After voters sent a dozen City Council contests to runoff elections, labor unions pledged Wednesday to redouble their support for challengers, while incumbents loyal to Mayor Richard Daley looked for his cash rather than his coattails.
With labor’s push for higher wages influencing many ward races, Tuesday’s elections brought the defeat of three incumbent aldermen and sent 11 others to runoff contests. A 12th runoff, for the open seat in the 15th Ward, features a labor-backed contender.
Labor is striving to show aldermen that it can be an independent — and potentially threatening–force that could shape City Council elections that had become an almost routine demonstration of Daley’s power.
Gone under the watchful eye of federal investigators is the street muscle behind Daley’s previous assistance to council loyalists. Daley’s financial participation in runoff campaigns will indicate how much the mayor values a fully compliant City Council.
Though he raised $7 million for a re-election effort that was all but a sure thing, Daley did not give any money to council incumbents ahead of Tuesday’s election.
Asked Wednesday if he would provide help to allies for the April 17 runoff, Daley said, “I work with each candidate. I know different candidates. We will work with them.”
But he declined to say what he would provide specifically.
After getting 71 percent of the vote and winning all 50 wards Tuesday, the mayor maintains an effective bully pulpit to champion his personal agenda in the council.
Yet the results of the April runoff contests could present the opportunity for limited council opposition on selected issues.
“There is a good chance that we can end up playing in all these wards,” said Tom Balanoff, president of Local 1 of the Service Employees International Union.
Campaign finance records showed SEIU pouring nearly $1 million into aldermanic campaigns since December, largely for challengers to Daley allies.
SEIU was a major force behind challenges to incumbents who refused to side with labor’s push for an ordinance raising the minimum wage at “big-box” retail stores such as Wal-Mart. The council passed the measure last year, but Daley vetoed it and persuaded aldermen to uphold his move.
Only hours after the polls closed Tuesday, Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd) said there was no doubt the proposal would be back before the new council.
“We will be introducing another big-box ordinance in the next term,” said Munoz, one of the few aldermen who did not endorse Daley. “That issue will continue because we’ve got to make sure the Chicago we govern is one Chicago, not two.”
Ald. Shirley Coleman (16th), who reversed her stance on the big-box ordinance at Daley’s urging, finds herself in a runoff after finishing behind challenger Joann Thompson.
Thompson received more than $160,000 worth of campaign help from SEIU and got scores of campaign workers from the Chicago Federation of Labor, which assigned secretary-treasurer Jorge Ramirez to coordinate the ground game.
Coleman had previously complained about the lack of funding for her and other incumbents from Daley, and she said she now expects help from the mayor, either in the form of cash or what she called “soldiers.”
“With everything going on in the 16th Ward, I don’t think the mayor can afford to lose me,” she said.
In previous elections, top Daley aides convened meetings of high-level city officials who recruited city workers for political work. The street armies worked for candidates endorsed by the mayor in exchange for preferential treatment in City Hall promotions.
But longtime Daley aide Robert Sorich was sentenced to prison last year for rigging the city’s personnel process to reward political loyalists, changing the dynamic in council elections.
This time, Daley made personal appearances and taped automated telephone messages for favored council candidates.
Unions contributed to the victories Tuesday of challengers Brendan Reilly, who unseated Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd), and Sandi Jackson, who replaces Ald. Darcel Beavers (7th).In several wards across the city, the runoff races pit incumbents endorsed by the mayor against challengers supported by labor. Unions clearly will continue to focus their efforts on races where they have already spent heavily, including the 3rd, 15th, 16th and 21st Wards.
SEIU donated more than $121,000 to 3rd Ward challenger Pat Dowell, who is running against veteran Ald. Dorothy Tillman. More than $173,000 aided Leroy Jones Jr. against Ald. Howard Brookins Jr. (21st), who pushed unsuccessfully for a Wal-Mart store in his South Side ward.
Unions also paid for mailers criticizing Ald. Madeline Haithcock (2nd) and Ald. Bernard Stone (50th), even though they had not endorsed challengers for Tuesday’s election. They may now throw their full backing to the candidates who made it to the runoff against those Daley allies.
