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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 an endorsement update, including one from a former mayoral candidate. Plus, a look at mayoral candidates’ fundraising as well as our first Ward Spotlight, highlighting the race for the open 25th Ward city council seat. We close with an overview of one of the most prominent issues in the mayoral and city council races: crime.
   
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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
Ex-candidate Dorothy Brown endorses Amara Enyia
Former mayoral candidate Dorothy Brown endorsed Amara Enyia Jan. 31.
Brown said, "Dr. Amara Enyia truly cares about the citizens of Chicago, and most importantly, she is not a part of the Chicago machine."
Brown was removed from the ballot Jan. 22 for having an insufficient number of valid signatures.
Several other endorsements happened in the last week, including:
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U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) backing Bill Daley
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Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, former White House aide/Time's Up movement leader Tina Tchen, and the National Association of Social Workers, Illinois Chapter endorsing Toni Preckwinkle
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Chicago Cubs co-owner/LGBT activist Laura Ricketts and the Latino Victory Fund backing Susana Mendoza
Willie Wilson received an official recommendation from the Chicago Young Republicans. Crain’s reported the group can only give endorsements to registered Republicans. Wilson is a Democrat.
See the full list of endorsements here.
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Five mayoral candidates featured in televised mayoral forum
FOX 32 News and The Lincoln Forum host a televised mayoral forum Thursday at 6 p.m.
The top five performers in a Lincoln Forum poll were invited to attend. FOX didn't disclose the poll's results, but they announced the top five performers were Toni Preckwinkle, Bill Daley, Gery Chico, Willie Wilson, and Susana Mendoza.
A recent Chicago Sun-Times poll found those same five candidates leading the field with between 9 and 13 percent support each.
Amara Enyia and Paul Vallas held news conferences Monday decrying their exclusion from Thursday's forum.
FOX 32's political editor Mike Flannery is scheduled to moderate the forum. He told Vallas at the Monday news conference he could come to another televised forum Friday. "They’re going to be at the adult table, so to speak, and we get invited to the children’s table," Vallas said.
WGN TV reported FOX 32 invited Vallas, Enyia, Lori Lightfoot, and Garry McCarthy to participate in the Friday forum.
Thursday's forum will air live on FOX 32. You can also livestream it here and here.
Recent forums:
The Chicago Sun-Times met with 13 mayoral candidates (all except Neal Sáles-Griffin) in two separate forums Tuesday as part of its endorsement process. Click the photos above and below to be taken to videos.
Eleven candidates attended forums hosted by the Chicago Women Take Action Alliance on Saturday. Candidates were required to complete a 22-question survey covering topics from abortion and birth control to net neutrality to charter school policy in order to participate. Check that out here.
Click here for a list of mayoral forums and links to further coverage.
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Family loan boosts Joyce into fundraising top five
Mayoral candidate Jerry Joyce ended 2018 having raised just over $250,000. Now with $1.5 million, he's fifth in fundraising out of the 14-candidate field. As of last week's Deep Dish, Joyce was ninth.
Joyce's wife Jannine loaned his campaign $863,000 since the start of the new year. Maria Stefanos, whose family owns Cupid Candies, has loaned him $350,000 since Jan. 1.
Take a look at how much all candidates have raised:
If you're curious about where the money's coming from—as in, the physical locations from whence it came—the Chicago Sun-Times has a tool for you. They break down total contributions reported from Chicago, Illinois, and out of state. They also provide fundraising figures by Chicago ZIP code—for the race as a whole and for each candidate.
As of Feb. 1, the Sun-Times reported mayoral candidates had received $21 million in contributions.
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From Chicago: $12.9 million
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From Illinois at large: $4.7 million
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From out of state: $3.4 million
The top-three contributing Chicago ZIP codes are in the downtown area, while the fourth is located in the South Side:
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60601: $3.9 million
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60611: $1.5 million
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60610: $1 million
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60643: $974,000
Check out the Sun-Times' interactive graphic here.
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Quick Bites
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Illinois law establishes the following campaign contribution limits: $5,600 from an individual (excluding immediate family members); $11,100 from a corporation or labor organization; $55,400 from a candidate political committee or political action committee.
