Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle walked into the sweltering banquet room in a Hyde Park hotel packed full of supporters Thursday afternoon to declare she’s running for Chicago mayor, a job she previously had passed on pursuing.
In launching her campaign, Preckwinkle alluded to many of Chicago’s ongoing problems: violent crime that claims too many lives, neighborhoods that long have had little economic opportunity and dozens of neighborhood schools that have disappeared as the city’s student enrollment has shrunk.
All of it, she said, begged a question.
“There are those who have asked, and will ask, why I want to take on this job. I understand their thinking,” said Preckwinkle, 71, who is unopposed on the November ballot for a third term running the county. “I’ve faced no shortage of challenges while in public office. Why would I want to tackle even more?”
Preckwinkle then gave an answer befitting a politician who holds the most powerful post in the Cook County Democratic Party: “I’m doing this because I can. I’m doing this because it’s necessary. I don’t make this decision lightly.”
“Because I can” isn’t exactly “Yes, we can,” but Preckwinkle’s no-frills 20-minute speech reflected a no-nonsense approach she’s long brought to bear, first as a schoolteacher and gun control advocate and later as a Hyde Park alderman and the county’s chief executive.
Preckwinkle made her announcement at the Chicago Lake Shore Hotel, a former Ramada and Hilton hotel where former President Barack Obama first announced his 1996 state Senate bid and where Harold Washington, Chicago’s first black mayor, in 1982 announced his campaign for the city’s top office.
“I can think of no better place,” she said, “to announce my candidacy for mayor of Chicago.”
Preckwinkle, who would be the city’s first African-American woman to become mayor, highlighted her work to tamp down gun violence, reduce the county jail population and call out misconduct in the Chicago Police Department. As mayor, she said, she would emphasize the importance of neighborhood schools, push for an elected school board, help enforce police reforms under a new consent decree, work to decriminalize substance abuse and mental illness, collaborate with aldermen and promote neighborhood development along with growth in the Loop, proclaiming, “I’m non anti-downtown, I’m anti-only downtown.”
Most of all, Preckwinkle said, she hopes to build a new political movement in Chicago — one that several of the supporters who introduced her said they hope echoes the groundswell of support Washington built in the 1980s.
“My hope is that today is more than a kickoff of a campaign, but the start of a movement — one that is rooted in a new coalition across gender, race, age and geography to demand a mayor’s office that understands values and reflects the diversity of its residents and communities,” Preckwinkle said. “That’s why I’m here, why I’m running and I hope for your support.”
‘Queen Sugar’
Preckwinkle made no mention in her remarks of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whose surprise departure from the race earlier this month led the Cook County Board president to reconsider a run at the fifth-floor mayor’s office at City Hall. She did, however, thank former Mayor Richard M. Daley, saying she could not have executed the vision she had for her 4th Ward “without the help and support of Mayor Daley.”
She also thanked Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan for stepping in to force the consent decree, in which a federal judge will enforce reforms to the Chicago Police Department. Left unsaid was the fact that Madigan had to sue Emanuel’s office to make it happen.
Preckwinkle did mention Emanuel, however, during a news conference after her speech.
Asked why she waited until the mayor was out of the race to get in, Preckwinkle said she had worked to collaborate with Emanuel over nearly eight years — even though she toyed with running four years ago and has criticized him on school closings and police reform.
The field of candidates in the mayor’s race now has swelled to 15, and some of the original dozen who joined the race before Emanuel dropped his bid for a third term wasted no time in taking shots at the new entrant Thursday, illustrating Preckwinkle’s immediate status as a front-runner.
Chicago principals association President Troy LaRaviere wondered where Preckwinkle was four years ago, when he said she shrank from challenging Emanuel and even failed to endorse the mayor’s progressive challenger in the runoff, Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who serves as Preckwinkle’s floor leader at the county and is considering another bid for mayor.
“Preckwinkle’s failure to stand up to Emanuel tells me that she would fail to stand up to the banks, real estate developers and school privatizers who used Emanuel to rob and exploit Chicago residents,” said LaRaviere, an African-American progressive who appeared in presidential campaign ads for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. “Can we expect Preckwinkle to have the political courage to stand up to these interests when she couldn’t even stand up to Emanuel?”
Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas took Preckwinkle to task for seeking the mayor’s job while she’s still on the November ballot, saying it was misleading to voters, supporters and campaign donors.
“At the end of the day, if you’re going to run for mayor, then run for mayor,” he said. “Don’t run for two offices simultaneously.”
And Ja’Mal Green, a young black activist who also is running for mayor, announced that he was going to start selling “Queen Sugar” T-shirts, complete with an image of a smirking Preckwinkle and the social media hashtag #peopleoverpolitics. That’s a reference to Preckwinkle’s failed effort at the county level to push through a penny-per-ounce sales tax on sugary and artificially sweetened beverages. The tax, which Preckwinkle initially passed but which later was repealed under public pressure, remains unpopular with many Chicagoans.
Green said Preckwinkle represents the same old “establishment” branch of the Democratic Party and a “breed of politics that Chicago no longer can afford.”
Progressive or establishment?
Before Preckwinkle won her first race for County Board president in 2010, she served as alderman for 19 years, fashioning herself as a progressive on the City Council, particularly when it came to the issue of pushing for more affordable housing and more economic development in minority neighborhoods.
“For quite a number of years, it was Toni Preckwinkle, (Ald. Ricardo) Munoz and myself that were sort of the Three Musketeers, the heart of the progressive caucus when Daley was mayor,” said Ald. Joe Moore, 49th.
