Rahm Emanuel was re-elected to a second term. Preliminary estimates show a 56-44 win. He had a huge financial advantage over his opponent, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.
This is a defeat for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and a big win for the Status Quo corporatist wing.
“The mayor raised about $20 million through last week, easily outpacing Garcia, who brought in about $4 million. The hefty cash advantage enabled the mayor to run a steady stream of ads that raised questions about his challenger’s résumé and his plan for remedying the city’s problems.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Nuts…more disaster in Chicago.
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The guy with the most money wins–again. So sad. What a country…wonder how many schools he’ll close THIS year.
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A very sad day for the people and children of Chicago. But we will carry on and eventually the people will prevail.
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LOVE that attitude.
We are who we believe we are . . . .
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Stay strong, Chicago. So sorry.
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So, so disappointing.
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Obama endorsed Rahm. It’s a club funded by taxpayers.
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It’s sad. The Great Lakes states are nearly solid Right wing now. It’s amazing how fast it’s gone- from 2010 to 2015 nearly a clean sweep across the whole region.
I don’t think Democrats and Republicans will be able to kill off the idea of labor unions, though, despite their best efforts. That concept is much older than any of the current crop of politicians/campaign donors. It’ll re-emerge in one form or another because there’s obviously an unmet need for an entity or organization to represent ordinary people and something will fill that hole.
Supply and demand 🙂
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The labor unions might better survive by reorganizing as a labor party. There’s plenty of independents who work for a living and are under represented in government. Maybe that is the entity you mention. My concern is an oppressive, anti-worker government holding power through non-democratic means. In Ohio, Kasich was elected with only 25% of eligible voters, yet Republicans hold power through gerrymandering, voter suppression, and rigging the system. SB5 was less about the economy or freedom, than eliminating Democrats as a viable party and silencing half the state. My concern is Ohioans adjusting to a new normal of one sided government and going along to get along. Most voters are like frogs in a pan and oblivious to the downward spiral of Midwest states.
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Agree. It’s the packaging of neoliberalism/social Darwinism, as Democratic, that gutted the country’s economic strength, drove the United States away from its legacy of noble character, and created an oligarchy.
The ruse attracts donors like those who funded Emanuel. PR presents them as people who care about big themes, despite their narrow interest, in enriching themselves.
Social impact bonds show the naked face of greed, packaged as a big theme of concern for the poor.
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(Heart) Breaking news…
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Well, there goes the baby with the bath water…sinister.
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Well, there goes the baby with the bath water!
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Disgusting and disappointing but not surprising–insurgent candidates are long-shots b/c elections are a tightly controlled insider game of big money, party machines, electoral laws written by those in power, and courts favoring those at the top. Chuy’s loss can become an opposition advance if the popular coalition continues building itself. We are an immense unorganized majority whose time will come if we mobilize our numbers. We make change at the speed of democracy from the bottom up while the 1% make war with the speed of money from the top down.
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I am gutted over this.
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I know it doesn’t help but I think it’s great you challenged him.
The Money Party won again, but they don’t always win.
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“Mr. Garcia was backed by about seven in 10 Hispanic voters, as well as a majority of voters with children in the Chicago Public Schools.”
It’s great that public school parents came out, anyway. These elections are always portrayed as “labor unions versus ed reformers” but it looks like you-all had the majority of parents who actually use the schools.
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Rather sick that 30% of Hispanic voters backed the Rahminator who would just as soon throw them out of the city. And after the devastation he wreaked on Chicago Public Schools, support for Chuy should have been unanimous among CPS parents. Some people deserve what they voted for. Unfortunately, everyone else is along for the ride.
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This is the beginning of a long struggle. Chuy was a brave candidate.Emmanuel had a $30 million war chest funded by his Banker and hedge fund friends, Chuy got a respectable 44% of the vote. He stood toe to toe with Emmanuel. That is no small thing Now is the moment to continue to organize the neighborhoods and expand the base of the progressives and continue to field candidates.
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It is remarkable that Garcia commanded 44% of the vote. He entered this race late in the game, and as a virtual unknown, and did extremely well. He now has a big voice in Chicago politics.
