Controversial Chicago police union President John Catanzara wins reelection

Chicago police union President John Catanzara won a second term as the Fraternal Order of Police Chicago Lodge 7′s top official Friday.

The union leader weathered a challenge from Detective Robert Bartlett, who argued in his campaign that Catanzara’s confrontational style hurt the union’s public image and effectiveness. Catanzara was elected to a four-year term.

“Finally, the members say they have a voice, they feel like they’ve been represented,” he said as he confidently campaigned outside the union’s West Loop headquarters Friday morning.

Catanzara won 57% of the 7,192 ballots cast in the race, while Bartlett took 43%, according to results on the union’s website. The slate of candidates Cantanzara ran with won nearly every top office. The union’s members include about 10,000 active rank-and-file patrol officers, detectives and others, along with thousands of retired police.

[ Chicago police union President John Catanzara faces election challenge ]

Elected in 2020, Catanzara helped secure a raise for officers during his first term. But the outspoken leader also faced criticism from within and outside the union for recurring controversies.

He played down the Jan. 6 riots as nonviolent, faced calls to resign from nearly 80 community groups that alleged he made racist remarks on social media and apologized after comparing a city vaccine mandate to the Holocaust.

Catanzara has pushed back on police reforms mandated by the U.S. Department of Justice’s consent decree, criticized Black Lives Matter protests and traded jabs with politicians, including outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot. His willingness to fight has garnered support from some in the rank-and-file.

“He’s obviously not perfect, because no one is. But I really believe that he has good intentions and he’s trying to stick up for us,” said a 23-year-old officer who was walking out of the building after voting for Catanzara.

The officer, who asked to remain anonymous, praised Catanzara’s efforts to secure benefits more quickly for young, newly hired officers. He wants good benefits so his police work can become a long career, he said.

“We have a job where there’s a lot of sacrifice,” the officer said. “A lot of times, we don’t have a voice to represent us. A lot of times, no one speaks up for us.”

Though most of the election’s voting takes place by mail-in ballot, dozens of officers trickled into FOP headquarters Friday morning to vote. Some wearing police uniforms quickly ran in and out, while others lingered to talk with campaigners from Catanzara and Bartlett’s candidate slates.

Union members stood under flags rattling in the cold and wind while waiting outside to vote. Flown at half-staff, they were a reminder of the Wednesday death of police Officer Andrés Mauricio Vásquez Lasso. Vásquez Lasso, a 32-year-old officer, was shot and killed as he responded to a call about a man chasing a woman with a gun.

[ Accused shooter of slain Chicago police Officer Andres Vasquez-Lasso ordered held without bond ]

Hours before he won, Catanzara briefly disappeared during the morning voting rush, returning moments later hauling two metal space heaters. He greeted voters near the lodge’s front gate, where a Paul Vallas sign stood in the ground.

At both ends of the block, Bartlett and his supporters offered palm cards to voters. Officer Germaine Wrencher heeded their call and cast a vote for the challenger.

“Everything is changing, might as well change,” he said, referring to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Tuesday election loss and police Superintendent David Brown’s Wednesday resignation.

He said he voted for candidates from both slates in hopes that the groups would work together. He hopes the leadership focuses on uniting members and becomes “a little less political.”

Officer Jessica Venegas said she would like to see more personal support within the union and also planned to “do a little back and forth” as she walked in to vote.

“I’m going in there with some positives and some negatives, but I do think it might be time to switch it up,” said Venegas, who unsuccessfully ran for 10th Ward alderman.

Retired Officer Frank Richardson criticized Catanzara as abrasive as he walked in to vote.

“I think he brings too much negative heat to the police,” Richardson said, likening the union president to Lightfoot for being confrontational. “They’re both in some ways two peas in a pod. I don’t think that’s the way you should get things done. I think you should work with people.”

Bartlett, a 24-year CPD veteran, expressed confidence as he campaigned Friday morning. His administration would be “professional” and would not “bash people that we’re trying to have conversations with,” he said.

“John has a history of making everybody his enemy,” he said. “Anywhere he’s involved, there’s a problem.”

[ Chicago police union head John Catanzara won’t run for mayor next year ]

The former union officer blew off Catanzara’s allegations that his ticket of candidates represented the union’s old guard. Asked about Catanzara’s strategy to get the union more involved in elected politics in part by raising dues, he argued none of the campaign donations Catanzara directed changed the course of any elections.

But Catanzara, who previously flirted with the idea of running for mayor, took credit for the success of FOP-endorsed, tough-on-crime mayoral candidate Paul Vallas. The former CEO of Chicago Public Schools volunteered to help the police union negotiate its last contract.

“In part, Vallas’ success is also because I bowed out of the race,” he said. “I had every intention of running for mayor a year ago, because I just got sick of what the options were. Paul decided, we had a conversation, and it was more beneficial to concentrate on this race for me and for the membership.”

jsheridan@chicagotribune.com