A new Chicago mayor always goes through an early courtship/face-off phase with aldermen, but Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson is walking into a particularly turbulent City Council.
Following four years of often-rancorous legislating under Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s frequently combative leadership and the added pressures of the pandemic, the recent elections may find the 50-member assembly even more polarized thanks to a handful of progressive victories in wards where representatives had been more moderate.
And a majority of the council just last week got a jump on the new term by throwing down their own council reorganization plan. In their latest bid to prove they’re more than patsies for the fifth floor, aldermen vastly expanded the number of council committees and handed out chairmanships to themselves rather than waiting for Johnson to do so.
It will be up to Johnson to respond to that proposal. But while veteran aldermen expect him to soon proffer his own committee leadership plan, they may not be as willing to hand the keys to him as they have for decades when mayors dictated council committee leadership posts.
Northwest Side Ald. Scott Waguespack, 32nd, is set to keep his chairmanship of the powerful council Finance Committee under the plan aldermen passed 33-11 five days before Johnson won in Tuesday’s runoff. Waguespack was neutral in the mayor’s race.
Aldermen are open to working with Johnson, but the new mayor shouldn’t expect carte blanche to stack key council posts with aldermanic allies like his predecessors, Waguespack said.
“I think there can be a little bit of bend because we did have some spots open,” he said. “If they want to come back and say ‘We’d like, would you consider putting certain people on the list,’ then we can look at that. But I don’t think people are going to want to bend completely and say ‘We’re taking your list.’”
Aldermen intentionally acted before the runoff so as not to seem to be reacting to a mayoral win by either Johnson or opponent Paul Vallas, said West Side Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th.
Ervin said while council members remain open-minded, he thinks the current setup will get a majority when the next council — which looks to have 13 new aldermen — votes again in May on its organization.
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“It’s checks and balances between the two branches,” Ervin said. “I know that the mayor has a lot to get going, a lot to get done, and it’s our job to work with him to benefit the city of Chicago. So I don’t foresee that being a challenge. But at the same time, it’s necessary for us to do our due diligence without looking at it from one side of the equation, which is what’s been happening for the last umpteen years.”
[ Brandon Johnson wins Chicago mayor election; Paul Vallas concedes ]
Still, unanswered questions remain around the council’s structure, including who will be on the committees, whether Public Safety Chairman Chris Taliaferro, 29th, will survive his runoff challenge and how the new committees — which are expected to cost more than $1 million — will be paid for. As budget-maker, Johnson will hold the purse strings.
Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, the current budget chair who also backed Johnson, noted both Vallas and Johnson agreed on more council independence, but wanted input about council leadership. “I think that we should provide that opportunity,” Dowell said, noting new members still will have to affirm committee assignments.
Some aldermen endorsed Vallas over Johnson and also opposed the council’s suggested setup, leaving them as potential wrench hurlers — or just loud complainers — moving forward.
“I’m just gonna be quiet as a church mouse,” Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, joked. A frequent thorn in Lightfoot’s side, Lopez supported Vallas after a brief mayoral run of his own. If Johnson extends a hand “to help bring balance to what (he’s) trying to do, I and I’m sure, all of my colleagues, would love to do that.”
But Lopez said he frets about the council’s leftward slant.
Though results are unofficial and some races remained too close to call Wednesday, compared with the 2019 inauguration, the new City Council appears poised to see its Latino membership increase to 14 from 12, its Asian representation boosted to two from zero, and its LGBTQ representation increase to nine from six. Aldermen also broadly agreed it will be more progressive politically.
Ald. Matt Martin, 47th, who didn’t face a reelection challenge this year, said having a progressive mayor might be favorable but noted Johnson didn’t have a commanding mandate and while the council might become more progressive, where exactly the newest members stand philosophically remains to be seen.
“Brandon won with 51, 52% of the vote. That will have an impact, and while council is more progressive, I wouldn’t say there’s a strong majority of clear progressives,” Martin said. “So we’ll have to work together in ways that we’ve talked about, especially recently, but in which we haven’t necessarily done.”
How many aldermen will join the council’s formal Progressive Caucus is unclear. In the past, the caucus organized around labor issues, good government reforms, and generally, opposition to Mayors Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel. The caucus has been less active during Lightfoot’s administration: The domain for its website, for example, apparently lapsed and now directs to a Dutch steroid supplier. Its fundraising also has lagged: According to state records, the caucus’ political action committee has less than $14,000 on hand.
