daniel La Spata, upset Ald. Proco “Joe” Moreno in the Near Northwest Side’s 1st Ward, but this may also be a reflection of personal scandals on the part of the latter, and some questionable assertions by other, now ill-reputed aldermen.

“Socialist Rosanna Rodríguez-Sánchez will be in April’s runoff against incumbent Ald. Deb Mell (33rd). Rodríguez-Sánchez broke into tears at her election-night party at Chief O’Neils in Avondale after hearing she’d gotten the most votes in a three-way race.

“Chicago had a way of doing politics, and I feel like that died tonight,” Rodríguez-Sánchez said. “I’m very very confident that I’m going to win” in April.”

Mell whose father Dick Mell, for those with long memories, is not only part of Chicago’s dynastic political families but also had him famously jumping on his desk with a colorful style to make a point in establishing the successor to Washington.

“Byron Sigcho-Lopez, who heads the Pilsen Alliance, credited the socialist organization — which says it’s not a party but instead a “political and activist organization” — with helping him in the race for the seat vacated by retiring Ald. Danny Solis (25th).”

“DSA members were instrumental, and I’m thankful to the volunteers who spent hundreds — thousands — of hours campaigning,” Sigcho-Lopez said. “We’ve had a rubber-stamp City Council beholden to corporate interests, and that’s why the DSA candidates resonated with people.”

Andre Vazquez, who joined the socialists in June, will be in the runoff against 35-year incumbent Ald. Pat O’Connor (40th). O’Connor took over the powerful finance committee after Ald. Edward Burke was charged in January with trying to extort a Burger King owner.

As The Economist noted, “Looking past the label, however, American socialists are more progressive Democrats than Castros in waiting—and their rise poses more of a challenge to the Democratic Party than to capitalism.”

While a recent poll suggests growing support for the DSA, “the poll never defined “socialism”, so precisely what people were expressing support for remains unclear. For decades, the cold war defined it, at least for most Americans. They were capitalist and free, while socialism was a step removed, at best, from Soviet communism. Americans under 30 have no memory of the cold war. To them, socialism may be little more than a slur they have heard Republicans hurl at Democrats—particularly Barack Obama. They may well have reckoned that if supporting universal health care, more money for public education and policies to combat climate change are all socialist, then they are happy to be socialist too.”

“The platform of Bernie Sanders, the socialist who gave Hillary Clinton a run for her money in the 2016 Democratic primaries, left capitalism fundamentally intact, calling instead for a broader and more redistributive social safety-net. His supporters seem enamoured of Nordic-style social-welfare policies. But those countries are not socialist; they are free-market economies with high rates of taxation that finance generous public services. Indeed, the “socialist” part of those countries that Mr Sanders’s fans like would be unaffordable without the dynamic capitalist part they dislike.”

Maurice Isserman, a professor at Hamilton College and charter DSA member, “contends that DSA members “are not utopian, and we certainly don’t believe in Bolshevik-style revolution”. He approvingly cites Michael Harrington, the DSA’s founder, who said that the group should represent “the left wing of the possible”.

A surprise for some might be this: Sara Innamorato, a DSA member who won her election to the state house, from a heavily Democratic district of south-western Pennsylvania, says that “capitalism isn’t working…but I don’t think that capitalism and socialism are necessarily opposites. There are good lessons to be gained from both.”

Circling back to Chicago: historic change in the mayor’s office, and socialist wins in the aldermanic races, may mean that Chicago is truly ready for reform.