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Yes. Garcia did quite well despite a huge financial disadvantage. That is encouraging. It means the Emmanuel is vulnerable. He needs to be challenged again, but the challenger needs more money.
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I’m not sure it is as big a loss as we fear. No one with power predicted that Chuy would do as well as he did. Rahm knows that his run does not represent the true majority. He has promised things to people who he has ignored in the past. If there were any doubts in his mind, he knows there is a growing progressive movement that is tired of his governing for the 1%. Rahm’s win over Chuy is only a victory for the elite if the people crawl away in defeat. I think that perhaps Mayor 1% got a little lesson in humility. I didn’t see any swagger tonight.
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I agree. Rahm was frightened. Time to keep the pressure on. This could mitigate future damage Rahm might try to inflict on Chicago.
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28% Voter turnout. Totally disgusted by that. If you don’t know the issues, don’t care, don’t trust either candidate or any of them, you could at least exercise your first amendment rights and write in a protest candidate like Spongebob Squarepants. BAsed on the number of those who do not vote, Spongebob could win if they did. Imagine the media reaction to THAT! If they were allowed to have or publish one. We have to find a way of stopping so very many from abdicating the field of battle and dragging us down with them. Mandatory voting is looking REALLY REALLY GOOD right now.
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I totally agree. What will it take for people to get out and vote? I find it hard to feel sorry for people who can’t be bothered to vote.
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I am not in favor of mandatory voting, I guess I should have written, why don’t people care enough to vote and what will it take for them to take advantage of their right to vote?
As far as imposing rotten laws, ALEC seems to do well with that w/o mandatory voting.
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Mandatory voting is an idea that is DOA. No one who has no interest in voting, is uninformed or only knows what has been pounded into them in 30 second BIASED and mendacious sound bites, should have the privilege and duty of voting and imposing rotten laws and rotten candidates on all the rest of us. Down with mandatory voting.
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UUPDATE: The Board of Elections has the voter turnout at 39%. Out of 1.4 million registered voters, only 567,000 turned out. Rahm beat Garcia by about 65,000 votes, or about just 8% of the nonvoters.
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This happens all over. It is sad. It makes these officials think they have mandates with 25% support.
How about, instead of mandatory voting, a national holiday where everyone is given time off? Businesses that refuse would be singled out as anti-democratic. Who could argue with easier voting? Ok, maybe a few of the fringe.
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mathvale –
i’ve said this for years… since elections are supposed to be one of the most important ways for us to utilize our voices, it sure would be grand if the day was recognized for its importance!
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I d on’t think it will matter. in my state there is early voting including weekends and the turnout is still awful.
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This news makes me sad and mad!
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I am fearful of what will happen in my city with mayor 1% reelected and Rauner in Springfield! I am also very disappointed, but the momentum created for change doesn’t have to stop. We need to continue to push and demand to be heard.
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The money party always wins. Both parties are “money parties.” A or B. It doesn’t matter. It is an illusion of choice. “Most people are as happy or sad as they want to be.” Abraham Lincoln. I would add, “Most people only see the truth they want to see.” People want to believe that these elections are real and that they have some kind of power over the system. It is sad to me. It is kind of like religion. People don’t like the idea of nothing after death (lights out), so they make up all this crazy stuff. People with their egos or narcissism want to think that their voice matters, that they matter. We don’t. It only matters what those in charge think. Tend to your own garden and forget the big picture.
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Johnsmith, I write this blog and people read it because we are not abandoning our fates to the money parties. We will not tend to our own garden and forget the big picture. We are not going to take whatever happens and sigh. We are building a movement to protect our children and our public schools. We will not let setbacks deter us. Think of the civil rights movement in the 1940s. It would have been easy to give up. But the leadership fought on despite enormous discouragement. And in time they prevailed.
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Dr. Ravitch,
Quite possibly one of the greatest testimonies for our ongoing fight. Well said. Thank you.
– Clem
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Amen Diane
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John,
I love your fighting, non-passive spirit. You’re a real actively engaged renegade. You give so much hope to the rest of us do-nothings . . . .
