Local election report

Yesterday, Tuesday April 2nd, was an election day in Illinois for some local races.  The headline event was the Chicago mayoral election.  We looked at that race previously, after the primary election in February narrowed the field to the top two vote-getting candidates, Cook County Commissioner Toni Preckwinkle and former US Assistant District Attorney Lori Lightfoot.  Both are progressive African American women, with the political veteran Preckwinkle in the role of establishment candidate and election newcomer Lightfoot as the insurgent reformer.  I had noted, in our previous look-in, that reformers don't usually do well in Chicago elections.  Whatever the merits of that observation, I couldn't have been more wrong as a prognosticator: Lightfoot won in a romp of historic proportions, receiving something on the order of 74% of the vote citywide, and defeating Preckwinkle in all 50 city wards, according to returns that were reported this morning.

A few days ago, as it was becoming clear that Lightfoot probably was going to win, I had sounded a cautionary note that, as a neophyte, she may not be able to hit the ground running when she takes office.  But, as an anonymous expert noted in Fran Spielman's news account in the Chicago Sun-Times, when a candidate gets a majority of votes in an alderman's ward, the alderman has to be "respectful of her agenda".  74% of the vote surely is a mandate to govern.

Lightfoot becomes the second woman to be elected mayor of Chicago, and the third African American mayor.  She also is Chicago's first openly gay mayor.  Here is an Associated Press photo of her celebrating with her spouse last evening:




Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell notes that Lightfoot joins the ranks of seven other African American women to lead major American cities, the others being Charlotte, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Baltimore.  (I am not certain that I'm ready to anoint Baton Rouge as a "major American city", but I'm happy to let Mitchell have her celebratory moment.)

Longtime observers of Chicago politics may recall the chaos the ensued the last time (and only previous time) that an insurgent African American was elected mayor of Chicago: Harold Washington in 1983.  That racially divisive election resulted in the infamous "Council Wars", in which the city council was split between African American aldermen who supported Washington and white aldermen who opposed him.  White aldermen did their best to thwart Washington at every turn.

My observation as one who lives outside the city limits but who still is connected to Chicago and consumes Chicago media every day is that the political racial animosity, while surely still simmering to various extents, is just a small fraction of what it was back in the 1980s.  The world has changed, thanks be to God!

As for elections closer to my home in my suburb: it was the quietest election I can ever remember.  There were only a half-dozen races on the ballot - we didn't even elect a mayor for my town this time around.  For our village trustees (our version of aldermen or city council members for our "village" of 75,000 residents), we were requested to vote for four candidates; only five were presented on the ballot, of whom the first four were endorsed by the local newspaper.  It was similar for the local park district and library board (I had never previously noted that local media endorsed library board candidates, but apparently the library is a taxing body, so it's a good thing).  Beyond that, there were three school district trustee races (elementary school, high school and community college districts), with only incumbents on the ballot.  Perhaps it's a bit dismaying that there aren't more candidates to choose from, but ours is a place where most people are basically satisfied with their lives, or at least the parts of it that local government can influence.  The schools are fine, the library is fine, the roads are fine, the snow removal is fine - everything's fine.  There were very few yard signs in evidence around our neighborhood.  A voter would have had to be attentive to be aware that yesterday was an election day.  I haven't seen the voter turnout numbers for this area, but I'm sure they were paltry.  I was the only voter in my precinct when I was there.

And it was a beautiful morning.  The highlight of the voting experience was the walk to and from the local school to vote.  The sun was shining, the birds were warbling and the trees were budding.  There were even a couple clouds of gnats to wave out of my path.  Spring is finally climbing out of bed in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago, and the city apparently starts a new day with Lori Lightfoot now assuming the helm.