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Welcome to The Deep Dish—Ballotpedia’s in-depth look at Chicago’s 2019 city elections.
This week, we're serving up the latest endorsements, ads, and other news out of the mayoral and city council elections, along with stats on voter turnout for municipal elections since 1951.
   
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Voters head to the polls Feb. 26, where they will select a new mayor and decide all 50 city council seats as well as choosing a treasurer and city clerk. For all offices on the ballot, runoff elections will be held April 2 for races in which no candidates receives more than 50 percent of the vote. All offices are nonpartisan and come with four-year terms.
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This week's news
Chicago Teachers Union, SEIU endorse Preckwinkle
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and two affiliates of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU Local 73 and SEIU Healthcare Illinois) endorsed mayoral candidate Toni Preckwinkle last week.
Preckwinkle, who currently serves as president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners and chair of the Cook County Democratic Party, received the SEIU Local 1 endorsement in September.
CTU endorsed Preckwinkle following her release of an education platform that included a proposed moratorium on school closings. CTU has been critical of school closings and other education policies under Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Several mayoral candidates have said they oppose school closings.
The SEIU Illinois Council PAC Fund donated $1 million to Preckwinkle’s campaign Dec. 7, raising her total to $1.7 million. The race’s leading fundraiser, Bill Daley, has so far raised $2.7 million.
We've been tracking endorsements in the mayoral race. Among the noteworthy endorsements so far:
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Gery Chico: 14th Ward Alderman Ed Burke
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Amara Enyia: Local activist and rapper Chance the Rapper
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Garry McCarthy: Community activist/crisis responder Andrew Holmes
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Susana Mendoza: Co-founder of National Farm Workers Association Dolores Huerta
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Toni Preckwinkle: CTU and SEIU
See the full endorsement list here.
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Daley airs first TV ad
Former U.S. Commerce Secretary Bill Daley released a broadcast TV ad on Dec. 6, marking the largest ad buy in the mayoral race to date. Daley's ad touches on high crime rates and calls for a property tax freeze.
Daley isn’t the first candidate to get ads on television. Willie Wilson made smaller buys for cable and broadcast ads that ran in the fall, according to the Chicago Tribune. Daley spent at least $101,000 on his buy. Other candidates have released digital ads. Former Chicago Public Schools President Gery Chico said he'll be spending over $400,000 on TV ads in the coming weeks.
We've been tracking TV and digital ads posted to YouTube by campaigns. You can see all the ads in one place—just click here. |
Tuesday's candidate forum
On Tuesday, 10 mayoral candidates—Paul Vallas, Willie Wilson, Susana Mendoza, Garry McCarthy, Toni Preckwinkle, Amara Enyia, La Shawn Ford, Lori Lightfoot, Gery Chico, and Ja'Mal Green—participated in a forum hosted by the 38th Ward Democratic Organization.
The candidates discussed a range of issues, included crime, policing, economic development, affordable housing, and education policy. Click the image below to be taken to a video of the forum.
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Review of challenged petitions begins
The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners kicked off the process of reviewing challenged candidate filing petitions this week. In total, 181 petition challenges were filed and the board said it could take until early February to finalize the ballot.
Early voting is set to start Jan. 17 but could be delayed.
Eleven mayoral candidates face petition challenges (down from 12—Jerry Joyce dropped his challenge of Bill Daley's signatures on Wednesday). For a refresher on which candidates are facing challenges and from whom, see last week's issue of The Deep Dish.
Speaking of signature challenges, let's hop over to city council elections.
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13th Ward: More signature revocations filed than signatures
Candidates looking to secure a spot on the ballot for city council elections needed to turn in 473 valid signatures from registered voters within their wards by Nov. 26.
DePaul University student David Krupa, running for the 13th Ward, turned in 1,703 signatures.
Michael Kasper, election attorney for 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn (who is seeking re-election) filed 2,796 affidavits from residents revoking their signatures on Krupa's petitions—1,093 more than the number of signatures the candidate submitted.
