Chicago Megathread: With CTU on strike, Lightfoot lays out her budget

[Mr. Illini]

Former Chicago Police Superintendent McCarthy will challenge his former boss Rahm Emanuel in 2019

https://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago-politics/ex-top-cop-garry-mccarthy-officially-jumps-into-race-against-mayor-rahm-emanuel/  

[Mr. Illini]

Will there be anyone non-terrible running?

And btw, who exactly votes for Rahm? Like no one likes him.

Last time, he won all predominately white areas of the city by large margins and also won pretty much all predominately black areas of the city by smaller margins. We'll see how it plays out this time.

As for a non-terrible, I'd love it if Pawar won, but there haven't been many rumblings. Brudget Gainer is also considering a run, and I would definitely support her. Same with Lori Lightfoot.

[Mr. Illini]

It's on

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-met-rahm-emanuel-garry-mccarthy-video-20180322-story.html

[Mr. Illini]

McCarthy is, bizarrely, trying to tack left -- promising to reverse school closings by redistributing funding away from the North Side, showing up at the March for Our Lives, talking about creating a more progressive tax structure.

Not that bizarre. Emanuel is well-known for his neolibness in these parts and anyone who will beat him has to run to his left. This can be done even while maintaining an anti-crime platform.

[Mr. Illini]

McCarthy is, bizarrely, trying to tack left -- promising to reverse school closings by redistributing funding away from the North Side, showing up at the March for Our Lives, talking about creating a more progressive tax structure.

He knows the north side is Rahm's base, but there's enough voters in the rest of the city to overpower them.

What's bizarre is that northsiders (in Illinois, we don't use the term "limousine liberal", instead preferring "lakefront liberal") are easily the most liberal voters in the whole city. The remainder of Chicago doesn't care about having a progressive tax or gun control. I guess they do care about losing all those schools, though.

The lakefront liberal of today is very different from the lakefront liberal of 30 years ago. When the wallet is threatened, the bleeding hearts begin to clot. I say this as a liberal living on the lakefront and friend to many people like this.

However, this time around, I also don't expect Rahm to see the same level of astronomical success that he saw in the lakefront wards in 2015.

[Mr. Illini]

Cook County Clerk Dorothy Brown is in:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-met-rahm-emanuel-dorothy-brown-20180419-story.html

She's uh... interesting.  A total trainwreck who has no business being in elected office, and uses the Clerk's office purely to enrich herself and her family/friends.  In other words, she probably has a great shot if she's not behind bars at that point!

I'll vote for pretty much anyone else.

Also, just to clarify, she is the Clerk of the Circuit Court. Orr is the clerk.

[Mr. Illini]

Chicago Police Board President and Police Accountability Task Force Chair Lori Lightfoot will run for mayor.

http://abc7chicago.com/politics/lori-lightfoot-running-for-chicago-mayor/3454996/

I predict that she will try to re-assemble the Harold Washington coalition of the African-American community and progressive white lakefront neighborhoods, particularly Lakeview, Uptown, and Edgewater, which have large LGBT populations (she is openly gay). Of course, those north side lakefront wards were some of Rahm's best areas last time around (save Lincoln Park and the near north side).  

She has my support initially, though I am interested in hearing more of her specific policy ideas.

This makes the field (bolded candidates that I think have a chance to compete):

Rahm Emanuel (I)
Dorothy Brown
Ja'Mal Green
Troy LaRaviere
Lori Lightfoot
John Kolzar
Garry McCarthy
Neal Sales-Griffin
Paul Vallas
Willie Wilson

[Mr. Illini]

None of these candidates seem that great

I think Lightfoot is a pretty great candidate

[Mr. Illini]

All these candidates suck. I'm gonna have to vote for Rahm again

Lightfoot!

[Mr. Illini]

That's why patrons are pulling a mass exodus out of and into suburbs

there is no shortage of patrón in chicago

You got that right

[Mr. Illini]

Republicans are dead in Illinois. They should just abandon ship and let the state get fixed (focus your resources on hillbilly Iowa or something).

Well, to be honest, Republicans are dead in C(r)ook, DuPage and possibly Will and McHenry counties.

When you get south of Interstate 80, it's predominantly 70/30 GOP and that's just based on partisan voter registrations. With automatic voter registration having kicked off last week, it's more like 50/35/15 with the majority of those automatic registrations being nonpartisan/independent.

All I can hope for is the death of the two-party system in Illinois.

Who cares? You need 2/3 of: urban, suburban, rural in IL. Dems have 2/3 for the foreseeable future, and the GOP might not even be able to hold rural areas like IL-13 and IL-12 this year.

[Mr. Illini]

https://twitter.com/maxwelltani/status/1019800097205473282

Chano for Mayor, y'all.

He's going to do a great job with this. I'll be a regular reader.