In the 32nd Ward, SEIU donated only about $14,000 to challenger Scott Waguespack, but the union’s interest certainly rose when Waguespack qualified for a runoff against Ald. Ted Matlak.
On Wednesday, Matlak said he is bracing for attacks from “outside influences coming in for outside reasons.”Waguespack said Matlak continues to benefit from remnants of the mayor’s patronage armies. But he said the runoff would give him a chance “to finish off the machine, at least in the 32nd Ward.”
The only big loss for labor on Tuesday was in the 12th Ward, where Ald. George Cardenas rolled to another term despite hundreds of union workers and more than $135,000 in assistance from SEIU and other labor groups for challenger Carina Sanchez.
Cardenas received help from key former leaders of the Hispanic Democratic Organization, which federal prosecutors have described as a leading pro-Daley patronage army.
One of Cardenas’ campaign consultants was Adelante Consulting, a company created by former Streets and Sanitation Commissioner and HDO leader Al Sanchez, records show.
While labor targeted many incumbents, its most prominent ally ran into trouble Tuesday. Ald. Joe Moore (49th), who sponsored the big-box ordinance, came up just short of 50 percent against three foes.
SEIU has given Moore $17,000, an amount he expects to increase sharply before the runoff.
“People believed I had it in the bag,” Moore said. “It was hard to convince them otherwise.”
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IN THE WEB EDITION: Stay on top of the runoff races and how Mayor Richard Daley adapts to the changing City Council at chicagotribune.com/politics
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Aldermanic runoffs on April 17
Twelve wards will have aldermanic runoffs next month. Labor unions provided hundreds of workers and hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign support to some of the challengers who succeeded in forcing runoffs with incumbents.
Wards hosting a runoff election on April 17 because no candidate received majority of votes:
2nd Ward
Madeline Haithcock (i)
20.4%
Bob Fioretti
28.0%
Haithcock, facing a crowded field, received the lowest percentage of any incumbent heading into a runoff.
24th Ward
Michael Chandler (i)
36.0%
Sharon Denise Dixon
20.3%
The three-term incumbent faced a crowded field.
32nd Ward
Ted Matlak (i)
46.8%
Scott Waguespack
39.0%
Challenger Waguespack received some union support in the crowded race against the
three-term incumbent.
3rd Ward
Dorothy Tillman (i)
42.8%
Pat Dowell
38.2%
Tillman blamed the union opposition for forcing her into a runoff. Dowell received at least $121,000 in union donations.
35th Ward
Rey Colon (i)
46.0%
Vilma Colom
33.9%
Colon got some union support in the third straight matchup with former alderman Colom.
15th Ward
Toni Foulkes
34.0%
Felicia Simmons-Stovall
26.4%
In the only open council seat, union steward Foulkes received more than $200,000 in labor donations.
43rd Ward
Vi Daley (i)
48.2%
Michele Smith
32.9%
Mayor Richard Daley campaigned with Vi Daley repeatedly, but she couldn’t hold off former federal prosecutor Smith.
16th Ward
Shirley Coleman (i)
36.6%
Joann Thompson
42.0%
Coleman voted for the “big-box” minimum-wage ordinance and tried to get a Wal-Mart into her ward. Thompson received at least $165,000 in union donations.
49th Ward
Joe Moore (i)
49.3%
Don Gordon
29.2%
Unions spent at least $17,000 but were not able to help Moore, the sponsor of the “big-box” minimum-wage ordinance, avoid a runoff in a four-way race.
18th Ward
Lona Lane (i)
49.1%
Paul Stewart
26.4%
This was the first race for the newly appointed incumbent.
50th Ward
Bernard Stone (i)
48.3%
Naisy Dolar
28.2%
Dolar is seeking to become the first Asian-American on City Council. Stone is the third longest serving alderman, behind the defeated Natarus.
21st Ward
Howard Brookins Jr. (i)
46.0%
Leroy Jones Jr.
34.5%
Brookins, who tried to bring a Wal-Mart to his ward, was a top union target. Jones received more than $173,000 in union contributions.
Chicago Tribune
