2019 Municipal Election Picks

Hello!

In keeping with my mother's tradition of sharing her selections for elections, here is my version for the 2019 City elections plus picks from my favorite organizations.

For Mayor: Toni Preckwinkle

• Of the front runners, she is the most progressive, in my opinion. She knows how to govern. She has an electoral coalition that we (ONE Northside and ONE People's Campaign) have relationships with organizationally. She has an actual track record on progressive issues (raising the minimum wage in Cook County, reforming the criminal "justice" system). She is not perfect. No one is. I'm including an email from a friend Julie Biehl below that explains why she supports Toni too. It's not a given that she'll make it to the run-off and I'd much rather have her in a run-off than any of the other front runners. 

For Treasurer: Amaya Pawar

• Not a ton of rational here, I chose him because of his progressive vision for the seat. We have a relationship with him organizationally and worked closely with him on several issues (especially affordable housing) when he was an alderman. 

For Clerk: Anna Valencia -- the others listed on the ballot are still being contested.

For Alderman:  

• ONE People's Campaign (where I work, and the organization I've poured my energy into building over the last 2 years) endorsed:
• 49th ward: Maria Hadden. It's an ideal situation where we have an enemy to defeat (28 year incumbent Joe Moore, who has blocked every meaningful piece of affordable housing legislation for the past 4 years as chair of the housing committee) and we have a candidate we're actually excited to elect. Maria is strong on progressive issues like affordable housing and police accountability. She is a queer woman of color and city council can definitely benefit from having people with marginalized identities helping shape policy. We're canvassing out of 1443 W. Jarvis all weekend and on e-day. Sign up for a shift here and then just show up!
• 48th ward: Harry Osterman. He has a challenger, but it's not expected to be close. In any event we endorsed him because he has been a key lead sponsor on the GAPA ordinance for police accountability. He has also been decent on affordable housing issues in the 48th ward. 
• 47th ward: Matt Martin. It's an open seat (vacated by Ameya Pawar). I'm very excited about Matt. He's a civil rights attorney. He worked in the Attorney General's office, where he wrote part of the police consent decree. City Council needs more experts on police accountability in its ranks. He is progressive with strong policy chops. And I feel confident about his willingness to co-govern with organizations like the ones where I work. The other front runners are Michael Negron (Rahm's lead policy person -- I didn't agree with much of Rahm's agenda so not so excited about Negron) and Eileen Dordeck (who seems to say all the right things, but doesn't have policy specifics to back it up, she also took a big check from Cedar Realty, a develop who is buying up all the affordable housing in Uptown and flipping it). We're canvassing out of 2117 W. Irving Park all weekend and on E-day. Sign up for a shift here and then just show up!
• 46th ward: Anyone but Cappleman. Cappleman is the worst. The future of Uptown is on the line. Another 4 years and I fear Uptown will be past the point of no return. Uptown is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the city. Cappleman is approving luxury developers left and right; he has taken over $200,000 in campaign contributions from developers. 4 more years and I fear Uptown will lose its economic and racial diversity for good. His first act as alderman was to remove the basketball rims at a park where black youth hang out. He has removed benches from bus shelters, evicted the residents of tent city, stopped the salvation army from feeding the homeless, and did nothing to prevent the shelter in the People's Church from closing and then claimed victory on it when our organization and others organized to keep it open in Dec. 2016. He is also loyal to Machine politicians like Ed Burke, Anita Alvarez, Joe Berrios and Danny Solis (from whom he just inherited the zoning committee). He also lies to us in meetings on the regular and has not used his power as alderman to preserve affordable housing in the ward. I recommend voting for Erika Wozniak, Marianne Lalonde or Angela Clay. We're canvassing out of 4648 N. Racine all weekend and on E-day! Sign up for a shift here and then just show up!
• 40th Ward: Andre Vasquez. I'm excited about Andre and his campaign. He is running against Chicago Machine incumbent Pat O'Connor. Andre is a home grown leader from our partners at Reclaim Chicago. He grew up in a working class, immigrant household in Chicago and is clear on the structural reforms needed to solve the struggles his family faced. He is a hip hop emcee. Again -- I want to live in a city where people deep in the culture of hip hop are making the policy decisions that affect me and my family's lives. I'm confident they have my interests more at heart than the old white men like Pat O'Connor. Of all the candidates we interviewed for endorsements -- Andre had the clearest vision on what it means to co-govern with community organizations. He is also the most viable of any of the challengers in this race. 