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But contribution limits are waived for all candidates if any candidate is considered self-funded. That happens if the candidate or an immediate family member contributes or loans more than $250,000 (for statewide offices) or $100,000 (for all other offices) within a year of the election.
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Contribution limits for Chicago's mayoral race were waived in April 2018, when Willie Wilson loaned his campaign $100,000.
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That was before Rahm Emanuel announced in September he wasn't seeking re-election. "Rahm is going to get all the money he is going to get,” Wilson said. “I’m doing this to level the playing field for some of the other candidates who may not be able to get as much money. This lets them get $50,000 or $100,000 at a time if they can."
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Ward spotlight: The 25th
We'll be highlighting one interesting city council race in The Deep Dish each week. To kick us off: The open 25th Ward race.
Welcome to the 25th Ward. The Daily Line's A.D. Quig called it the "center of the battle over gentrification that's happening all over Chicago." The 25th is the site of a proposed development project called "The 78"—a hot topic in the tax increment financing (TIF) debate—and the target of a 2018 pilot program to increase affordable housing requirements for developers in Pilsen.
The 25th Ward includes portions of Pilsen, Chinatown, Greektown, Little Italy, University Village, the West Loop, and the South Loop.
Alderman Daniel Solis has represented the 25th Ward since 1996. He announced in November he would not seek re-election. On Jan. 29, he stepped down as chair of the City Council Zoning Committee, a position he had held since 2009.
On Jan. 23, the Sun-Times reported Solis had worn a wire as part of the FBI's investigation of Ald. Ed Burke, who was charged with attempted extortion Jan. 2 (more on that story here).
On Jan. 29, the Sun-Times reported it had obtained a federal search warrant application alleging Solis had received campaign contributions and sex acts in exchange for city council actions. Solis denied the allegations that he worked with the FBI and those related to the search warrant application.
Five candidates are running to represent the 25th Ward on the city council: Alex Acevedo, Hilario Dominguez, Aida Flores, Troy Hernandez, and Byron Sigcho-Lopez.
Acevedo, Dominguez, and Sigcho-Lopez called for The 78 development project, which is part-way through the approval process, to be delayed pending evaluation in light of the allegations against Solis. All candidates have called for more affordable housing in the ward. Their proposals include increasing affordable housing requirements for developers, increasing community involvement in the zoning process, and giving homeowners subsidies. Read more here.
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Join Ballotpedia for our webinar on 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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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 do you propose to resolve the city’s underfunded pension plan for city employees?
"There should be no conversations about addressing the pension crisis without a solid revenue strategy built in through diversifying and growing the city’s economy. There should also be no conversation about pensions without addressing existing waste due to our relationship with private financial institutions, the exorbitant cost of corruption, and refusal to reform the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) program."
— Amara Enyia, candidate for Chicago mayor
Read all of Enyia's' responses →
Chicago candidate? Fill out the survey and you may be featured here.
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This week's deep dive
Crime in Chicago
A recent spike in Chicago's murder rate and the concentration of violent crime in certain parts of the city have put crime and safety at the center of the city's elections.
Reported murders in Chicago increased 60 percent between 2015 and 2016. The FBI reported 765 murders in 2016 compared to 478 in 2015. The 2016 total represented the city's highest number of reported murders since 789 were reported in 1996. From 1985 to 2016, Chicago's annual murder totals peaked at 939 in 1992 and hit a low of 415 in 2014.
In 2017, there were 653 murders. A Pew Research Center report said Chicago had the 14th highest murder rate, at 24.1 murders per 100,000 people, among cities with more than 100,000 residents in 2017.
Official numbers for 2018 aren't available yet, but an early Chicago Police Department estimate put the figure at 561 murders.
The following chart shows the city's murder totals as reported by the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics database from 1985 to 2017.
Incidents of murder and other violent crimes are more prevalent in the city's West and South sides. Chicago Police Department data showed that, from mid-December 2017 to mid-December 2018, 50 percent of reported violent crimes took place in 12 of the city's 50 wards.
Click here to see mayoral candidates' statements and proposals related to crime in Chicago.
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Ballotpedia Insights is our Q&A series with political and legal scholars, researchers, reporters, and subject matter experts. Join us February 13 for our next event with Edgar Bachrach and Austin Berg to learn more about their process, research, and the writing of The New Chicago Way: Lessons from Other Big Cities.
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