The building boom that has transformed Chicago’s South Loop neighborhood could translate into political change for the storied 2nd Ward.
Hoping to take advantage of an influx of newcomers, several viable challengers are running against 14-year incumbent Ald. Madeline Haithcock, a loyal ally of Mayor Daley, in the Feb. 27 election.
“There is no alderman here,” said challenger Bob Fioretti, echoing criticism that Haithcock is unresponsive to her constituents. “We look around, and people don’t have a voice.”
Fioretti and other challengers said the alderman has advanced developers’ interests at the expense of residents’.
Haithcock bristles at such talk, saying she has helped spur the development that has made the ward so attractive to her opponents. But she acknowledges that all of the new housing units pose a challenge to her political survival.
“The new residents don’t know who I am,” Haithcock said.
Four years ago, she narrowly won re-election with 55 percent of the vote over five challengers. This time, Haithcock’s opponents are better funded and better known, and organized labor has targeted her for defeat because she opposed requiring higher wages at big-box stores such as Wal-Mart.
Reflecting the area’s changing demographic makeup, there are two white and four black candidates, an atypical mix in a city where ward lines are drawn to create black, white and Hispanic districts. Haithcock is black, and Fioretti, one of her most aggressive challengers, is white.
Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), who represented the ward for 10 years as alderman, called the 2nd the “mother ward of black politics in the country.”
Fioretti, 53, a lawyer in private practice, has run an aggressive campaign for several months, sending out a number of political mailers and campaigning door to door in all 60 precincts.
“I ask one question: when was the last time you saw your alderman?” Fioretti said. “And inevitably, the response has been the same: never. I don’t know who he is.”
Fioretti said he would push for laws forcing disclosure of participants in limited liability corporations to prevent the same people from repeatedly constructing problem buildings. He said he would refuse campaign contributions from developers.
Kenny Johnson, 36, said the alderman needs to be more proactive and reach out to constituents rather than waiting for them to complain.
A native of Virginia, Johnson moved to Chicago to work for Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), who is endorsing Johnson in the race. Johnson, who is black, runs a marketing company and a pair of franchise gymnasiums for children.
Noting the demographic and geographic diversity of the ward, Johnson said he would work to bring some of the prosperity of the South Loop to the West Side portion of the ward.
“Right now it’s like a tale of two cities,” said Johnson, who lives in the South Loop.
Larry Doody, 43, a finance professional, said he too would press for more scrutiny of developers, with more city building inspectors to oversee projects. Doody, the other white candidate in the race, is the brother of Cook County Commissioner Elizabeth Gorman and the son-in-law of former Rep. Morgan Murphy (D-Ill.).
Also challenging Haithcock is former 27th Ward Ald. Wallace Davis Jr., who was convicted of federal corruption charges in 1987.