Here are the organizations I respect and their voting guides/endorsements.

• Reclaim Chicago and The People's Lobby
• United Working Families 
• Girl, I guess voting guide  

A longer note on Toni Preckwinkle from my friend Julie Biehl (shared with her permission):

I am writing to share my thinking about why I will be voting for Toni Preckwinkle on election day.  I have worked with her and watched her and her staff closely for nearly a decade. I see her as a person of deep intellect who has a strong moral compass, is hard-working, and has proven herself able to lead a large governmental entity for many years effectively, efficiently, with compassion and without scandal. She has also been a mentor to many young women and men whom I respect greatly. In addition, and maybe more importantly, she has also been a champion of many righteous and important efforts, including for example:

• Restorative justice
• Bond reform
• De-incarceration and reducing the number of folks in jail
• Removing barriers to youth employment, housing and education through a major overhaul of Illinois’ juvenile expungement laws
• Opposing legislation proposed by our current mayor, including increased prison sentences
• Rolling back laws whereby children were prosecuted in criminal court

I recognize that as with any politician who has served in Cook County for many years, there are inevitable unfortunate compromises and bumps in the road, but I do not see the marks on Toni’s record as eroding the importance of her achievements and principles.

I have also heard folks say they were considering a vote for Lori Lightfoot as she is the true “reformer,” “outsider,” and ‘progressive.”  I disagree on many fronts, for reasons that are well summarized in the election guide (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NN9clyiiHKQBGoRS0QybgOfwitRe7loIkm8kBFtt5lA/preview) 

prepared by two women (Ellen Mayer and Stephanie Skora) who in my view hit the nail on the head:

“Lori Lightfoot is a Black, lesbian, law-and-order candidate trying to run as a progressive, but is also a bit of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The biggest issue with Lightfoot is her past as the head of Chicago’s Office of Police Standards under Daley (an investigation into OPS, which covered the time that Lori was there, found a lenient pattern toward police officers) and the Police Board under Rahm. This means that the current state of policing in Chicago falls at least partially on her shoulders, and that state is… really really really bad. While she was leading the Police Board, it delayed a decision for over a year, about whether to discipline Dante Servin for the murder of Rekia Boyd. Ultimately, Servin resigned right before that hearing would have taken place and therefore was able to keep his pension and avoid real discipline. (I recommend reading BYP100’s take on Lori here and this thread from Agitator In Chief.) Lightfoot also defended the cops against brutality lawsuits during her time working for the law firm Mayer Brown. Lori literally lied in court to have somebody extradited (AKA deported into the hands of another country’s law enforcement). She is BAD news. She is not a progressive, and we strongly advise not voting for her.”

Finally, I am also very motivated by the unhappy prospect of Bill Daley serving as our next mayor. I believe he is the antithesis of all things good and right in Chicago (if you disagree with this premise, then I suggest you ignore this email). We have seen enough of mayors who are committed to the sale of public services to benefit friends and private industry, and who are overcommitted to ineffective and discriminatory law enforcement tactics. Given the number of folks running, for sure there will be a runoff, and it seems highly likely that Daley will be in the runoff. Toni is the only one of the ostensibly “progressive” candidates who in my view has a realistic chance of beating Daley, which I think itself is reason enough to vote for her.  Finally, some progressive friends have argued against “strategic or calculated” voting and have pointed to some polls indicating that Toni is ahead as support for voting for Amara or another candidate.  While I understand and am usually sympathetic to that position, the risk of a Daley- Mendoza or Daley- Chico run off is too great of a risk at this juncture.

Okay folks get out there and vote! Go to chicagoelections.com to find your polling location. You can do same day registration through election day, so NO EXCUSES! Hit me up if you have questions. 

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