CHICAGO | Politics and Current Events

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by OrdoSeclorum

Can you imagine Jim Edgar

through the lens of 2022, it's kinda hard to imagine that guys like edgar and big jim were once the flag-bearers of the the IL GOP for over 2 decades straight.

of course that was all back in the olden days when places like dupage county were some of the most staunchly republican counties in the nation. (dupage was +18.1 in 2020!!!).

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by Handro

Ah I thought he was, he aligns with them in some progressive caucus in city council that I can't remember the name of. Anyway, yea he's really good, not sure what ward you live in but surely he's not Jim Gardiner enough for you. Sorry, maybe he'll secretly sell a machine gun to a minor or something to change your mind.

I live in his ward. He's fine, but I would prefer less "progressive" which really means woke BS these days. The City is experiencing a massive increase in crime and "progressives" want to coddle the criminals.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

I live in his ward. He's fine, but I would prefer less "progressive" which really means woke BS these days.

matt swung by our block party over the weekend.

i briefly chatted with him about the proposed affordable housing development over at leland/western.

i get good enough vibes from him and i really appreciate all of the extra leg work he's doing to finally get that fucking parking lot developed.

[Jibba]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

the brown line runs right down my alley every several minutes from 4am to 2am everyday.

it is LOUD when it roars by.

you get used to it.

I have lived on Belmont for 2.5 years. I have yet to get used to the drag-racing exhaust pipes and the wall-shaking soundsystems. I am A-OK with train noise.
Trains are unintentionally loud, and they have a broader civic purpose for (incidentally) being so.

[Steely Dan]

^ maybe those noise events don't happen regularly enough for you to fully tune them out?

If they were as regularly and frequently repetitive as the L, your brain would likely train itself to ignore them, at least enough for sleeping.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

matt swung by our block party over the weekend.

i briefly chatted with him about the proposed affordable housing development over at leland/western.

i get good enough vibes from him and i really appreciate all of the extra leg work he's doing to finally get that fucking parking lot developed.

Yeah, that's great. I am all for more affordable housing. More of that and less woke racial politics would be good.

[Jibba]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^ maybe those noise events don't happen regularly enough for you to fully tune them out?

If they were as regularly and frequently repetitive as the L, your brain would likely train itself to ignore them, at least enough for sleeping.

I probably can't tune them out because of how angry they make me. The audacity of people to inflict sleep-arresting levels of noise on people is beyond offensive to me. It's a serious problem here. I was on the river walk with visitors from out of town just this week, and three times within a 10 minute span we were subjected to what sounded like F1-level exhaust noise, to the extent that we couldn't hear each other speaking.

The city has rolled back legal consequences for such things (in part because of a Federal lawsuit against the city), and the repercussions of that are very apparent to me right now.

[Busy Bee]

The world's awash with relativity but one thing is universally true: hotrodders are assholes.

[Handro]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

I live in his ward. He's fine, but I would prefer less "progressive" which really means woke BS these days. The City is experiencing a massive increase in crime and "progressives" want to coddle the criminals.

Oh geez I didn’t realize he wanted to coddle the criminals, can you point me in the direction of some quotes of his to that effect? Certainly would impact my vote…

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by Handro

Oh geez I didn’t realize he wanted to coddle the criminals, can you point me in the direction of some quotes of his to that effect? Certainly would impact my vote…

Doesn't he support "bail reform"?

[BrinChi]

I lived right on Ashland for one year of my life. It was also the most walkable location I've lived in the city, which was awesome. However, I didn't get much sleep for that entire year, and I decided I could never do that again lol. They can build new construction with triple-paned windows that block all the sound (they do this by the El too), but obviously that's expensive.

[west-town-brad]

I live 3 buildings off of Western Ave near Armitage and luckily the gridlock traffic prevents too much hot rodding during the day time, at night however I have heard racing motorcycles at 3am.