Please spread the word, and let everyone know what the REAL situation is, “a la John”.
I know for a fact, as you have suggested, that if I just click the heels of my sneakers three times and chant, “There’s no view like John’s”, all of this overclass oppression will just go away, and I will be back home somewhere, surrounded by loved ones and hot cocoa with marshmallows.
And I thought Karen Lewis was a hero and had some spine. What was I thinking? John, you knock them all out of the water . . . .
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Ok, I often feel as John does, give him a break. Who wouldn’t? Every day, people we trust and try to help spit in our face (figuratively or not) and demonize teachers. My own father went on a tirade about “union thug teachers” during the Reynoldsburg strike even when the school board muscle was harassing teachers and parents ON CAMERA. And he has several teachers in the family. My usual liberal relatives are suddenly pro Rahm and, while progressive on everything else, buy into the anti-teacher propaganda. And it is a daily struggle to convince students and parents I am on their side, not Kasich or Christie or Paul or Bush or Obama. It is often a weird Jekyll and Hyde where people hate teachers, but not THEIR teachers.
But Diane is right and hope remains, if voters wake up. Perhaps there is no other direction but up.
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Money doesn’t always win. Linda McMahon proved that in CT twice. Eric Cantor had $4 million versus an unknown college professor who won with $200,000. Look at the LA BOE where a challenger backed by millionaires and billionaires that spent over $3 million lost to a candidate that spent less than $300,000.
The first question you must ask of any potential challenge candidate, is can they win. If the answer is yes, then you move on from there.
Chuy got into the race very late because of Karen Lewis’ unexpected illness. I think if it had been Karen Lewis, there would have been a different outcome in Chicago. I also watched a Chicago news channel which stated Emanuel received 60% of the black vote in predominantly black wards. That delivered a devastating blow to Chuy.
We are ready to take on our corporate charter school loving mayor in Bridgeport, CT. The same Mayor that colluded with millionaires and a billionaire to illegally oust our elected school board. The same Mayor that was one of Paul Vallas’ number one supporters. The same Mayor that has illegally underfunded our true public schools while promoting/supporting charter schools. The same Mayor that tried to take away our right to vote for our BOE members. Wish us luck this upcoming September.
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People are misremembering the Cantor situation. His opponent didn’t win, Cantor lost because he and his team were ambushed from the fringes of the far right due to being asleep at the switch and assuming they had already won since they couldn’t possibly lose. That election was an outlier, a one off that will be hard to replicate in the future.
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We knew we wouldn’t win this battle, but it was a strategic stepping stone for us in the long run. Gotta poke holes in the monster before it falls. Teachers, students, and parents will only gain confidence from here.
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I am proud to be in Chicago campaigning for Chuy! Would do it again in a heartbeat! A 44% message was sent. It’s not over! Yet.
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De accuerdo completemente!!!!!!
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Maybe it wasn’t just about money: http://inthesetimes.com/article/17818/stories-circulate-of-voters-receiving-ballots-pre-checked-for-rahm-emanuel
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Or maybe money bought people who were willing to fill in pro-Emanuel voting forms and then insert them into the machines when no one was looking. This is a city where dead people have been known to cast votes.
For this to have occurred in different black communities across the city sounds eerily familiar. Reminds me of when Emanuel paid Rent-a-Protesters and bussed them in to oppose community members who were trying to keep their schools from being closed.
And who was in charge of the election and who will be investigating this? As David Sirota reported in a tweet on election day, “CAN’T MAKE IT UP: Chicago’s election results tonite are brought to you by a corporate lobbyist”
“Chicago Elections Chief Got Lobbying Contracts from Rahm Emanuel’s Administration”
http://www.ibtimes.com/chicago-elections-chief-got-lobbying-contracts-rahm-emanuels-administration-1869898
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The final numbers show Rahm Emanuel with that 56 percent over Chuy Garcia’s 44 percent. After talking with hundreds of people we will be publishing a lot of analysis at substancenews.net, which covers Chicago education news every day, as we have been doing for the past 40 years.
