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Marianne Lalonde
Marianne Lalonde ran for election to the Chicago City Council to represent Ward 46 in Illinois. Lalonde lost in the general election on February 28, 2023.
Elections
2023
See also: City elections in Chicago, Illinois (2023)
General runoff election
General runoff election for Chicago City Council Ward 46
Angela Clay defeated Kimberly Walz in the general runoff election for Chicago City Council Ward 46 on April 4, 2023.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Angela Clay (Nonpartisan) | 56.2 | 9,963 | |
 | Kimberly Walz (Nonpartisan) | 43.8 | 7,772 | |
| Total votes: 17,735 | |||
 = 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. | ||||
General election
General election for Chicago City Council Ward 46
The following candidates ran in the general election for Chicago City Council Ward 46 on February 28, 2023.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Angela Clay (Nonpartisan) | 36.1 | 5,663 | |
| ✔ | | Kimberly Walz (Nonpartisan) | 25.8 | 4,048 |
 | Marianne Lalonde (Nonpartisan) | 17.6 | 2,760 | |
| Patrick Nagle (Nonpartisan) | 11.3 | 1,764 | ||
| Roushaunda Williams (Nonpartisan) | 7.4 | 1,154 | ||
| Michael Cortez (Nonpartisan) | 1.8 | 283 | ||
| Total votes: 15,672 | |||
| = 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 runoff election
General runoff election for Chicago City Council Ward 46
Incumbent James Cappleman defeated Marianne Lalonde in the general runoff election for Chicago City Council Ward 46 on April 2, 2019.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | James Cappleman (Nonpartisan) | 50.1 | 7,079 |
| Marianne Lalonde (Nonpartisan) | 49.9 | 7,054 | |
| Total votes: 14,133 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
General election
General election for Chicago City Council Ward 46
The following candidates ran in the general election for Chicago City Council Ward 46 on February 26, 2019.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | James Cappleman (Nonpartisan) | 44.1 | 6,082 |
| ✔ | | Marianne Lalonde (Nonpartisan) | 18.1 | 2,494 |
 | Erika Wozniak Francis (Nonpartisan) | 16.8 | 2,324 | |
| Angela Clay (Nonpartisan) | 15.4 | 2,127 | ||
 | Justin Kreindler (Nonpartisan) | 3.9 | 545 | |
 | Jon-Robert McDowell (Nonpartisan) | 1.7 | 229 | |
| Total votes: 13,801 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Campaign themes
2023
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Marianne Lalonde did not complete Ballotpedia's 2023 Candidate Connection survey.
2019
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Chicago 2019 Candidate Survey
Marianne Lalonde completed Ballotpedia's Chicago candidates survey for 2019. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Lalonde's responses.
How would you address inequality within and between schools?
It's important to ensure all CPS schools have the same quality of offering in terms of curriculum regardless of their location. In 2018, I testified at a Board of Education meeting asking to bring back AP level coursework to Uplift High School in our ward.
How can public schools better support their teachers and work more productively with the teachers’ union, parents, and the community?
Uplift High School is part of the Sustainable Community Schools program, a new initiative that pairs schools with community organizations to increase access to programming for children and families. The Sustainable Community Schools model is built on 6 pillars: engaging curriculum, high-quality teaching, wrap-around supports, restorative justice discipline, parent engagement and inclusive school leadership. While currently a pilot program, these goals should be adapted by all CPS schools in order to evolve schools not just to serve parents and teachers but to be an anchor of the community.
What are your proposals for supporting children before and after school? What would be your ideal afterschool programs?
I'm proposing incentivizing existing after school programs in CPS, Chicago Park District and Chicago Public Libraries to give youth age 9-14 more agency and ownership over how they spend their time outside of school. The incentive program would also track attendance at wrap-around programs, giving the city a system of data on what programs are the most successful. By investing in these programs specifically in under served areas, we can positively impact safety in a city-wide way.
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?
There is absolutely pay-to-play and corruption in Chicago city politics. In our own ward, Alderman Cappleman has accepted campaign contributions from a number of real estate developers requesting zoning changes, and now as the chair of the City Council Zoning Committee, he is poised to make those same decisions for our entire city. He's also taken campaign contributions from Ald. Ed Burke, who is facing federal corruption charges. I've promised not to take any campaign contributions from real estate developers, machine politicians, or city lobbyists. Additionally, I have been the first and only candidate in the 46th ward to demand 1) the resignation of Ed Burke as alderman, 2) all candidates in the 46th ward race return any and all contributions from Ed Burke and Danny Solis, and 3) independent investigations of both the Finance and Zoning Committees. I'm also the only 46th ward candidate to sign on to mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot's People First Pledge, where I've promised to support improved transparency, support term limits for the mayor and council chairmanships, and limit Aldermanic prerogative.
