So who is thinking of running for mayor? And who should be thinking about it? “There’s no obvious candidate,” says a prominent Chicago political operative, meaning no one who has it all: the track record, the money, the name recognition, the charisma, the connections, the energy, and the guts.
Political insiders have been mentioning former city inspector general David Hoffman as a mayoral prospect for a couple years. The buzz spiked this past June, when he issued a blistering report on the city’s parking meter deal, and his strong second-place finish in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate last month proved “he can run and run well,” as one operative put it. Local progressives have launched a Facebook group called “David Hoffman Needs to Run for Mayor!” and in a e-mailed thank-you note to his Senate supporters Hoffman left the door open for another campaign: “You should know that this defeat does not deter me from wanting to fight to improve the lives of those who don’t hold the reins of power and too often are shortchanged as a result,” he wrote.
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He’s mostly steered clear of politics since, focusing on bringing the clerk’s office into the computer age and ensuring that more of the City Council’s work is traceable online. If he chose to run, del Valle would start with a strong base in the Latino community, but he’d have to convince a few Daley haters that he hasn’t left his soul in a desk in the clerk’s office. That might not be too hard: some north-side liberal activists were talking del Valle up at a ward organization meeting last month. Del Valle wouldn’t comment for this story, but people close to him say he wouldn’t run unless Daley decided not to.
But Dart has a new-school political style that appeals to progressives even as he keeps up his ties to Democratic insiders. Dart has made national headlines for refusing to evict families from foreclosed rental properties and for cracking down on dogfighting. Sheahan and his predecessors worked to keep life in the county jail off-limits to observers, but Dart has welcomed reporters and documentary filmmakers and vowed to improve conditions there.
Four years ago he appeared to be doing just that, leading hundreds of Salem members in a series of demonstrations outside and even inside City Hall to demand that Daley do more to boost the quality of the city’s public schools. “If this problem isn’t addressed by February, we may have to look for other alternatives,” Meeks declared. But after Daley invited Meeks in for a private meeting in fall 2006, the senator stopped threatening an opposition campaign.
But several of our bolder aldermen appear to be considering a challenge. Bob Fioretti of the Second Ward may be the most likely to pull the trigger. After just three years in office, Fioretti has become one of the real characters in local politics. His allure and his Achilles’ heel are the same—he knows how to work all sides. He’s comfortable cutting tax increment financing deals in the back room and then walking to the front and telling reporters about it. He’s pushed to improve oversight of city contracting and the budget but voted in favor of the parking meter deal. He’s a prosperous white lawyer who spends a lot of time in the poor neighborhoods of his ward and is fairly well known on black radio.
Let’s start with the big one: he was one of just five aldermen who voted against the parking meter deal. He even tried to warn the rest of the world: before the vote was taken he and his staff prepared a report that determined the city was about to leave at least a billion dollars on the table—exactly what Hoffman’s report concluded six months later. Waguespack has continued to criticize the meter deal, but he’s also been out front on other critical issues. He’s proposed legislation that would require third-party analysis and public hearings on any future asset lease deals. He’s also pushed for reforms in the TIF program and fought for infrastructure improvements in his ward. Waguespack isn’t saying what his plans are but has made no secret of his desire to see Daley defeated.