Big things going in Chicago over the last 5-10 years. We're no longer the machine city.

[Mr. Illini]

People's Pat Quinn has filed petition signatures to force a binding referendum on mayoral term limits in Chicago on the November ballot.

It will no doubt face a myriad of legal challenges as the mayor and his allies attempt to save their careers.

I'm not usually big on term limits because I think that if a population wants to keep their rep, they should be able to. In this case, however, I will be a strong YES. Our politicians here are too good at playing the game and it works to our city's detriment.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/pat-quinn-file-85000-signatures-mayoral-term-limits-referendum-1019-mayoral-election-rahm-emanuel/

[Mr. Illini]

Rahm Emanuel will end re-election campaign

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/embattled-chicago-mayor-rahm-emanuel-seeking-election/story?id=57594619

An interesting race just got that much more interesting.

[Mr. Illini]

https://twitter.com/ShiaKapos/status/1037077842188795904

[Mr. Illini]

Preckwinkle has launched an exploratory committee

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/chicago-mayors-race-toni-preckiwnkle/

I'd be all over this. She'd be a great mayor.

Quigley is considering a run

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/us-rep-quigley-congress-may-run-mayor-chicago-2019-election-rahm-emanuel/

Orr will not run

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/kurt-summers-mayors-race/

[Mr. Illini]

How do we see a McCarthy versus Chuy runoff playing out?

Chuy wins big. I really fail to see where McGarthy's base is outside of Mt Greenwood and the far northwest side.

[Mr. Illini]

Preckwinkle and Garcia will announce their runs this week

https://abc7chicago.com/politics/bill-daley-joins-mayors-race;-preckwinkle-and-garcia-to-make-announcements-this-week/4268104/

This is shaping up to be a really stacked field.

Early on, I have to favor Preckwinkle, and I think she has a path to victory given her popularity among the black community and north side whites.

[Mr. Illini]

Preckwinkle announces run for mayor

https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2018/09/20/preckwinkle-mayor-race-chicago/

Announcing from the same spot as Harold Washington, she hopes to reassemble his coalition of African Americans and white liberals.

She announces amid news that her now former Chief of Staff has resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

[Mr. Illini]

Sources say Chance not running, will endorse a candidate in press conference (not Preckwinkle)

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/tweet-chance-the-rapper-mayor-chicago-2019-election-somewhere-paradise/

[Mr. Illini]

Powerful longtime alderman Ed Burke (think Council Wars) had his city hall & ward offices raided by the FBI yesterday.  He is already facing a potenitally competitive election in Feb.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/ed-burke-fbi-federal-agents-city-hall-council/

Hope they put him in cuffs. We all know he has done plenty to warrant it over his tenure.

[Mr. Illini]

Powerful longtime alderman Ed Burke (think Council Wars) had his city hall & ward offices raided by the FBI yesterday.  He is already facing a potenitally competitive election in Feb.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/ed-burke-fbi-federal-agents-city-hall-council/

Big update:

Ed Burke has now been charged by the Feds!
Ald. Ed Burke charged in attempted extortion of Burger King


The extortion apparently entailed Burger King being forced to use his law form for their property tax assessment if they wanted to get the required permits for the renovation at that location.

The complaint also alleges Burke pressured "the company to make a donation to the campaign of an unnamed politician. One company official gave $10,000 to the unnamed politician but that was eventually reduced to the legal limit of $5,600."

The Tribune reports that the unamed politican is, in fact, Toni Preckwinkle

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Oh boy. Oooh boy. This is all so juicy.

There's no reason to believe she knew anything about the donation, much less how it was obtained, but this is a terrible look for her nonetheless. One could say she shouldn't have been allied with Burke in the first place, though that approach could've made it so she didn't have a career at all.

Of course, it is all speculation, but Lightfoot's theory that there had to be a quid pro quo here is plausible as well. I guess we'll find out in time.

Politics in this city are poisoned until all of the Burke types are gone.

Hopefully the news re: Preckwinkle doesn't completely overshadow the fact that Mendoza and Chico have also been closely allied with Burke. Ironically, Daley is probably clean here, as the Daleys have always had a rocky relationship with Burke (even though M nominated him to his current post).

[Mr. Illini]

Amid Burke scandal, Preckwinkle drops $750k ad buy touting role in exposing Laquan McDonald shooting

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/preckwinkle-turn-page-burke-scandal-laquan-mcdonald-ad-mayors-race/

[Mr. Illini]

who is the republican or closest to a republican in this race.

Daley, honestly. Welcome to Chicago.

[Mr. Illini]

who is the republican or closest to a republican in this race.

Daley, honestly. Welcome to Chicago.

Also McCarthy.

Kind of. Certainly on police issues, but on all other issues he has generally taken progressive stances.