Two returning members of the caucus who both backed Johnson, Ald. Maria Hadden, 49th, and Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, see hope in the election of more left-leaning members, especially with the mayor as the city’s standard-bearer of progressivism.
Ramirez-Rosa predicted Johnson will approach council members as more of a coalition-builder than Lightfoot, whose public clashes with fellow aldermen soured trust across much of the body.
Hadden agreed, and noted the chairs of the council committees were purposely chosen to represent different ideologies, racial caucuses and genders while honoring seniority.
“Enough of the people involved genuinely wanted to see the council independent and saw this as an opportunity to do it,” Hadden said. “It ended in a balanced-enough way ideologically and geographically to be the fairest representation. It would be hard to undo without disenfranchising a whole swath of people.”
It would also cost Johnson some early political capital to swing back too hard. Might progressives want to band together and push Vallas supporters out of committee chairmanships? “It’s April 5, I can’t predict what does or doesn’t happen,” Ramirez-Rosa said.
Though Hadden noted the progressive moniker is a moving target and new members are untested, there are several flipped seats where the new alderperson is considered more progressive than their predecessor on housing, policing, environmental or labor issues.
In the 12th Ward, community organizer and social worker Julia Ramirez will take the seat formerly held by George Cardenas, who largely sided with Daley and Emanuel. Cardenas’ chosen successor and former staffer, Anabel Abarca, was appointed to his seat last year but lost her election bid to Ramirez in February.
In the 14th Ward, Jeylu Gutierrez will replace the council’s longest-serving alderman, now-indicted Ald. Ed Burke, who for decades was one of the most public faces of the Chicago machine and the city’s Democratic establishment. Gutierrez won the February election with the backing of progressive unions, including several Service Employees International Union locals and U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García.
In the 26th Ward, Jesse Fuentes is set to take Roberto Maldonado’s seat. Another Daley and Emanuel ally, Maldonado dropped out of the race in January, and Fuentes won in February. Another community organizer who worked in policy and youth advocacy at the Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Humboldt Park, Fuentes told Block Club Chicago last month that she intends to join the Progressive Caucus. She was endorsed by several sitting council members who are members of the Chicago chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Outgoing Ald. Ariel Reboyras, 30th, who sometimes sided with more conservative colleagues, is likely to be replaced by Ruth Cruz, who was leading challenger Jessica Gutierrez by 260 votes as of Wednesday afternoon. Cruz was endorsed by Reboyras but also progressive elected officials like U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez. Cruz also backs several of the Progressive Caucus’ legislative priorities around alternative police responses, mental health and the environment.
[ State Rep. Lamont Robinson set to become next alderman of the 4th Ward on the South Side ]
For the 4th, 5th and 6th wards, where Progressive Caucus members Sophia King, Leslie Hairston and Roderick Sawyer all stepped away from their seats, Ramirez-Rosa is also heartened by those slated to replace them. State Rep. Lamont Robinson, a member of the House Progressive Caucus in Springfield, is leading in the 4th Ward runoff. Desmon Yancy, an organizer around civilian oversight of police who was endorsed by United Working Families and the Chicago Teachers Union, was leading in the 5th Ward. And Pastor William Hall, also backed by UWF and the CTU, was leading in the 6th Ward.
Hadden also considers the winners of the open 46th and 48th ward races to replace Ald. James Cappleman and Ald. Harry Osterman as a “slight shift” leftward. Housing organizer Angela Clay, who was endorsed by the Chicago chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, defeated Kim Walz in the 46th, in part by painting Walz as a corporate insider. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth was also leading Joe Dunne in the 48th as of Wednesday, campaigning on progressive legislative priorities, including “Treatment Not Trauma” and the “Peace Book Ordinance.”
Ramirez-Rosa considered the 10th Ward victory of Peter Chico a net-loss for progressives. Outgoing Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza was first elected to the seat with the help of the Chicago Teachers Union and was co-chair of the Progressive Caucus. Chico, a police officer backed by the Fraternal Order of Police, was leading workers rights organizer Ana Guajardo by double digits, according to unofficial election returns.