Krupa claimed that precinct workers connected to Illinois House of Representatives speaker Michael Madigan (D) misled residents into signing the affidavits in an effort to keep him off the ballot. Krupa said, "If we get knocked off the ballot because of the election fraud that's happened here, we are 100 percent filing a federal lawsuit against Michael Madigan, Marty Quinn and every one of their precinct captains."
Madigan has been 13th Ward Democratic Committeeman since 1969. He and Quinn co-run a constituent services office in the ward.
Quinn said, "I guess the better question is: a self-described, ‘day-one Trump supporter’ gets 1,700 signatures in the 13th Ward, without being disingenuous? That’s the question that comes to my mind."
Krupa's election attorney Michael Dorf referred to the situation as a "clown car of felonies." Kasper, Quinn's attorney, said that "it is my practice to decline comment on any pending litigation."
Dorf requested that the election board throw out the revocation affidavits. A hearing will be held Saturday.
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Quick Bites
What do aldermen do? Retiring 22nd Ward Ald. Ricardo Muñoz, city council member since 1993, told ProPublica Illinois the following last week:
"The city of Chicago has been trained to expect their aldermen to be housekeepers. We pick up the garbage, trim the trees, make sure the lights are on, and make sure the snow gets plowed. … I deliver garbage cans, for crying out loud. It doesn’t take a Ph.D. … So what we’re talking about here is legislation, we’re talking about policy, which is in my book only about 10 percent of the job."
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15th Ward campaign volunteer shot while canvassing
Maxwell Little was passing out flyers in West Englewood in support of Chicago's 15th Ward aldermanic candidate Joseph Williams on Sunday when he was shot in the leg. Williams was nearby when the shooting took place.
As of Monday afternoon, nobody was in custody for the shooting.
"We won’t let this stop us," said Williams. "We’re going to be on the front end, and we’re going to be a part of helping the violence stop right here in Englewood."
15th Ward Ald. Raymond Lopez, who is seeking re-election against Williams and five other challengers, said, "Campaign or not, it is completely unacceptable and unfortunate that someone would feel compelled to shoot at someone simply because they didn’t recognize them from the community."
The 15th Ward is located in Chicago's South Side, which, along with the West Side, sees a high concentration of the city's violent crimes and homicides. In 2017, Chicago had the 14th highest homicide rate of all U.S. cities with populations over 100,000, according to the Pew Research Center. |
Sen. Elizabeth Warren endorses Negron in 47th Ward race
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) appeared in an ad endorsing 47th Ward aldermanic candidate Michael Negron, a former Warren staffer, over the weekend.
Negron faces eight other candidates for the open seat. The current incumbent, Ald. Ameya Pawar, is running for treasurer.
Negron also worked in the Obama administration and was Mayor Emanuel's chief of policy from 2013 to 2018. Emanuel lives in the 47th Ward on Chicago's North Side.
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Voter turnout: 1951-2015
The following chart shows turnout among registered voters in Chicago for general and special municipal elections held between 1951 and 2015. Special elections were held in 1977 following the death of Richard J. Daley and in 1989 following the death of Harold Washington.
Voter turnout peaked at 82 percent in the 1983 election, won by Harold Washington. The city's first black mayor, Washington defeated Republican Bernard Epton 52-48 percent.
Turnout was at a low of 33 percent in 2007, when Richard M. Daley was elected to his fifth full term (he served half a term after winning the 1989 special election). Richard M. Daley was the city's longest-serving mayor at 22 years. His father, Richard J. Daley, served 21 years and eight months before his death in office.
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Sponsored by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation
Through a partnership with the Interactivity Foundation and City Bureau, Ballotpedia is recruiting a diverse group of citizens from a sample of Chicago’s wards to participate in guided forums and discuss the key issues facing the city. The concerns and questions heard from these forums will be translated into a list of questions for candidates. All 2019 candidates running for election in the city of Chicago will be invited to respond to these questions, which will then be added into Ballotpedia’s in-depth coverage on Ballotpedia.org.
If you or someone you know is in Chicago and interested in participating in these discussions, email "Yes Chicago" to gundersen@interactivityfoundation.org or fill out the online intake form.
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