An early voting location. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line] 

As mayoral and aldermanic candidates make a final push to ensure their supporters turn out to the polls for the April 4 election, early voter turnout is up in this year’s runoff election compared to the 2019 and 2015 runoff elections.  

The number of Chicagoans who have voted early in person and submitted Vote By Mail ballots is also overtaking the numbers seen in the Feb. 28 municipal election, data from the Chicago Board of Elections shows. 

The City Council meets to consider and adopt rule changes during a special meeting March 30, 2023. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Chicagoans in 14 wards will decide their aldermen during Tuesday’s election. The results will affect the makeup of City Council for the next four years as some incumbent aldermen fight to hold onto their seats and newcomers seek to fill open seats. 

Here are the council races in a runoff:

Ald. Anthony Beale (9) speaks during Thursday’s special City Council meeting. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line] 

The City Council on Thursday adopted new rules and chair assignments for 28 council committees expected to be used for the next four years after new aldermen and a mayor are sworn in on May 15. 

Aldermen during a special council meeting approved the new rules (R2023-502) with a 34-10 vote and the committee chair assignments (R2023-503) with a 33-11 vote. 
 

 

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Cook County Comm. Brandon Johnson appear together at a rally on Thursday, days before the mayoral runoff election is decided. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Thousands of supporters of Cook County Comm. Brandon Johnson’s mayoral bid packed the Credit Union 1 Arena at UIC Thursday evening for a rally headlined by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders just five days before the April 4 runoff.

Surrogates painted his opponent, former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, as an existential threat and Johnson as the candidate with better experience in education and a better vision for the city’s future. 

Polls in Chicago pictured on primary election day in June 2022. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Two independent groups are spending tens of thousands of dollars to back candidates for City Council in the upcoming runoffs. In some of the same races they’re on opposing sides. 

The Illinois REALTORS Fund, an independent expenditure committee representing the Illinois Association of REALTORS, has poured more than $278,000 into support for candidates in at least eight of the 14 City Council runoffs.  

The progressive Working Families for Chicago independent expenditure committee, meanwhile, has spent more than $132,000 since March 1 to prop up candidates as well. 

The Daily Line team was in attendance at the UIC Pavilion for the rally with Bernie Sanders and Brandon Johnson for Chicago's Mayor. Check out a few of the moments we captured at the event. 

The City Council will meet Thursday for a special meeting. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line] 

Aldermen are scheduled Thursday to vote on new rules for the City Council and an ordinance detailing who will chair a proposed 28 council committees for the next four years. 

Former CPS CEO Paul Vallas and Cook County Comm. Brandon Johnson give victory speeches at Election Night watch parties on Feb. 28, 2023, as both head into an April runoff for mayor. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Chicago mayoral candidate Paul Vallas spent the last several weeks collecting nearly double the amount of donations compared to Cook County Comm. Brandon Johnson (D-1) as Vallas has earned endorsements from across the political spectrum and from key labor groups.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a news conference Tuesday. [Facebook livestream]

A plan to revitalize downtown’s LaSalle Street Corridor and add virtually nonexistent affordable housing to the city’s center took one step closer to reality Tuesday as city officials unveiled three proposals as finalists to add more than 1,000 mixed-income apartments to the downtown corridor. 

Ald. Sophia King (4), chair of the City Council Progressive Caucus who ran as a mayoral candidate in the Feb. 28 election, endorsed former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas in the mayoral runoff. But a group of nine aldermen who are members of the Progressive Caucus issued a statement saying King’s endorsement doesn’t speak for the caucus. 

CPD announced two new hiring programs on Friday.

The Chicago Police Department on Friday enacted two new hiring programs meant to appeal to officers who left the department in the past few years to come back and to bring sworn officers from other law enforcement agencies to Chicago on an expedited basis. 

Joe Dunne and Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36) are two aldermanic candidates using red boxes on their websites. [Courtesy photos]

Candidates in multiple aldermanic runoffs are using red boxes on their campaign websites often used to highlight approved ad messaging to independent political action committees, a strategy that — while not explicitly banned in Illinois — some election experts say essentially skirts legal prohibitions on coordination between campaigns and outside PACs.

Joe Dunne, an affordable housing developer competing in the 48th Ward, and Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36), who is defending his City Council seat in the April runoff, both have red boxes on their websites. The boxed text includes messaging about both the candidates and their opponents. 

Copies of two mailers opposing Angela Clay paid for by Get Stuff Done PAC, left, compared with the red box on Kim Walz's website, right.

With less than two weeks until the April 4 runoff election, a candidate running for alderman in the 46th Ward has accused her opponent of using a tactic to indirectly influence ads produced by independent political committees. 

The open race to replace retiring Ald. James Cappleman (46) also intensified last week as it became the first aldermanic contest to see contribution caps blown. The ward covers Uptown and parts of Lakeview.

Sen. Bernie Sanders will be in Chicago on Thursday to rally support for Cook County Comm. Brandon Johnson (D-1) ahead of the mayoral runoff. Additionally, Arne Duncan on Friday announced his support for former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas in the April 4 runoff.  

City Council members held a news conference last week. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line]

A group of aldermen is pushing to hold a special City Council meeting next week to vote on changes to the council’s Rules of Order that they say would help make the legislative body more independent. But even if aldermen approve the rule changes next week, the new City Council will still have to vote on its own set of rules after being sworn in on May 15.