I think that Kari Lyderson of In These Times is getting out a bit in front of what we can actually conclude from Chicago’s mayoral primary election held last week:
A number of progressive challengers ran for City Council—many of them people of color—and took down incumbent aldermen or made it to runoffs.
The results say a lot about a growth in race and class consciousness and a hunger for change in Chicago after eight years under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, dubbed “Mayor 1%.†This election could be seen as a rejection of Chicago’s once all-powerful Democratic machine, a vast system of political patronage; of the Daley dynasty, with the loss of mayoral candidate Bill Daley (son of Mayor Richard J. Daley and brother of Mayor Richard M. Daley, who served a combined 43 years); of a Council in lockstep with the mayor; and of Emanuel’s autocratic, corporate style of governance.
Ahem. I haven’t seen a breakdown by race of the election results but I think her conclusions are premature. Amara Enyia, the most progressive candidate in the field of fourteen, received 8% of the vote. The most conservative candidatge, businessman Willie Wilson, got 10%.
Characterizing Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle as anti-establishment or a reform candidate is at best wishful thinking. She’s part of the establishment. Could she reform it? Perhaps. Or is she more likely to continue the same failed policies of the last several mayors?
Lori Lightfoot is, arguably, shall we say establishment-adjacent? Her reputation is that of being anti-Emanuel and, more than anything else, the primaries were a repudiation of Rahm Emanuel. I could have told Chicagoans so. And did.
If you look at the returns ward by ward, Willie Wilson may actually have received more votes from black voters than either Preckwinkle or Lightfoot. Lightfoot’s votes appear to have come largely from what we used to refer to as “Lake Shore liberals” who are predominantly white, Preckwinkle’s from the South Side, Willie Wilson’s from the South and West Sides and from the wards to which black voters have fled from the South Side. I doubt that more detailed analysis of the results will be forthcoming.
The Northwest Side and the Gold Coast went for Daley to my chagrin. For some there is no such thing as enough punishment and Daley voters would seem to fall into that category.