How would you make the city’s policies more responsive to community input instead of donors or special interests?
Campaign finance reform is the easiest way to ensure policies best reflect the needs of citizens versus donors or special interests.
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?
All Chicagoans regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or mental health status have the right to feel safe and protected by a police force that is accountable for its actions, and representative of the communities it serves. Disproportionate sentencing and negative day-to-day police interactions have contributed to a growing (and justifiable) distrust of law enforcement. The responsibility of reversing this belongs to the system of law enforcement that has lost this trust. I support both the GAPA and CPAC ordinances for civilian accountability for the police.
What ideas do you have to reduce the availability of illegal or unregistered guns in Chicago?
At the city level, we should require gun owners to own a title and insurance for their guns. Ultimately, we need increased national gun violence legislation including registration and tracking of guns. Our actions as a city and state will always have limited impacts as long as gun purchases in neighboring states are less restrictive.
How will you help to rebuild trust in the police department and to encourage the community to work with police?
As a regular attendee of my neighborhood CAPS meeting, I was alarmed to learn that very limited numbers of our beat officers have CIT (crisis intervention training.) This training should be mandatory for all CPD officers, especially in areas with high populations of mentally ill residents such as the 46th ward. Step one to building a relationship with the police and our community is making sure our police are prepared to interact with the diverse populations that live here.
How would you address the displacement of people of color and long-term residents from their neighborhoods?
Displacement can be addressed through preserving each and every unit of affordable housing in our neighborhoods and also adding more. In the 46th ward, we have the opportunity to serve as a leader and role model in the field of affordable housing and demonstrate to other wards in the city the benefits of a truly mixed income and mixed race community. As a ward, it is imperative to preserve each existing affordable housing unit, to promote the prosperity and dignity of residents by ensuring current units are well-maintained, and to create a development plan that keeps current residents in the ward. For new developers, this means incorporating on-site affordable housing units into their properties rather than opting out by paying into the Low-Income Housing Trust Fund. It is also important that larger, multi-bedroom affordable housing units be created that will give neighbors the opportunity to invest in our ward long-term, through raising their families in the 46th ward and supporting 46th ward public schools.
How would you care for the most vulnerable Chicagoans?
The most vulnerable populations in the 46th ward include those experiencing mental illness. Community mental health centers and public clinics not only directly benefit patients, but they benefit the entire community. When recovery from mental illness is made available, more residents can stay in the workforce and be contributing neighbors and family members that give back to their communities. Funding for mental health clinics should be prioritized in the same way as other basic resources – including schools, parks, and libraries.
How would you ensure that development benefits residents in their neighborhoods and not solely the developers and other interests?
Residential developments can be most beneficial to the neighborhood when they include more affordable housing for low and middle-income residents. I support the Development For All Ordinance, which requires developers of market-rate housing seeking upzoning approval from the City for 10 units to include 30% affordable housing in their developments, and expands the range of household incomes that qualify for those units. We can ensure commercial developments are beneficial to the neighborhood first through community benefits agreements. In the 46th ward, a community benefits agreement should be established for new theaters entering the entertainment district, including the Uptown Theater, Double Door, and Baton Show Lounge. The agreement should include the use of union labor for construction, jobs set aside for community residents, theater-based community programming, and plans for event-related parking, transit and safety. Precautions must be taken to ensure this development occurs without ultimately displacing or negatively impacting residents.
How would you distribute revenue fairly between neighborhoods?
A minimum level of discretionary funds for ward services and infrastructure should be set and allocated to each ward. After that, remaining funds should be allocated based on the needs of each ward.
How do you propose to resolve the city’s underfunded pension plan for city employees?
We first have to recognize that this crisis is due to years of mismanagement and poor political leadership: the city has failed to consistently offer its full employer contribution to pension funds for the past several decades. The retirement security of Chicago's most dedicated public servants, including teachers and firefighters, is at risk and the only solution is to increase overall revenue as ruled by the courts. I would look towards progressive revenue sources, such as greater revenue sharing from state income tax, or a financial transaction tax, to supplement the pension fund. Ultimately, I would like to see a dedicated progressive revenue source for pension funds that does not have to compete with funding for other city priorities.
