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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 major endorsement roundups in the mayoral and city council races, including from two local papers. We'll also dig into the mayoral candidates' ethics reform proposals and take a closer looking at the 14th Ward race, where Ed Burke, the longest-serving alderman, faces two challengers and a federal attempted extortion charge.
And in honor of Valentine's Day, we highlight a moment from a recent mayoral forum when candidates showed each other some love (well, some of them).
   
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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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Click here for more information on how to register
This week's news
Big local, national endorsements in mayor's race
The Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, and a former vice president have all recently endorsed in the mayoral race.
Wednesday, the Tribune editorial board endorsed Bill Daley. It said in its endorsement, "In this race Chicago has an exceptional field of candidates, with specialists from many disciplines: policing, criminal justice, local government administration and more. We’re drawn instead toward a candidate who speaks broadly of building Chicago. Toward a native Chicagoan who looks outward to a nation and world that wrongly think they already have Chicago figured out: It’s that glassy, glossy downtown flanked by neighborhoods rife with poverty and crime."
On Feb. 8, the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board endorsed Lori Lightfoot, writing, "More than any of the other 13 mayoral candidates, she has the vision, values, qualifications and policies to be an effective leader for the whole city, from the hedge fund managers to the fast food workers."
Other noteworthy local endorsements:
- For Amara Enyia: Chance the Rapper
- For Lightfoot: Former Ald. Dick Simpson (44th Ward)
- For Garry McCarthy: Local activist Andrew Holmes
- For Susana Mendoza: Laborers' International Union of North America - Chicago
- For Preckwinkle: Chicago Teachers Union and Service Employees International Union Local 1 and Local 73
- For Willie Wilson: Cook County Republican Party Chairman Sean Morrison
On Feb. 8, former Vice President Al Gore (D) endorsed Bill Daley, citing Daley's positions on climate change. Daley served as U.S. commerce secretary from 1997 to 2000 while Gore was vice president.
Other noteworthy endorsements from national figures:
- For Toni Preckwinkle: Former Obama administration senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.)
- For Daley: Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.)
Click here for a full list of endorsements compiled by Ballotpedia.
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The week's mayoral forums
On Feb. 7, FOX 32 and The Lincoln Forum hosted a televised forum featuring candidates Toni Preckwinkle, Gery Chico, Willie Wilson, Susana Mendoza, and Paul Vallas. Bill Daley was invited to participate but instead attended an event to receive the endorsement of the Plumbers Local Union 130. Vallas filled Daley’s spot.
Candidates discussed ethics reform, crime, pensions, school closings, and more. See a video of the event here.
On Feb. 8, FOX 32 hosted another forum with Daley, Amara Enyia, La Shawn Ford, Lori Lightfoot, and Garry McCarthy. They discussed similar topics as the previous day's candidates.
Since this is the Valentine's Day issue of The Deep Dish, we thought we'd highlight a rare tender(ish) moment from a recent forum. WGN asked nine mayoral candidates at a Feb. 6 forum who they'd vote for if they couldn't vote for themselves. Here's what they said:
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Garry McCarthy, Susana Mendoza, and Gery Chico said they'd vote for Amara Enyia.
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Toni Preckwinkle picked Paul Vallas.
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Bill Daley went with Lori Lightfoot.
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Vallas, Lightfoot, and Enyia all said they'd only vote for someone who was in the race before incumbent Rahm Emanuel withdrew in September. (That would exclude Preckwinkle, Daley, Mendoza, Chico, La Shawn Ford, and Bob Fioretti.)
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Willie Wilson said, "I would just do like Chicago politics do. I'd give myself another name and re-vote for myself."
Upcoming: WTTW is hosting forums Feb. 14, 18, and 19. Click here for more info.
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Where to vote early
Early voting in all 50 wards kicked off Monday. Locations are open for early voting seven days a week through Feb. 25, the day before the election. Click here for locations and hours.
One early voting location—the Loop Super Site at 175 W. Washington St.—has been open since Jan. 29. The Loop Super Site will remain open for all Chicago voters to cast early ballots through Feb. 25.
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Quick Bites
For four mayoral candidates, this isn't their first rodeo.
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Amara Enyia, Bob Fioretti, and Willie Wilson ran in the 2015 mayoral race.
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Enyia withdrew from the race in Dec. 2014 and endorsed Fioretti.
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In the general election on Feb. 24, 2015, Wilson received 11 percent of the vote and Fioretti took 7 percent. Rahm Emanuel and Jesus "Chuy" Garcia went to a runoff, which Emanuel won.
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Gery Chico ran in the open 2011 race following Richard M. Daley's retirement. Chico was second with 24 percent of the vote in the general; Emanuel won outright with 55 percent.
