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“I feel bad for him,” Medrano said. “I don’t think he likes the fact that people in the ward still have the tendency to come to me with problems.” Medrano was the ward’s alderman until 1996, when he was caught up in the Silver Shovel corruption probe, convicted of extortion, and sent to a federal prison for nearly two years. Mayor Daley appointed Solis, then head of the United Neighborhood Organization, to fill the vacancy, but Medrano has worked to win his old job back for the last several years. He lost to Solis in his first comeback bid for alderman in 2003. Then, with 210 votes, he went on to win an uncontested election for the mostly ceremonial 25th Ward Republican committeeman’s job (a party position, it doesn’t carry the same legal restrictions as a city office). Solis, who got 4,084 votes running unopposed for Democratic committeeman that year, boasted at the time that he’d “let” Medrano win the GOP post as a gesture of goodwill. That seems like a long time ago now.
Medrano remains involved with community groups and says he still receives service requests from ward residents. He says he listens and does whatever he can, but most of the time he tells people to call 311 or Solis’s office. “Perhaps there is a political future for me,” Medrano said. “When I look around the neighborhood, I think there is.” In fact, Medrano said, he’s planning to run against Solis for Democratic committeeman.