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?
TIFs should continue but undergo heavy reforms - they only be used in areas that are blighted, vacant and/or obsolete, and areas where the project could not move forward financially but for the requested TIF subsidy. I also believe that TIFs should be prioritized for projects that serve the entire community - for example, public schools and parks, versus private developments. Here's an example of how TIF funds were misused in the 46th ward: one of the greatest assets in Uptown is Clarendon Park. Clarendon Park brings neighbors from all different backgrounds together - from the Clarendon-Garfield Model Railroad Club, to Kuumba Lynx, a hip hop after school program, to community gardeners. At the center of our park is a beautiful, historic community center from 1916 that has unfortunately fallen into disrepair. This community asset should be given the attention and resources it deserves. Instead, TIF money from this area, adjacent to the second highest poverty census tract on the north side, was used to subsidize a luxury high rise (811 Uptown) across the street. The developers used some of the TIF money to pay into the low-income housing trust fund, so they wouldn't have to include as much affordable housing on site in their development. This developer took property tax revenue meant to benefit low-income families, and literally used it to make sure low-income families wouldn't have a place in the new residences he was building. This kind of displacement divides our neighborhood into 2 segments that coexist -- not a cohesive community.
How would you assess the city's finances, and if your proposals would require new spending, how would you pay for them?
Our city's collective debt must be addressed through increased revenue. We need this additional revenue to fulfill the pension promises we have made to public service workers as well as to fund upcoming infrastructure projects including the replacement of Chicago's lead service lines for drinking water. We should first explore novel and non-traditional revenue sources, including marijuana legalization and taxation, the legalization and state-wide reform of video gambling, and a LaSalle Street tax, before relying on traditional sources of revenue including property taxes.
Would you be in favor of freezing property taxes, at least for low-income households, so that people can stay where they are living?
Property tax increases are driving families out of their homes. I'm supportive of additional vouchers and mechanisms such as temporary freezes that protect the working class, families, and senior citizens from losing their homes.
How would you increase access to quality food and urgent care in all parts of the city?
Investment in our city's south and west sides will provide increased resources to historically under served areas.
How will you address public health concerns such as contaminated drinking water, rat infestation, and lead poisoning?
The only way to eliminate lead from our city's water supply with certainty is to replace the lead service lines that deliver water to households. This infrastructure replacement will be a massive cost-intensive project that the city must plan for before the problem escalates any further and endangers public health. Portions of the service lines will require access to private property to replace, so the city must plan not only for the cost of this infrastructure project, but also how to access areas that are not public land. Service line replacement should be prioritized through an analysis of the highest lead content as measured by GIS overlay between lead screening data from mandated school health examinations (blood lead levels) and direct testing of lead in drinking water. As funds are set aside, combined activated carbon and ion exchange resin filters can be used in the intermediary to remove lead directly from faucets. These filters also remove beneficial minerals including calcium and fluoride, so they should be used as a last resort. Rat infestations can be curbed by reducing the amount of pet waste on our streets and sidewalks. We can motivate neighbors to dispose of pet waste through creative solutions, including the Park Spark (https://parksparkproject.com,) which converts pet waste to fuel that powers gas lighting in parks.
How would you make Chicago a cleaner city with less waste and pollution?
Chicago is already a leading city in areas such as welcoming immigrants, The first thing Chicago must due to address the climate crisis is fully divesting in fossil fuel companies and moving investments in companies that prioritize environmental responsibility and social justice. We also need to continue our city’s transition to energy efficient buildings, transition to clean and renewable energy sources, and improved public transportation options to reduce our overall carbon footprint. An additional step the city must take is reevaluating the city’s current recycling plan. A recent BGA investigation found that a private city recycling company, Waste Management, has been diverting tons of residential plastic and paper into landfills the company owns. We can’t allow any contracts for recycling haulers to go to companies that also own for-profit landfills where a portion of the city’s garbage is dumped.
What would be your first steps for improving the transit system in terms of affordability, accessibility, and safety?
Ensuring our CTA stations are ADA accessible is key to improving both accessibility and safety. Our ward's Lawrence red line station will be renovated in the next phase of CTA's Red Line Modernization Project, but the Sheridan station remains in a state of disrepair. Because of its high traffic and the occasional use of Sheridan by the purple line express for Cubs' games, Sheridan should be the next L station addressed in CTA's assessment of the north side red line.
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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