Four years ago, Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez upended the longtime reign of the Mell family in the ward in a razor-thin election, going on to become one of the city council’s most vocal progressives.
But amid criticism over her handling of crime and ward services, Rodriguez faced two opponents, including a candidate she claimed was backed by the ward’s longtime leader, former Ald. Dick Mell. On Tuesday night, Rodriguez Sanchez declared victory outright, with unofficial returns showing she’d won 53% of the vote in the ward that now includes much of Albany Park.
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Samie Martinez, a Chicago planning department project coordinator, won about 35% of the vote and finance professional and affordable housing developer Laith Shaaban won 11%. Martinez told the Tribune he called Rodriguez Sanchez to concede on Wednesday morning.
“We have decided to do politics in a very different way,” Rodríguez Sanchez told supporters gathered at Noon-O-Kabab for her victory party Tuesday night.
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“We knew the machine was coming,” she said, naming Mell, Democratic ward Committeeperson Iris Martinez and Board of Review Commissioner George Cardenas. Iris Martinez, the Cook County Circuit Court clerk, supported Samie Martinez (no relation), who was a staffer for Cardenas when Cardenas was 12th Ward alderman. “But their time is over.”
“We have been organizing on the ground with the people that are at the center of the suffering that this system causes,” she said, including undocumented people, tenants facing eviction and people who are homeless.
Supporters grew raucous as the alderwoman mentioned progressive Brandon Johnson, who won a spot in the mayoral runoff election April 4. “We are going to elect him mayor of Chicago,” she said.
Her next term’s focus will include passing the Treatment Not Trauma ordinance and making additional investments in affordable housing, she told the Tribune.
