[Peace-discuss] Progressives Had a Pretty Great Night in Chicago's Elections

[David Johnson]

Progressives Had a Pretty Great Night in Chicago’s Elections

BY  <http://inthesetimes.com/community/profile/172758> Yana Kunichoff 

 
<http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17683/progressive_city_council_member
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Tim Meegan, a social studies teacher and Chicago Teachers Union activist,
successfully pushed Deb Mell, the incumbent alderman and strong mayoral
ally, into a runoff last night. Meegan was one of three CTU members who
forced runoffs in city council races. (William Camargo)   

The anti-machine fervor that
<http://inthesetimes.com/article/17681/rahm_emanuel_chuy_garcia_runoff>
pushed Rahm Emanuel into a run-off with Chuy García on Tuesday night was
also felt in several key aldermanic races around the city. Three staunch
Emanuel allies in City Council are now facing run-offs against independent
candidates who also happen to be Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) members.

Social studies teacher Tim Meegan scraped into a run-off with Deb Mell, a
member of one of the city’s most entrenched political families. This was the
first aldermanic election for Mell, who was appointed by Emanuel to succeed
her father, Dick Mell, in the seat when he retired in 2013.

Deb Mell—who was
<http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150219/downtown/rahms-war-chest-which-alde
rmen-got-most-money-from-mayors-super-pac> strongly supported in the race by
the Emanuel-affiliated super PAC Chicago Forward—received 49. 7 percent of
the vote. Meegan received 34.5 percent, while a third candidate, Annisa
Wanat, received 15.8%.

“It’s possible that a regular guy can take on the machine and beat it,” said
Meegan, who ran as an independent, in a speech following the run-off
announcement. He attributed the dogged resilience of the campaign to the
fact that “teachers are used to getting beat up.”

In the months since In These Times
<http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17283/meet_the_social_studies_teacher
_taking_on_chicagos_right_wing_democrats> first reported on the Meegan
campaign, it has grown into a well-oiled people power machine, winning the
help of a rising number of volunteers and former students of Meegan and
buoyed by staff support offered by United Working Families, an initiative of
several unions and community groups including SEIU Healthcare Illinois &
Indiana and the CTU. Moving forward, Meegan stressed the need to see his
campaign as more than just a push for one political seat.

“This isn’t just a campaign. It’s a movement,” he said.

In the 10th ward, Sue Sadlowski Garza will be heading into a run-off with
incumbent John Pope. Garza is a CTU member and a school counselor whose
father, Ed Sadlowski, was a rank-and-file reformer of the United
Steelworkers of America. The biggest issue in the 10th Ward was
<http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/16151/our_home_is_not_a_dumping_groun
d_say_chicagos_southeast_side_residents> air pollution in the form of
petroleum coke, or “petcoke,” dust from an oil refinery owned by the Koch
brothers on the city’s Southeast side.

“We pushed back against the machine. We pushed back against corporate
America,” said Garza immediately after hearing that the race had gone to a
runoff. “We said, ‘no more, John Pope.’ We’re tired of the Southeast Side
being a toxic dumping ground.”

Tara Stamps, in the 37th ward, pushed 15-year incumbent Emma Mitts into a
run-off. Like Mell, Mitts was appointed to her post, in Mitts’s case when
her predecessor was
<http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2000-05-27/news/0005270097_1_evasion-per
cy-giles-conviction> convicted of taking a bribe. Stamps, a public school
elementary teacher on the West side, ran on a platform that included a
moratorium on school closings and a $15 minimum wage. She is also the
daughter of  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Stamps> Marion Stamps, a
housing organizer in the Cabrini-Green housing projects remembered for her
role in getting out the vote for Harold Washington.

“I think the voters are sick and tired of being sick and tired,”
<http://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago-politics/7/71/393659/several-west-side-
aldermen-face-possibly-runoff> Stamps told the Sun-Times, borrowing a quote
from civil rights activist Fanie Lou Hamer. “For us this is quite a victory.
Nobody believed this was even possible.”

In the 35th ward, a rapidly gentrifying area of the city, Carlos Rosa, a
26-year-old progressive challenger, defeated incumbent mayoral ally Rey
Colón handily. Rosa will become the first openly gay Latino alderman in
Chicago history. Meanwhile, the $19,500 spent by Chicago Forward appears to
have hit its target in the push to unseat the alderman who most often voted
against the mayor, John Arena, in the 45th ward. He’ll be facing a run-off
with Chicago police officer John Garrido. Scott Waguespack, a strong
progressive and mayoral opponent, easily won his reelection in the 32nd
ward. 

The run-off elections are set for April 7.

 

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