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Cleopatra Draper
Cleopatra Draper (formerly Cleopatra Watson) ran for election to the Chicago City Council to represent Ward 9 in Illinois. She lost in the general election on February 28, 2023.
Elections
2023
See also: City elections in Chicago, Illinois (2023)
General election
General election for Chicago City Council Ward 9
Incumbent Anthony Beale defeated Cleopatra Draper, Cameron Barnes, and Sonya Thompson Dorsey in the general election for Chicago City Council Ward 9 on February 28, 2023.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Anthony Beale (Nonpartisan) | 60.1 | 6,296 |
 | Cleopatra Draper (Nonpartisan) | 31.9 | 3,339 | |
 | Cameron Barnes (Nonpartisan)  | 7.9 | 832 | |
| Sonya Thompson Dorsey (Nonpartisan) (Write-in) | 0.1 | 6 | ||
| Total votes: 10,473 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2019
See also: City elections in Chicago, Illinois (2019)
General election
General election for Chicago City Council Ward 9
Incumbent Anthony Beale defeated Cleopatra Draper, Paul Collins, and Essie Hall in the general election for Chicago City Council Ward 9 on February 26, 2019.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Anthony Beale (Nonpartisan) | 59.3 | 6,773 |
| Cleopatra Draper (Nonpartisan) | 25.8 | 2,949 | |
| Paul Collins (Nonpartisan) | 8.2 | 938 | ||
 | Essie Hall (Nonpartisan) | 6.7 | 763 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 8 | ||
| Total votes: 11,431 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Marcia Brown-Williams (Nonpartisan)
- Rachel Williams (Nonpartisan)
Campaign themes
2023
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Cleopatra Draper did not complete Ballotpedia's 2023 Candidate Connection survey.
2019
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Chicago 2019 Candidate Survey
Cleopatra Draper completed Ballotpedia's Chicago candidates survey for 2019. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Draper's responses.
Low-income families do not have the same choices, options, or alternatives when it comes to public school. How can this be addressed?
Low-income families are not allotted fair choices when it comes to opportunities for public schools. This can be addressed by providing equitable resources despite property tax income levels. As Alderman my prerogative will be to champion fair distribution to support all youth and echo these sentiments across Chicago.
How would you address inequality within and between schools?
In a conscious effort to address inequalities between schools, I would provide tools and support to help strengthen our Local School Councils, demand equal funding, and resources to ensure success.
How can public schools better support their teachers and work more productively with the teachers’ union, parents, and the community?
Ultimately, a collaborative effort must formulate to render honest conversations to enhance not only the culture and climate or our public schools, but to meet the needs and demands of our communities.
What do you believe are the greatest needs of kids in school today? How would you prioritize these needs and address them?
A nurturing environment is the greatest need of our children today. Children have the right to grow and become productive citizens. Implementing the building blocks of investing in our communities, public schools, and social services is top priority.
What are your proposals for supporting children before and after school? What would be your ideal afterschool programs?
My ideal after school programming would consist of but is not limited to STEM enrichment programs that reflect workforce trends.
Do you believe that there is corruption in Chicago politics, such as pay-to-play practices when the city awards bids? If so, how would you address it?
Unfortunately, corruption in Chicago has reared its ugly head in the recent months. My recommendation to begin improving the trust of citizens in Chicago starts with involving the City Inspectors Office to ensure oversight when contracts reach a certain threshold.
How would you make the city’s policies more responsive to community input instead of donors or special interests?
We plan to install a civic engagement framework that will produce a platform to allow and uplift community input.
How would you handle the “recurrence of unaddressed racially discriminatory conduct by officers” identified in the U.S. Justice Department’s investigative report of the Chicago PD published in 2017?
One way of addressing the recurrence of unaddressed racially discriminatory conduct by officers is to properly report and provide constant updates prior to lawsuits, breaking news, and videos streamed on social media.
What sort of proposals would help reduce police shootings and fatalities?
1.) Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) 2.) Opportunity to police your community 3.) Enhance Police training to shoot to wound, not to kill
What ideas do you have to reduce the availability of illegal or unregistered guns in Chicago?
When instituted, the “gun buyback program” is a success. Naturally, most people would like to play their role in getting guns off our streets and the buyback program is a great motivator. In addition to strengthen our gun laws in state and our bordering states.
How will you help to rebuild trust in the police department and to encourage the community to work with police?
It is important to me to have listening tours throughout the ward to promote honest conversations to begin addressing our culture and climate. In doing so, collaborative conversations between Chicago Police Department and our communities to work through issues and co-host events to rebuild trust.
How would you address criminal justice issues such as prison reform and the reintegration of formerly incarcerated persons into city life?
Expungement opportunities are few are and in between and that needs to improve to ensure opportunities for employment and a fresh start is tangible.
How would you address the displacement of people of color and long-term residents from their neighborhoods?
It is critically important we lift the ban and support rent control. The instability of affordable housing in the city of Chicago is one of a few top reasons why people of color have departed in large numbers. Supporting the increase of minimum wage of $15 dollars and community benefit agreements with oversight.
How would you care for the most vulnerable Chicagoans?
For our most vulnerable population, I will put measures in place for wrap around social services to ensure access and stability.
How would you ensure that development benefits residents in their neighborhoods and not solely the developers and other interests?
Community benefit agreement is a hot topic, but I am interested in implementing oversight quarterly.
How would you distribute revenue fairly between neighborhoods?
Revenue should be distributed equitably based on need as the determining factor.
How do you propose to resolve the city’s underfunded pension plan for city employees?
We should use a portion of TIF to match current contributions and make upcoming payouts and maintain the health of pensions. At the same time, City Council should revisit old Illinois pension laws that led to this crisis and consider rollbacks of measures that led to this problem in the first place.
What’s your opinion on tax increment financing (a program that funds development using any additional property tax revenue that results from an increase in appraised property values)? What, if any, changes would you make to the use of TIF?
Mega TIF’s are unjust. The allocation of TIF’s should be appropriately applied to areas of need across our city of Chicago.
How would you assess the city's finances, and if your proposals would require new spending, how would you pay for them?
I would assess the city’s finances by putting people first and applying human rights and needs. It is undeniable there is a need of for our city to reinvest in our mental health and public schools.
Would you be in favor of freezing property taxes, at least for low-income households, so that people can stay where they are living?
Yes, I would be in favor of freezing property taxes an effort to stabilize our low-income population.
How would you increase access to quality food and urgent care in all parts of the city?
The 9th Ward is home to Roseland hospital medical district. Unfortunately, for many years it has struggled financially to sustain. In the event, I am Alderman I plan to advocate for funding and trauma infused clinics. As for quality food, it is important to address in my first line of duty due to the fact there is not one fresh produce grocer in our ward.
How will you address public health concerns such as contaminated drinking water, rat infestation, and lead poisoning?
I would cultivate a relationship with our Water Reclamation Commissioner and Streets and Sanitation Superintendent to address areas of improvement.
How would you make Chicago a cleaner city with less waste and pollution?
Install recycle bins on our streets throughout our communities to promote a cleaner city. As for pollution, I am willing to work various agencies to collaboratively areas in direr need.
What would be your first steps for improving the transit system in terms of affordability, accessibility, and safety?
I would organize concerned residents in my Ward to write letters, phone, and physically rally to exhibit our needs.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2023 Elections
External links
Footnotes
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