Sunday, April 27, 2008

Chicago's Independent Caucus: A Year Later

From Progress Illinois via Gaper's Block...
In her flattering 2005 profile of America’s “5 Best Big-City Mayors,” Time’s Nancy Gibbs opined that Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley “wields near imperial power, and most of Chicago would have it no other way.” Fast forward three short years and a lot seems to have changed.

While Daley won re-election handily in 2007, capturing 71 percent of the vote to seal his sixth consecutive term, he’s siphoned political capital at an uncharacteristically consistent pace. Meanwhile, a group of alderman, including veteran progressive council members Toni Preckwinkle (4th Ward), Joe Moore (49th Ward), and Ricardo Munoz (22nd Ward), have created the so-called Independent Caucus, one that Preckwinkle assures me will “shed some light on difficult issues that face the council.” In existence for almost a year, their growth has been humble, but momentum is on their side, and before long they could represent the city council’s first formidable opposition bloc in 25 years.

Daley's iron grip on the council began to weaken several years ago as corruption allegations surfaced around City Hall. In 2004, the Chicago Sun-Times discovered that the city was paying private trucking companies – many of which had mob connections or ties to city employees – to do little or no work. Less than two years later, Robert Sorich, Daley's former patronage chief, was convicted on two counts of mail fraud for rigging city jobs and promotions to favor those with political connections. Daley escaped both scandals unscathed -- at least in the legal sense -- but his integrity was called into question.

Then came the Big Box fight. In the summer of 2006, the city council passed an ordinance that required large retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target to pay their employees a living wage. Daley denounced the bill vociferously during the initial debate, but 35 council members broke with him, forcing the mayor to veto his first bill in his then 17-year reign.

Shortly thereafter, the February 2007 aldermanic election offered further evidence of the growing discontent with the Daley Machine. A slew of reform candidates upended Daley-backed incumbents, from Dorothy Tillman in the 3rd Ward to Darcel Beavers in the 7th.

Chicago’s labor movement is largely credited with bringing about this result. The Chicago Federation of Labor, an umbrella organization for the city’s unions that for years was inseparable from the Democratic machine, broke with the mayor last election cycle, electing not to endorse him or many of his close allies. Instead, they spent $2.7 million in campaign donations and services on the reform candidates, many who would not have been given the time of day by former union leaders.

Who is this independent caucus?

It’s still unclear exactly who makes up the Independent Caucus, but Preckwinkle describes it as “a multi-racial coalition that includes some people who are independent, some people who are progressive, and some people who are both.” Twenty aldermen were solicited last year and between six and 15 meet regularly.

What connects a majority of the city’s reform-minded freshman with the council’s progressive stalwarts and their friends in labor? Many are tired of the administration’s tilt away from the needs of working families and government accountability and towards a focus on promoting downtown development and attracting global businesses. “While we want to work with the mayor, we should not be considered automatic supporters of his programs and policies,” says Moore. “We want to analyze and question them from a progressive perspective.” And while discontent has been building slowly, Preckwinkle thinks the time is ripe to organize around it. “For the first time, we thought we had a critical mass in the city council that might be for a progressive agenda,” she says.

I would say they shouldn't be the only group with a voice out there.

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