“Please leave a message; at our convenience, we’ll ignore it.”
My god, this city loves its political bosses.
We certainly did. On February 22, Rahm Emanuel won the mayoral contest, and a bunch of people won for aldermen.
Chandler and Dixon made it to the runoff not because they were so outstanding but because they were the only names voters recognized.
As I see it there are three basic reasons politicians don’t return calls: One, they’re sulking over some ancient grudge. (Hear that, congressman Luis Gutierrez?) Two, they’re afraid of having to answer tough questions about whatever it is they’re up to. (That would be you, state senator Heather Steans, though sooner or later you’re going to have to talk about your charter school legislation.) Or, three, they’re disorganized to the point of chaos.
In 1991 they tossed out William “Big Bill” Henry, in part because he was vindictive, mean-spirited, and corrupt. They replaced him with Jesse Miller, but four years later they canned Miller in part because he seemed uninterested in providing basic city services.
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Back in the glory days of the 60s and 70s, independent aldermanic giants represented the 43rd Ward.