But as County Board president during tough economic times, Preckwinkle laid off hundreds of county employees, at times going against the left-leaning unions that backed her initial run for board president. She also remained loyal to county Assessor Joseph Berrios, an unabashed machine politician, even after “The Tax Divide” series by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica Illinois showed property valuations under Berrios favored the wealthy at the expense of the poor.
After Berrios lost the Democratic primary for assessor earlier this year, he resigned his post as Cook County Democratic Party chairman, with Preckwinkle taking his place. If elected, she could become the first mayor to also lead the county Democratic Party since Richard J. Daley, known as the city’s legendary “boss” politician, ran City Hall for 21 years.
Independent and self-described progressive Democrats for decades have railed against the kind of power that Daley wielded. Even though the party’s power has diminished as patronage politics have been weakened by court rulings, and the party has become more inclusive, many progressives still are wary of its influence.
Ald. Leslie Hairston, 5th, is backing Preckwinkle and said she believes the County Board president remains a solid progressive but conceded some will try to use her support for Berrios and her post as party chair against her.
“There’s always going to be that out there, and it’s election time, and people are looking for things,” Hairston said. “I don’t that’s what she has demonstrated in her over two decades of public service.”
Preckwinkle said the idea that because she leads the county Democratic Party she’s no longer a progressive “is ridiculous.”
“I am a progressive Democrat. I’ve been a progressive Democrat my whole life,” she said. “I’ve worked hard to try to build the Democratic Party and move it in a progressive direction. When I became chair of the party, I did my best to knit it back together.”
Union support?
Moore said that Preckwinkle’s support for Berrios, her status as party chair and the potential entry into the race of Garcia, a darling of the forces that backed Sanders for president, will likely make it impossible to get the support of all the unions and progressive organizations that provide campaign financing and workers. Service Employees International Union Local 1, however, wasted no time in endorsing Preckwinkle on Thursday.
“I think the groups will be split. We already know SEIU, probably the most powerful labor union in the city, is backing Toni, and I’m sure that some of the progressive groups — particularly those that came to being during the Bernie Sanders campaign — will be backing Garcia,” Moore said. “So it will be interesting. I don’t think either one of those two candidates will have a corner on the progressive market.”
Perhaps not by coincidence, Sanders tweeted late Thursday that he was “adding my voice to those who think Chuy Garcia should take a look at the Chicago mayor’s race.”
Preckwinkle picked up her own high-profile endorsement of sorts from former Obama White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett.
“Toni is the candidate who has a proven track record of strengthening access to affordable health care, confronting violence in our city and reforming our criminal justice system,” Jarrett tweeted. “To tackle Chicago’s biggest challenges, we need to work together and I believe Toni is best positioned to help unify Chicago at this important time.”
Ald. Howard Brookins, 21st, said the race won’t just be about whether Preckwinkle can get progressive support but also whether she can bridge the traditional ethnic and racial divides that have long characterized Chicago politics.
“Right now Toni appears to be the front-runner, and probably would be able to coalesce the African-American community — which is not as progressive as some people seem to classify (it),” Brookins said.
The banquet room at the Lake Shore Hotel on Thursday was overwhelmingly African-American. However, in a sign that many political insiders are going to wait for the field to shake out some more before making commitments, only four of the City Council’s 17 black aldermen were on hand to back Preckwinkle: Pat Dowell, 3rd; Sophia King, 4th; Leslie Hairston, 5th; and Roderick Sawyer, 6th, the chairman of the council’s Black Caucus.
Chief of staff allegations
Preckwinkle, who had been planning her announcement for more than a week, had to deal with a thorny issue as she entered the race. On Tuesday she fired her chief of staff, John Keller, for what she described as “inappropriate behavior on his personal time” that was “corroborated.”
During her post-announcement news conference, Preckwinkle was asked if she knew of any sexual harassment allegations against Keller before last Friday.
“No,” she responded. “As I said, this allegation was brought to me on Friday. On Monday and Tuesday, we corroborated the allegation by talking to the victim and two witnesses, and I demanded his resignation. I have zero tolerance for this.”
Preckwinkle also declined to elaborate on the allegations saying that could jeopardize the accuser.
“The woman involved has asked for privacy, and I want to honor that,” she said.
Preckwinkle enters the mayor’s race as one of Illinois’ top African-American politicians. She is the third candidate to enter the race since Emanuel announced earlier this month that he would not seek a third term so he could spend more time with his wife, Amy. Former Commerce Secretary and onetime White House chief of staff Bill Daley, the brother and son of two former mayors, announced his campaign Monday. Attorney Gery Chico, a former mayoral chief of staff for Richard M. Daley, formally announced his bid for mayor Thursday.
Garcia, U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley and state Comptroller Susana Mendoza also continue to weigh a mayoral run.
Other candidates seeking to become Chicago’s 45th mayor, include former Chicago Police Board President Lori Lightfoot, Vallas, former Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, businessman Willie Wilson and Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, among others.
Emanuel said a few days after he got out of the race Sept. 4 that the next mayor of Chicago hadn’t launched a campaign yet — a shot at the 12 challengers who already had declared runs against him. On Thursday, Emanuel was asked about Preckwinkle’s chances of winning now that she’s officially in the race.
“Here’s the thing: I don’t want to spend the next eight (months) commenting on any individual or the race,” Emanuel told reporters before flashing a grin. “Except when we go off the record, and then I have a lot to say.”
Chicago Tribune’s John Byrne contributed.
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