Mick Dumke of the
Chicago Reader begins to further examine if the new city council would be a rubber stamp. It was something I
attempted to figure out last week:
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa says it's clear why he and more than a dozen other newcomers have been elected to the Chicago City Council, and why Mayor Rahm Emanuel had to fight so hard for his own reelection.
"What we've seen was a massive shake-up, especially by Chicago standards," says Ramirez-Rosa, who defeated 35th Ward alderman Rey Colon in February. Voters have decided that "it's important to have a group of folks who say they're 100 percent with the neighborhoods and that they're going to be independent. . . . I don't think Chicago politics can ever be the same."
True, the "shake-up" bar is low around here. At the very least, the City Council might not be quite the same.
When the new council meets for the first time next month after 18 runoffs, 14 aldermen will be sworn in who weren't there four years ago, assuming current vote totals hold up. Gone will be several aldermen who were mayoral loyalists and products of patronage organizations. And Ramirez-Rosa is right—most of the incoming aldermen have vowed to be independent and progressive.
But as he well knows, these aren't exactly promises till death do us part.
Read the whole thing
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