Chicago Megathread: With CTU on strike, Lightfoot lays out her budget

[Donerail]

You can make a pedantic argument about who has what titles, but one candidate is owned by the city's wealthy financial interests and the other is the candidate of working people. Seems fairly clear-cut to me.

That's not to say that Preckwinkle doesn't have some reasonably strong establishment links either.

I'm curious, what was the realization that caused your abrupt switch from Lightfoot to Toni?

I voted for Lightfoot in the primary because I believed she was capable of defeating Bill Daley in a runoff and Preckwinkle was not. I've always preferred Preckwinkle on policy, but guaranteeing Daley went down was more important than the policy differences between the two. Now that Bill's out of the picture, I'm free to vote for the candidate I agree with more.

[Donerail]

it's time

[Donerail]

Chicago must REALLY hate establishment pols for this kind of result.

There's no runoff tonight in the 14th Ward because Ed Burke won re-election despite being indicted on federal corruption charges, so... let's not get too hasty in these kinds of conclusions.

Are there any runoff maps out right now?

Sun-Times has one but it's, uh, monochrome

[Donerail]

I’m at a social gathering so not researching, but according to political geeks on twitter, Lightfoot won Preckwinkle’s home turf, Ward 4.

That is unbelievable.

60-40, yes. Closest was mine, which Lightfoot won 54-46 or so.

Conyears-Ervin won big, around 60-40.

[Donerail]

Well “big” is sort of relative in citywide races today, no?

It's "big" relative to how she performed in the first round -- Pawar dropped from 42% to 40%, Conyears-Ervin consolidated the rest

[Donerail]

Have exit polls been published? How did the black vote go?

I think it's easy enough to guess.

Seems Preckwinkle only won a dozen or so precincts, all in or around Hyde Park.

[Donerail]

Very impressive night for DSA -- all four DSA candidates either won or have a lead going into the recount (in the 33rd). Every other progressive candidate, with the exception of Martin in the 47th, lost.

[Donerail]

Lightfoot will take office on May 20th. Does anybody know where the Inauguration will be held at ?

I doubt it'll be held on the grounds of Chicago City Hall.

They usually do somewhere like Millennium Park or the Chicago Theater

[Donerail]

It's just so unprecedented. Even when Richie was winning with 70% margins, he typically would lose a block of wards that would go to his challenger along racial lines. Same with his dad. Chicago has truly not seen anything like it in at least the last 50 years.

Still trying to figure it all out.

Since 2007. Daley won every ward in both 2007 and 2003.

[Donerail]

Yes, it's mostly a charade at this point -- longtime Alderman professes his respect for the new mayor's power by holding a lengthy hearing and pushing a vote back by all of two days

[Donerail]

Wish her luck because she's sure as Hell going to need it considering the Establishment is likely pulling a McConnell to undermine her every step of the way 24/7.

you really saw the people she appointed as chairs and still think "oh, she's clearly going to fight the establishment"?? lmfao

[Donerail]

What are her approval ratings so far ?

no one's doing polls on a mayor who's been in office for a week lmfao

[Donerail]

lmfao
https://twitter.com/daybydavon/status/1133537414352461824

[Donerail]

Approval ratings ?

stop asking this question

What are her approval ratings so far ?

no one's doing polls on a mayor who's been in office for slightly over a week lmfao

[Donerail]

She has appointed the most progressive finance chair in history.

Tell us why she chose him and not some other Alderman. Is it because he is a progressive? Is it because of anything related to anything he believes?

She has taken power over TIFs and aldermanic privilege (major forces against affordable housing) away from the Council.

This is a lie and you know it.

Progressive Alderpersons like Ramirez Rosa, Vazquez, Martin, etc have cheered this, but it seems that some in their base will continue to oppose her, likely for the purposes of saving some face after going all in against her during the campaign (and then losing 74-26).

lmao, what a bizarre and antiquated way of looking at politics. I am a journalist working for an independent newspaper — our goal is to hold the powerful to account, and I will continue to oppose Lori Lightfoot when she does bad things for this city.

[Donerail]

1) Lol what? I don't speak for her motives. I just give my opinion on her actions and their impact. My opinion is that it is a great pick. Why are you questioning it? I can tell you that if Toni Preckwinkle were elected, we'd have gotten an old establishment friend to chair it. In fact, if Burke hadn't been indicted, she'd have gladly kept him in place. O'Connor, too, if he hadn't lost.

She didn't choose Waguespack because of his leadership, she chose him because — and this was in the Sun-Times — "He’s the only one of the aldermen who actually supported me before Feb. 26, and I’m not gonna forget that." That's the same old way politics has always worked, but it does mean she doesn't get to pretend to be the progressive reformer.

2) She has shut down aldermanic privilege for licensing and permits. She will propose re-writing the code to do it for zoning. Her new council rules transfer TIF control to a committee in her branch.

Fundamentally, it's the zoning that matters. Licensing and permits is an avenue for low-level graft like the stuff that snared Willie Cochran, but when you're talking about segregation and affordable housing, it is the zoning that makes the difference. She will propose re-writing something, but the deal sounds like surrender on zoning in exchange for limits on licensing and permits. As for TIF funding, I am... skeptical of her willingness to curtail the worst abuses of the practice after she abruptly signed on to $2.4 billion in TIF spending on two megadevelopments.

3) I hope you do hold her to account. Instead, you're currently spending time sharing tweets about a tip at a coffee shop and a hearty joke made about it. Would love to hear your input on the actions she has taken thus far instead.

I can multitask lol. She has not taken all too many actions thus far, but we've extensively covered her choices for committee chairs. To be clear, there are some selections I genuinely like! SSG at Workforce is perfect. But she also inexplicably picked Cardenas for Environment, kept Harris at Rules for god knows what reason, and made a number of decisions that seem nakedly political — Waguespack will be a great Finance Chair, but it’s pretty clear that he’s only being chosen because he endorsed her. Similarly, Beale was a garbage Transportation chair, but it seems clear that he’s being stripped of his chairmanship because he criticized her. Hell, she’s trying to sink Martwick’s school bill because he got in a shouting match with her back in February. There are some bright spots, but it does not seem to be any sort of meaningful break with the type of politics that have characterized this city.

[Donerail]

She didn't choose Waguespack because of his leadership, she chose him because — and this was in the Sun-Times — "He’s the only one of the aldermen who actually supported me before Feb. 26, and I’m not gonna forget that." That's the same old way politics has always worked, but it does mean she doesn't get to pretend to be the progressive reformer.

... and what's wrong with this exactly? Why wouldn't she appoint a fellow progressive who supported her progressive campaign? Should she have appointed someone who opposes her and her agenda? What a bizarre criticism.

"what's wrong with appointing people based solely on their loyalty"

[Donerail]

Lori Lightfoot (cop) has used her cop powers to shut down my local fried chicken joint for "grossly unsanitary food handling practices"

[Donerail]

You come at the king...
https://twitter.com/billjcameron/status/1199021592224731136