Some of city's newest aldermen forced to runoffs
14 wards will elect council members in April
By Hal Dardick and John Byrne, Tribune reporters8:16 p.m. CST, February 23, 2011
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Many of the City Council's newest members couldn't quite close the deal and will face challengers in one-on-one contests following Tuesday's election, which left nearly a third of the aldermanic races undecided.Half of the aldermen headed for the April 5 runoff election were first elected four years ago or appointed in recent months. In some of those cases, challengers sought to play up the fact that they faced incumbents who were hand-picked by Democratic bosses. All told, there will be runoffs in 14 wards, including 10 with incumbents.
One of the appointed aldermen, John Rice of the 36th Ward, who was the driver for former Ald. William J.P. Banks, fell 2 percentage points short of an outright majority in a six-person field. He faces Nicholas Sposato, a firefighter who placed second with 24 percent of the vote.
"Voters here don't appreciate when the machine tries to tell them who to vote for," Sposato said Wednesday.
Rice scoffed at the idea the vote was a referendum on him. He said some of the other candidates entered the race as "shills" simply to depress his vote totals and force him into a runoff."If even one of those other five hadn't run, I'd be dancing in the street today," Rice said. "Instead, I have to take money I would have spent on community baseball and softball programs and use it to print signs so I can win in April. It's a shame."
The least experienced alderman heading to a runoff is Timothy Cullerton, 38th, who hails from a family that has controlled the Northwest Side ward for decades. Mayor Richard Daley appointed him in January.
In an eight-person race, Cullerton fell 2 percentage points short of half the vote and faces Tom Caravette, a Wicker Park real estate agent who got 22 percent of the vote.
Another freshman who failed to win outright in a crowded field, first-term Ald. Sharon Denise Dixon, 24th, faces a rematch with former Ald. Michael Chandler in their West Side ward.
Other first-termers in runoffs include Ald. Toni Foulkes, 15th, who faces Raymond Lopez; Ald. Joann Thompson, 16th, who faces Hal Baskin; and Ald. Latasha Thomas, 17th, who goes head-to-head with David Moore in April.
Marina Yolanda Faz-Huppert, who was backed by departing Ald. Patrick Levar, 45th, and other regular Democrats, placed third in a seven-way contest for his Northwest Side seat. Chicago police Lt. John Garrido, a Republican, and John Arena, a community activist who has been involved in historic preservation and development issues, are in the runoff.
Faz-Huppert's campaign was managed by Scott Cisek, the political director for the Cook County Democratic Party, who blamed the loss on her lack of name recognition as a new ward resident.
The biggest victory against a regular Democrat came in the North Side's 47th Ward, where newcomer Ameya Pawar narrowly won election over Tom O'Donnell, who was backed by departing Ald. Eugene Schulter — as well as Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel.
Some veteran aldermen also faced runoffs.
Ald. Daniel Solis, 25th, who fell just shy of winning the race outright, will face Cuahutemoc Morfin, who placed second with 28 percent, in the contest to represent Pilsen and Chinatown.
"I think I took it too lightly," Solis said. "Number one, I don't think I worked it as hard as I should have. Number two, I think the other two candidates ran really good races."
Solis, a onetime schoolteacher who is co-founder of the influential United Neighborhood Organization, said he got an offer of help Wednesday morning from Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, the powerful chairman of the Finance Committee. But Morfin, who worked in public relations for his brother's construction company and once was a Cook County probation officer, said he's prepared for the battle.
"I'm running against someone who is very powerful, who has a lot of money, who has a lot of political connections all the way to Washington, D.C., but at the end of the day the power is with the people, the voters in the ward," Morfin said.
Burke's not the only City Hall powerbroker seeking to influence the runoff races. Emanuel signaled Wednesday that he's prepared to support candidates — financially or in campaign appearances — if they share his "passion for change."
In the middle-class African-American neighborhoods of the South Side 6th Ward, longtime Ald. Freddrenna Lyle said she fell victim to the perception that crime is getting worse in the area.
Lyle, a lawyer who was appointed by Daley in 1998, secured 45 percent of the vote. She will face Roderick Sawyer, son of former Mayor Eugene Sawyer, who came in second in a six-candidate field with 25 percent.
Lyle doesn't think the results in her ward were part of any wider trend. In the past year, two police officers were fatally shot in the ward.
"I don't know what's happening elsewhere in the city, but here it's people reacting to that perception. Perception becomes fact," said Lyle, adding she is sympathetic to constituents' concerns even though statistics show violent crime is down.
Sawyer said he's hearing from ward residents that they do feel unsafe, but that the biggest complaints about Lyle concern "nuts-and-bolts" services. "People tell me 'I called the alderman's office for help with this or that problem on my block, and nobody came out to deal with it,'" Sawyer said.
Copyright © 2011, Chicago Tribune
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Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Nearly third of City Council races head to runoff
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