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Clearly the US needs campaign finance reform to eliminate the problem of candidates being able to buy their way to winning. What a sorry day for Chicago. What a sorry day for democracy.
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Emanuel Wins in Chicago, Garcia Fails to Ignite Black Vote
Bruce Dixon says once fiery black teachers union leader Karen Lewis pulled out for medical reasons, Garcia would not critique the Democratic Party and President Obama’s neoliberal education policies as Lewis was willing to do – April 7, 2015
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=13609
This is the story, in my opinion: Garcia had a weak message and was a weak candidate. If you don’t have the money you better have the message and he had neither.
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What an EXCELLENT point!
Rhetoric and intentions and the ability to communicate them can trump mullah. . . . .
Chuy needed to be fired up. Nice guy, but needed to be a brave heart, not a politician.
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It also didn’t help that Obama campaigned for Rahm, delivering the majority of the African-American vote. There are too many leaders whose job is to mislead…
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I really don’t get how the black community could come out for Rahm so strongly after the closure of so many schools in African American neighborhoods. I am assuming that a lot of black teachers lost jobs, too. What promises did he make? What objections did the black community have to Chuy Garcia?
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Perfect storm.
Outspending the opponent 4 to1, having unions split between candidates, adding in animosity between minorities and, a candidate who had a late start…. yet, Mayor 1% could only win by 12%?
A scenario-generating think tank should crunch the numbers, allowing for equal campaign spending, a united union and minority vote, and the same candidate for the whole campaign. It might have been a landslide against the incumbent.
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You’re right. Similar numbers in the recent NY Democrat gubernatorial primary and general election.
The pendulum is starting to swing back to the people.
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Puke!
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As we know, sometimes the loser is actually the winner (especially when his name is Jesus)
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SomeDamPoet… so when is “education Easter”????
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“All 8 incumbent members of the Chicago City Council’s progressive caucus won. And, at least 2 new ones were elected. Election results for 3 more were too close to call, on Tuesday night.” (InTheseTimes website)
50 total members on Council.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither will formidable opposition, to party strangle holds be built successfully overnight. Americans, though, build quickly, by virtue of their impatience, resilience, and doggedness in pursuit of what is right.
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The long comment below was in response to a Chicago Magazine article that “analyzed” the election. Another person commented on my comment saying that I should post it to this thread. So here goes. My comment gives an in depth view of someone who did volunteer work, primarily walking and canvassing 5 days a week, at Chuy’s only black south side office (he could only afford one for over 650,000 people, I go into more detail in the comment)
Here is the original article: http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/Felsenthal-Files/April-2015/Rahm-Garcia-Election/#comment-1958304584
Here is my comment:
It’s because Chuy was a good man and working for a movement. Nobody talks how he fell never fell for the race bait, how they tried to portray him as a minority that can’t possibly know how to run things. Also, all those T.V. spots you mentioned cost money. I went to a lot of his forums, and I can guarantee you he gave very specific plans on how to make the city more equitable. But nobody in the press, like your publication, covered those parts. Phil Ponce is Rahms neighbor, and did not push Rahm nearly as hard as he pushed Chuy. (Just an FYI, he never asked Rahm how he paid for all day kindergarten and [THE PROMISE OF] universal pre-k, or how big the class sizes were, or whether or not CPS saved money with the school closings [information which he has never released]), or why he did it in the first place. Chuy stuck to his guns and did remarkably well. We know who to count on now. And nobody realized how important those audits Chuy called for are. You can’t go around and call Chicago a corrupt city and then on the other hand say that comprehensive independent performance audits won’t make a difference. But the press never mentioned that. YOU CAN STILL READ HIS PLAN ON HIS WEBSITE AND DECIDE FOR YOURSELF WHETHER OR NOT THEY WOULD’VE SIGNIFICANTLY HELPED TO BALANCE THE BUDGET.
Chuy is the best candidate I have ever done volunteer work for. He would never flip. He was one of the only aldermen to not flip after Harold Washington died, and Daley made him pay for it, even though it took him almost a decade to get Chuy out of politics. If there is any blame to be placed on on the Chuy campaign is that his runoff black pamphlets were so off point. They did not describe his history of equity, and his plans for equity in the city in the future.
