Organized labor is planning to spend millions of dollars and deploy thousands of volunteers across Chicago’s wards in the coming election to expand its influence at City Hall.
Although the largest labor groups appear to be staying neutral in the race for the open mayor’s post (see related story), the union that is the top donor to Illinois political campaigns is positioning itself to play an important role in the City Council races.
Leaders of that group, the Service Employees International Union, say they hope to build on the gains of four years ago with a strong showing in the Feb. 22 election and the April runoff voting. In 2007, the S.E.I.U. spent almost $2.5 million to aid council candidates, helping unseat some of Mayor Richard M. Daley’s most loyal supporters.
Thomas Balanoff, the president of S.E.I.U.’s state council, said last week that his group and other union activists, including the Chicago Federation of Labor, could spend several million dollars in the city elections this year. (See SEIU’s complete City Council endorsement list)
The union victories in 2007 provided no more than a toehold, and Mr. Daley continued to enjoy the support of a strong majority on the Council. The self-described progressive caucus that labor-friendly aldermen formed could count on no more than 15 or 16 of the Council’s 50 members on any issue.
This year, with Mr. Daley not running for another term and 10 incumbent aldermen also retiring, union officials say they hope to claim a majority on the Council. “That’s our goal,” Mr. Balanoff said. “We think there is a good chance.”
The demise of traditional patronage armies in the wake of a city hiring-fraud scandal meant that labor unions became the largest source of campaign workers in the most recent local elections. This year, union campaign cash could be more important than ever as aldermen have seen donations from real estate interests dry up since the housing market’s collapse.
Business interests did not match labor’s new-found clout in the 2007 council elections. But a new political action committee financed largely by businesses was created recently by a former top aide to Mr. Daley who also has ties to Rahm Emanuel, the mayoral contender and former White House chief of staff.
Where the new group, For a Better Chicago, could collide with labor may not become clear until it announces its endorsed candidates later this month. On Friday evening, S.E.I.U. leaders settled on a list of endorsed candidates in the council races and decided to issue no endorsement for mayor, at least not yet.
Labor leaders have reacted warily to the prospect of Mr. Emanuel as mayor. The S.E.I.U. heavily backed his former boss, President Obama, but the strong support that Mr. Emanuel’s mayoral bid enjoys among business leaders and his recent call for cutting the pension benefits of public employees have raised suspicions among union officials.
Yet with Mr. Emanuel leading in polls, labor leaders are reluctant to worsen the strain with him and believe their best bet for gaining increased local power lies in the council races.
A priority will be to re-elect the freshman aldermen they helped to win in the last election as well as other council supporters with greater seniority. The labor-endorsed incumbents include Pat Dowell in the 3rd Ward, Freddrenna Lyle in the 6th, Toni Foulkes in the 15th, Ricardo Munoz in the 22nd and Joe Moore in the 49th, S.E.I.U. officials said Friday.
The S.E.I.U. also endorsed some candidates for open seats, like Mary O’Connor in the 41st Ward and Marina Faz-Huppert in the 45th. In other wards where the aldermen are not seeking re-election, labor groups are waiting to see who survives the first-round balloting and qualifies for the runoff vote before giving their blessing.
Labor leaders say they will again seek to topple some incumbents, endorsing challengers to x1veterans like Aldermen Howard Brookins in the 21st Ward, Daniel Solis in the 25th Ward and Bernard Stone in the 50th, whom they accuse of being unfriendly to union interests.
Meanwhile, For a Better Chicago has raised about $1 million and begun interviewing aldermanic candidates. The group is led by Greg Goldner, who was campaign manager for Mayor Daley’s 2003 re-election bid and for Mr. Emanuel’s successful bid for Congress in 2002.
The sources of For a Better Chicago’s money are not publicly known. Mr. Goldner said the group was exempt from complete disclosure because it is a federal nonprofit organization. Using that status as a vehicle to raise campaign cash, he said, the group will then deposit the money into the state political fund that was incorporated on Jan. 7.
Mr. Goldner said most of the money for his group had come from members of the business community who want to see Chicago continue on the same business-friendly path as under Mr. Daley. “A lot of individuals who do business here have had a stable and solid partner in Mayor Daley,” he said.
His group’s vision diverges from the labor agenda on some key issues, including the use of tax-increment financing subsidies and the leasing of public assets to private investors.
Mr. Daley used tax-increment financing to subsidize real estate development and improve infrastructure.
Mr. Balanoff said all unused tax-increment-financing money — hundreds of millions of dollars — should be returned to the schools, park district and other taxing bodies that would have received it if not for Mr. Daley’s policies to incentivize business.
Mr. Goldner countered that tax-increment financing was one of “the last important economic development tools that cities have,” noting that Mr. Daley used it to lure companies to Chicago.
Mr. Balanoff said labor opposed the leasing of public assets, but Mr. Goldner said the unpopular privatization of city parking meters should not be the death knell for such deals.
“You can debate the parking-meter deal all day long — maybe it was good, maybe it wasn’t,” Mr. Goldner said. “To say that because of the parking meter deal Chicago should not consider future public-private partnerships — to eliminate that as an option — makes no sense.”
For a Better Chicago is not affiliated with any of the mayoral campaigns, Mr. Goldner said, although he did not rule out the possibility of collaboration with candidates.
Mr. Emanuel, through his spokesman, also denied any relationship with For a Better Chicago.
“Rahm does not plan to endorse City Council candidates, though we are not ruling out dedicating resources to candidates who share his vision for the city,” Ben LaBolt, Mr. Emanuel’s spokesman, said last week.
That situation could change if Mr. Emanuel wins a majority of the vote next month and is elected outright, without the need for a runoff. He would then be free to focus whatever campaign money remained in his accounts to help elect aldermen who would support his agenda.
The last thing labor leaders want is for Mr. Emanuel to enjoy the sort of rubber-stamp council that was a hallmark of Mr. Daley’s tenure.
Hunter Clauss contributed reporting.
This entry was posted on Saturday, January 15th, 2011 at 2:21 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Labor Laying Ground for Gains in Council Races / Chicago News Cooperative
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