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viewwrangler · 5 years

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Chicago elections 2019

So it appears that as a result of last night’s effectively-a-primary election, Chicago will have

1) its second black mayor ever

2) its second woman mayor ever

3) its first black woman mayor ever, and

4) there’s a very strong possibility that it will have its first LGBT mayor ever

Not too shabby for one night’s elections, really.

Chicago poised to elect first African-American female mayor after Lori Lightfoot, Toni Preckwinkle advance (chicagotribune.com)

Chicago will elect its first African-American female mayor after former federal prosecutor Lori Lightfoot and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle won enough votes Tuesday amid a record field of 14 candidates to move on to an April runoff election.

It’s only the second time Chicago has had a runoff campaign for mayor, which occurs when no candidate collects more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round.

Unofficial results showed Lightfoot with 17.5 percent of the vote, Preckwinkle with 16 percent and Bill Daley with 14.7 percent, with 96 percent of precincts counted. [...] One of them will become Chicago’s second female mayor, following Jane Byrne, who served one term from 1979 to 1983. And if Lightfoot is elected, she would become the city’s first openly gay mayor. Both would become the second African-American elected Chicago mayor after Harold Washington, who served from 1983 until he died in 1987....

Historic Chicago election draws national spotlight, praise from black, LGBTQ communities: 'I think Chicago is potentially ready to turn the corner' (chicagotribune.com)

[...] after Tuesday’s election winnowed down 14 mayoral candidates to two African-American women, one of them openly gay, both Chicago voters and national political groups are focusing instead on how the city’s politics are set to change. [...] Longtime Chicagoan and former presidential candidate the Rev. Jesse Jackson said in a Facebook post that he “could not be prouder” of Chicago. “For the first time in history, the next mayor of Chicago will be a black woman,” Jackson said. “Two progressive African-American women will square off in the April 2 mayoral runoff. I could not be prouder of my beloved city. We made herstory tonight.”

Live Chicago election results (chi.vote)

It will be interesting to see how the votes redistribute in the April final election. Turnout will be sharply lower, one suspects -- it generally is in what feel like special elections -- which may favor Preckwinkle. Assuming that she can shed being attached somewhat indirectly to a big, spreading corruption investigation in City Hall, that is. (There was a big hand-wringing Tuesday morning and afternoon about turnout being sharply lower in this election -- they were predicting it could be the lowest and oldest and whitest turnout this century -- but there was a late surge that was bigger, younger, and browner. ‘Cause millennials -- and damn near everyone else -- gotta work, y’all. It may be a rule/union requirement that some people get time off for voting, but hell if there’s a single business going to let ‘em, you hear me?)

I am kind of impressed that the whole thing about Lightfoot being a lesbian -- and married with children, even -- is more or less relegated to a sort of, “Oh? Yeah? Interesting. But how’s she going to handle the unfunded pension mandates without raising taxes?” issue. As it should be. (Also, pretty sure the pension issue can’t be handled without more tax increases, unfortunately.)

Elsewhere in our elections, we seem to have a theme:

Chicago’s Election Signals Break from the Past — in Wards and at City Hall (propublica.org)

... That evening, as totals streamed in, it became clear that voters demanded a change. Hadden overwhelmed Joe Moore, a 28-year incumbent, with 64 percent of the vote. She became the first openly queer black woman elected to the City Council, and one of the first black aldermen ever to come from the North Side....

[...] Months ago, Moore sensed that his re-election bid in the city’s far northeast corner could be tough. He watched from afar as 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez toppled another Joe, longtime U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley, in a diverse, liberal New York City district not unlike the 49th Ward. In the age of President Donald Trump, Democrats seen as compromising or shopworn are sometimes viewed as part of the problem....

[...] By Tuesday afternoon, Hadden thought she had a chance. “But if nothing else, we’ve got new people voting, new people involved in the campaign, and we’re going to keep organizing,” she said. “In some ways, we’ve already won by putting the community’s vision first.”Within a few hours, she had won the election, too....

Teary Wrigleyville Ald. Tom Tunney claims victory in fight versus Ricketts family (chicagotribune.com)

A teary Ald. Tom Tunney claimed victory in his Wrigleyville battle against Cubs owners the Ricketts family [...] Fighting back tears, Tunney told supporters that he has sought to make sure the neighborhood is “successful with Wrigley Field in it.”

At his side was Mayor Emanuel, who said it’s important to support people who work hard, build schools, and invest in public safety and neighborhoods. “Tom's done that, and the people obviously reflected that,” Emanuel said."I think when you have somebody come in and say they're going to try to bigfoot the voice of the constituents, it's very important to see results like this," Emanuel told the Tribune. Asked if that was referring to the Ricketts family, which funded a group that sent out mailers against Tunney, the mayor brushed the question aside....

I should think the mayor would “brush the question aside”, yes.

Ald. Tom Tunney Holds On To His Seat In 44th Ward (blockclubchicago.org)

Incumbent Ald. Tom Tunney is poised to hold on to his seat in the 44th Ward.

With 95 percent of precincts reporting Tuesday night, Tunney had 63 percent of the vote, according to the Chicago Board of Elections. Challenger Austin Baidas was at 26 percent and Elizabeth Shydlowski was at 11 percent.

Tunney addressed supporters at a campaign party at El Jardin in Lakeview with outgoing Mayor Rahm Emanuel by his side.

“I’m grateful to the neighborhood for their support and will continue to work with the Cubs to make sure Lakeview remains one of the best neighborhoods in the city,” Tunney said. “I always have and always will believe in being a collaborative leader for the city.”

In the lead up to the election, the Ricketts family, owners of the Chicago Cubs, were linked both openly and behind the scenes to efforts to unseat Tunney... [...] Tunney, owner of Ann Sather restaurants, became the first openly gay alderman when he was first elected in 2003.

Apparently the Ricketts believe that the proper position for an Alderman in a ward in which they have major interests is supine, preferably beneath their feet. (Full disclosure: I know and like Tom Tunney, and it’s not as if the Ricketts have never gotten anything they want regarding the Cubs, as long as the requests are reasonable and can be balanced with the interests of the people who live there and whom Tom actually, you know, represents. He’s not particularly obstructionist. They just don’t get everything they want, they frequently don’t get it the way they want, and they don’t get it anything like as fast as they want. They get something, the people who live there get some concessions as well. Isn’t that the way this is all supposed to work? But I digress.)

We may even wind up with a few outright Socialists (well, US style socialists) on the city council (chicago.suntimes.com) after the April runoffs.

And apparently we have a vote buying scandal in the 25th ward? Really? Huh.(It looks like the ward was having all sorts of issues, in fact, since poll watchers had been sent to observe for an entirely separate problem.) It seems to have been at least somewhat successful, since the person buying the votes made it to the runoffs -- to replace an alderman who is leaving office because he was wired for sound in a corruption investigation, and now appears to have gone to ground. Seriously, you’d think that maybe someone would realize that people would actually be paying attention to the ward under these circumstances. (Irrelevant side note: the political conspiracy in the film “Widows” assumes a lot more competence than is sometimes in evidence in this city.)

That said, being indicted for federal crimes is apparently no bar to a campaign; Alderman Burke was re-elected without even having to go to a runoff. (”He may be a crook, but he’s OUR crook!” kind of sentiment, I guess. And allegedly, he was competent in his corruption. At least, he knew better than to buy votes on the day of the election in the polling place, anyway.)

#chicago #politics #chicago politics #chicago mayoral election #chicago elections

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