My favorite tidbit to emerge so far about the backroom scheming in the race to be Chicago’s next mayor came at the bottom of a recent Sun-Times account of private talks between White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and Congressman Mike Quigley.
I’m just assuming Emanuel’s confused. I’ve been interviewing politicians—including plenty of mayoral wannabes—for years about Mayor Daley’s favorite slush fund, and most of them are. Most have absolutely no idea how it works, even if their positions would seem to require it. Even when they do get it, they’ve been so wary of upsetting the mayor they speak in vague generalities or go off the record. Of course, some get TIFs but won’t knock the slush fund because it’s funding some pet project.
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Emanuel, congressman Danny Davis, state senator James Meeks, congressman Luis Gutierrez, Cook County sheriff Tom Dart—none of these prominent names in the mayoral race has ever made any significant contribution to the TIF debate that I know of. And I follow this stuff relentlessly.
He said he didn’t know a whole lot about TIFs. He promised to look into the matter and get back to me.
Nonetheless, taking a stand on TIFs did wonders for Quigley’s political career. It gave him the reformer credentials he needed to distinguish himself from the other aspirants—including state reps John Fritchey and Sara Feigenholtz—in the crowded Democratic primary to replace Emanuel, who gave up his Fifth District congressional seat to go to the White House in 2009.
Fritchey, who’s giving up his state legislative seat to run for Forrest Claypool’s old county board spot—has called on Daley to use $700 million in TIF reserves to erase budget deficits at the city and Chicago Public Schools and hire more cops.
If you’re an upstart considering a long-shot reformer campaign—like, say, 32nd Ward alderman Scott Waguespack—you have no choice but to call for an end to the TIF program as we know it.