Based on what I see on the evening news, it's hard to escape this behavior anywhere in the city but I know CPD is trying to stop the worst offenses.

that's what I tell myself to avoid going nuts.

[Tom In Chicago]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

i'm just a little surprised that he apparently really is as stupid as he's turned out to be.

I'm just a little surprised at how dumb the Illinois GOP is to a) back a Griffin's candidate without much vetting and then b) think the alternative was something other than a downstate rube!

. . .

[Tom In Chicago]

[MODERATOR NOTE] Please keep this thread on topic. . . if you have something you want to discuss in a civil manner then please do so, but this is not a place to air emotional grievances. . .

. . .

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

I'm just a little surprised at how dumb the Illinois GOP is to a) back a Griffin's candidate without much vetting and then b) think the alternative was something other than a downstate rube!

. . .

yeah, the GOP primary turned into a train-wreck in the making.

i still can't believe that KG's $50M could only buy Irvin 15% of the vote and a 3rd place finish.

WOW!



Candidate ----- votes ---- %

Darren Bailey - 458,102 - 57.48%

Jesse Sullivan - 125,094 - 15.70%

Richard Irvin - 119,592 - 15.00%

Gary Rabine - 52,194 - 6.55%

Paul Schimpf - 34,676 - 4.35%

Max Solomon - 7,371 - 0.92%



between bailey and sullivan, roughly 3/4 of illinois GOP primary voters opted for full-blown right-wing nutjobs.

the IL GOP of big jim & edgar appears to be dead, sadly.

[bnk]

That GOP primary field. Is there number the amount each of them individually spent in the the primary? I know Gary Rabine pretty well. I helped build one of his houses years ago. We went to the same HS though not at the same time. The guy is rich as hell but no Billionaire.
I would feel uncomfortable asking him directly.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by bnk

That GOP primary field. Is there number the amount each of them individually spent in the the primary?

no, the number is the total number of votes that each candidate got in the GOP primary back in june.

[bnk]

I find this encouraging even as a non voter. I don't know all of his platform but Change is needed. At least he addresses crime. It a local and national issue that needs to addressed at the voting box.


https://paulvallas2023.com/

a plan to tackle the issues Chicagoans care about most:

Getting crime under control
Empowering parents to decide what’s best for their children (regardless of income or ZIP code)
Putting the city back on solid financial footing by making sound investment decisions and budgeting sustainably....







Unless I'm missing it I don't see Lightfoot even talking about it in her link.

https://lightfootforchicago.com/









https://www.chicagobusiness.com/juic...mpaign-manager

Paul Vallas hires a political heavyweight to manage mayoral campaign



• Paul Vallas makes a big-name hire for his mayoral campaign.



Paul Vallas enlists political vets Joe Trippi, Mark Mellman for mayoral campaign: Today's Juice, by Greg Hinz



In a move that may dispel some doubts about the viability of his candidacy, mayoral hopeful Paul Vallas has signed up an A-List of nationally-recognized consultants to work on his campaign.

Retained as senior strategist/media advisor is Joe Trippi, a political veteran who served as campaign manager for Howard Dean in 2004. He also worked on presidential campaigns for Ted Kennedy, Walter Mondale, Gary Hart, Richard Gephardt, Jerry Brown and John Edwards and has advised numerous other ranking pols including ex-Los Angles Mayor Tom Bradley and Doug Jones, who, in 2017, became the first Democrat to be elected senator from Alabama in a quarter century.

Working with Trippi will be pollster Mark Mellman, who has an equally long list of political and corporate clients including the late Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and former Illinois governor Pat Quinn.



In a phone interview, Trippi said Vallas “will have the resources” to wage a full TV ad campaign against incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other contenders. He also rejected the notion that Vallas, who has riled the Chicago Teachers Union and consulted for the Fraternal Order of Police, is too conservative to win in a city that has moved to the political left.

“I don’t see him in that way at all,” Trippi said. “He’s a political progressive who’s trying to find ways to get the city working again.”