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City Council endorsement roundup
The Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times editorial boards have completed their aldermanic endorsement lists. The newspapers made endorsements in all 45 races with more than one candidate.
Forty-five incumbents are seeking re-election. Five of them are running unopposed. There are five open-seat races.
The Sun-Times is backing 29 incumbents, 11 challengers, and five candidates in open races.
The Tribune endorsed 23 incumbents, 17 challengers, and candidates in the five open races.
Both papers backed challengers to incumbents in the 5th, 6th, 12th, 14th (read more on this race in our Ward spotlight below), 16th, 18th, 37th, and 41st wards.
The papers differed on endorsements in 17 ward races. Here's where they split:
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Ward spotlight: The 14th
We'll be highlighting one interesting city council race in The Deep Dish each week. This week: the 14th Ward.
Welcome to the 14th Ward, home of Ed Burke, the longest-serving alderman in Chicago history.
Burke has represented the 14th Ward since 1969. In 13 elections, he's faced challengers four times, including this year, where Jaime Guzman and Tanya Patiño are challenging Burke for the seat.
Burke also faces a challenge of a different sort: a federal charge of attempted extortion.
The FBI alleges Burke attempted to solicit business for his private law firm in exchange for issuing a remodeling permit to a restaurant owner. Burke said, "I believe that I’m not guilty of anything, and I’m trusting that when I have my day in court, that will be clear beyond a reasonable doubt."
Burke is focusing his re-election bid on what he views as his successful record of bringing economic development, good schools, and safety to the 14th Ward. He cites the presence of Amigos Foods, the Esperanza Brighton Park public health clinic, and Mansueto High School (part of the Noble Charter Network) as examples.
Burke, a former police officer, has been endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police.
Jaime Guzman is an attorney at the Pilsen Law Center who says he's running in part to change "a long-standing political culture that allows elected officials to make pecuniary gains from government and our public dollars." He lists economic development, public safety, and civic engagement among his priorities.
Both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times editorial boards have endorsed Guzman.
Tanya Patiño is a civil engineer who worked for Peoples Gas before her campaign for the 14th Ward. She says she's running "to bring much-needed honesty, transparency, accountability and progressive values to the 14th Ward." She says her priorities are education and social services funding, housing security, workers' rights, and neighborhood safety.
U.S. Rep. Jesus "Chuy" Garcia (D-Ill.) endorsed Patiño, as has former 14th Ward candidate Jose Luis Torrez. Torrez dropped out of the race following the charge against Burke in an effort to consolidate support for Patiño.
Burke finished 2018 with $4.5 million in his campaign account. Patiño reported $16,000, and Guzman, $12,000.
The 14th Ward includes parts of Brighton Park, Garfield Ridge, West Elsdon, Archer Heights, and Gage Park. The ward is about 80 percent Latino.
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Candidate survey reply of the week
Ballotpedia's Chicago candidate survey was created through our partnership with the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, Interactivity Foundation, and City Bureau, as well as insights from more than one hundred diverse citizens living throughout Chicago’s wards.
 How would you make Chicago a cleaner city with less waste and pollution?
"I would make Chicago cleaner by offering a program where the homeless could get paid for picking up trash in the city such as they do in Fort Worth, Texas. I would also add more ‘green roofs,’ and improve the recycling program."
— Robert Bank, candidate for Chicago City Council, 45th Ward
Read all of Bank's' responses →
Chicago candidate? Fill out the survey and you may be featured here.
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This week's deep dive
Ethics reform proposals in the mayor's race
A new University of Illinois at Chicago report found that between 1976 and 2017, 1,731 individuals in the Northern District of Illinois (the northern third of Illinois including Chicago, the nation's third-largest city) were convicted of public corruption—the most of any metropolitan area in the country.
The Central District of California (including Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest city), was second with 1,534 individual convictions for public corruption.
Several of the 14 mayoral candidates have ethics plans posted on their campaign websites, and most have discussed their positions in candidate forums and questionnaires.
Among the most common city council reform proposals:
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Banning outside employment/income for aldermen
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Instituting term limits for aldermen
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Ending aldermanic privilege (power over zoning, permitting, and licensing within their wards)
The table below shows where candidates stand on these three proposals:
 Crain's Chicago Business recently asked a series of government ethics questions as part of their candidate survey. Check out 12 candidates' full responses here to learn more about their proposals.
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Join Ballotpedia for our webinar Feb. 22 at 1:30 CST previewing Chicago's 2019 elections. We'll talk about the offices on the ballot, the candidate fields, and some of the major issues in the mayoral and city council races, including crime, ethics reform, development, and school closings. Go into Election Day Feb. 26 with your bases covered.
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