I wonder if anyone commenting or the writer of this article walked in any of the south side wards that every pundit said would decide the election. Did they have anyone say that they would vote for Chuy but would not put up a sign or even come outside because it was “too dangerous.” For those of you who don’t realize we only had one office on 63rd and woodlawn for the whole black south side and hyde park (the south side goes all the way to 139th, and there are over 660,000 black people on the south side). Almost nobody wanted to rent office space to Chuy for fear of retribution. His main office was in a former restaurant. There were still grease covered appliances in the back. Chuy was a great candidate and is a good man, just because he doesn’t buy into the whole fact that T.V. can solve everything is not a fault. Money won this election, but not in the way everybody thinks, it was won by old school machine ways, paying people to put up signs on property that is not theirs, putting fliers in mailboxes (which is illegal) and outright extortion and vote tampering. All of this brought out by an army of paid staffers. Why don’t you mention the 500,000 absentee ballot forms that Rahm sent out (which cost money) with the ominous note that read (I’m paraphrasing) “We know whether you vote or not.” What about the ballots that were already filled out, or the fact that many people (including someone close to me) that encountered his final ballot printout saying he is casting a vote for Rahm even though he intended to vote for Chuy. What about the fact that Fioretti, Wilson(until the very end), and Doc gave him almost no help to take down Rahm. Rahm is heir apparent to the machine, no matter how much he pretends to be a reformer. I dare any of you to go to his “transparent” website and find out where your tif money goes. Or find out what goes on in the city finance committee, which among many things handles all city contracts. SPOILER: It has never been audited since the 70s. And the same man has been in charge of it the whole time, one Ed Burke, the last of the Eddies that blocked everything Harold Washington wanted to do standing. Chuy understood that there are people that profit off of the misfortune of others, and there are people that try to lift others up. Chuy was the latter, and he knew that the only way to win is person by person, and by never selling out. A liberal that both the support of police and anti-police brutality campaigns. He was a fantastic candidate, and a true reformer.
Chuy 44%? How about the Tribune poll that Rahm at 58% and Chuy at 35% with 7% undecided? Chuy did astronomically better than that poll predicted, the poll that so many other publications and people were quoting. All he had to do was be more honest and appear less humble, put his story and plan (WHICH EXISTED AND WAS GOOD) out there, and to have two more weeks to convince more people that he was in the right the old fashioned person to person way. Also he needed enough money to open up two more offices on the south side. Nobody that I talked to that had an ear to listen ended up voting for Rahm. I had a person i talked to drive to the early voting polls, come back, and show me his receipt before I finished walking his precinct. He was leaning towards Rahm when I first talked to him. Rahm had an army of paid walkers and staffers, but nobody seems to report that. I met a lot of them, a friend of mine that walked with me for Chuy was actually offered $50 to walk for Rahm. Nobody is mentioning how many paid people Rahm had on the ground. How many city employees were coerced into walking for him for fear of losing their jobs. Also how about the fact that the progressive caucus in the city council has almost doubled? We did well, and this isn’t over.
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I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been so sarcastic when referring to the original article, I’m sure the original writer was trying to provide a fair analysis.
I am referring to the following passage from my previous comment:
“The long comment below was in response to a Chicago Magazine article that ‘analyzed’ the election.”
I either should not have put the word analyzed in quotes, or I should have removed the sentence completely. Thank you.
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Thank you for the work you did for Chuy. I agree. This is not over. It will never be over until we have taken our schools and our cities and our country back from the billionaires.
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I don’t think Chuy lost. He did incredibly well for the length of time and the amount of money he had. Rahm sure didn’t look like he thought he won. Keep up the fight.
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I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been so sarcastic when referring to the original article, I’m sure the original writer was trying to provide a fair analysis.
I am referring to the following passage from my previous comment:
“The long comment below was in response to a Chicago Magazine article that ‘analyzed’ the election.”
I either should not have put the word analyzed in quotes, or I should have removed the sentence completely. Thank you.
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