Trippi said Vallas’ wonky, somewhat contrarian image actually may work to his advantage. Like Gov. Brown, Vallas “thinks deeply” about problems and lays out solutions, Trippi said. “The path [to victory] is to provide real solutions for people and put them out there,” he added.

Vallas’ campaign says he expects to report campaign contributions of $2 million more by the end of this quarter.

...


Read the rest of the story from Greg Hinz here.

[Steely Dan]

^ a pragmatically-oriented middle-roader.

sign me up.


anyway, this is probably a good time to get all the links up to declared candidate websites so folks can poke around:


Lori Lightfoot (incumbent): https://lightfootforchicago.com/

Kam Buckner: https://kamformayor.com/

Frederick Collins:https://collinsformayorofchicago2023.com/

Ja'Mal Green: can't find a campaign website

Sopia King: https://king4thward.com/ (this is her aldermanic website, can't find a campaign website)

Ray Lopez: https://www.raymondlopezchicago.com/

Roderick Sawyer: https://6ward.com/ (this is his aldermanic website, can't find a campaign website)

Paul Vallas: https://paulvallas2023.com/

Willie Wilson: https://www.electwilliewilson.com/?locale=en



please let me know if I'm missing anyone.

[bnk]

Well it could be just a dream. Valas ran for mayor in 2019 came in 9th place.

I don't know what the answer is. I wish Rahm could or a national Rahm like figure run for this nationally important city. Such a weak field. Does Ald. Ray Lopez have a shot?
Who ever it is going to be its going to be a run off as usual.



https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/loca...cided/2913025/


Chicago Mayoral Election 2023: Who's In, Who's Out and Who's Undecided?

Published August 11, 2022

Who’s In:

Mayor Lori Lightfoot

Lightfoot announced earlier this year that she will seek reelection next spring. She finished in the top-two of voting in 2019, then defeated Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle to secure the office in the run-off race.


State Rep. Kam Buckner

Buckner represents Illinois’ 26th District in the state House, an office he’s held since 2019. He is also the chair of the Illinois House Black Caucus.

CPD Officer Frederick Collins

Collins has worked for the Chicago Police Department for nearly 30 years, according to his campaign website...

Community Activist Ja’Mal Green

Green, a community activist who has engaged in numerous causes around the city, is best-known for his work in raising money for small businesses and in helping Chicago residents to become homeowners through the agency My Turn to Own.

Ald. Sophia King

King was appointed to the City Council in 2016, and is the chair of the Progressive Reform Caucus. Her ward includes portions of Bronzeville, Hyde Park and the South Loop.

Ald. Ray Lopez

Lopez was elected to the City Council from the 15th Ward in 2015. His ward includes West Englewood, Brighton Park and Back of the Yards. He has frequently been a fierce critic of Lightfoot, especially on law enforcement issues.

Ald. Roderick Sawyer

Sawyer represents Chicago’s 6th Ward in the City Council, serving as the chairman of the Health and Human Relations Committee. He also formerly served as the head of the African-American Caucus.

Former CPS CEO Paul Vallas

Valas ran for mayor in 2019, placing ninth, and has also run for lieutenant governor of Illinois, losing to Evelyn Sanguinetti in 2014. He served as CEO of Chicago Public Schools from 1995 to 2001 under former Mayor Richard M. Daley.

Businessman and Philanthropist Dr. Willie Wilson

Wilson has run for numerous offices in his career, including a Chicago mayoral run in 2019. He also has gained notoriety for his gas and food giveaways in 2022.



Who’s Mulling a Run:

Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García

García ran an unsuccessful mayoral campaign in 2015, then ultimately ran for Congress, replacing Luis Gutierrez in 2019.

Former Gov. Pat Quinn

Quinn succeeded impeached former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, then won reelection to his position in 2010. ...



Who’s Out:

FOP President John Catanzara
...

Former Sec. of Education Arne Duncan
...

Rep. Mike Quigley
...