Next year, the Chicago City Council will be different. Jerry Morrison, Executive Director of Service Employees International Union (SEIU), foresees a turnover of 15-20 aldermen, the largest in modern political history. New aldermen with different bases of political support will create a new council.
The entire article is here.
Dick Simpson runs a version of this column about twice a year. Always predicting that real change is imminent and that an independent bloc is emerging in da council.
ReplyDeleteIf real change is going to occur then Daley needs to go. Otherwise he will find a way to bend the independent aldermen to his imperial will. Or at least most of them.
The dark side is powerful it is.........
If the special interests (specifically, but not limited to, the unions mentioned in this article) aren't neutered any change will be limited in scope and certainly won't address the systemic failures we're experiencing on every level of government.
ReplyDeleteI'm quite exhausted with seeing special interests abdicating my voting power (ie - if you're a resident AND a union member, essentially, you get two votes).
You know, citizens are a "special interest." What the Dick Simpsons et al. of the world don't seem to realize is that the Daley regime wins because it works for thousands of people. Those people identify their interests, and vote accordingly.
ReplyDeleteFor those people "reform" is generally another way to say replacing your interests with theirs. If "reform" means something different it can only succeed if you convince people who benefit from the current system that a new system would be something other than a different set of bums distributing the goodies differently.
I run into people from all walks of life from all over the city. Never in my life have I seen so many Chicagoans disgusted with the political process as I have seen now. I agree with Simpson that we can expect some sweeping changes this time around.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, I wonder if it's a coincidence that so many aldermen are choosing not to run this time around?
It's clearly not coincidence that so many Aldercritters have chosen to retire. Shiller and Vi Daley would not have been favored to win if they ran again.
ReplyDeleteIt's going to be a tough election for incumbents in February. I don't know if 15-20 is realistic for new alderman, but 10-15 is certainly possible.
I guess time will tell.
It's clearly not coincidence that so many Aldercritters have chosen to retire.
ReplyDeleteNot a coincidence, at all.
Now that the public is aware of Council driving the budget into a $654M hole, they will (or, at least should) start to hold people accountable.
The retiring aldermen are aware of this and getting the hell out before they may forced to answer for their inept stewardship of the city's finances.
But, let's not shed too many tears for them. We'll be picking up the tab for their sweet, sweet retirement packages for the next few decades.