Mayor Rahm Emanuel put pressure on lawmakers and Gov. JB Pritzker Sunday to support a bill that would ban the sale of tobacco products to those younger 21.

 

If Chicago Police officer turned firefighter Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41) wins a second term representing the Far Northwest Side on the Chicago City Council later this month, he will have to do it without two of his biggest backers in 2015 — the Service Employees International Union and the Chicago Teachers Union.

Napolitano defeated former Ald. Mary O’Connor in a run-off after SEIU paid for approximately $80,000 worth of negative ads blasting O’Connor — an ally of Mayor Rahm Emanuel — as bad for working families.

But neither union has endorsed Napolitano this time around — a move Napolitano called “disheartening” and “frustrating.”

“I supported the unions 150 percent like I promised them,” Napolitano said.

Representatives of SEIU declined to discuss Napolitano and the 41st Ward race, while CTU leaders did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Line.

Napolitano — the only member of the Chicago City Council who is not a Democrat — faces Tim Heneghan, a retired Elmwood Park firefighter who is also the Democratic committeeperson for the 41st Ward.

Both SEIU and CTU, which are backing mayoral candidate Toni Preckwinkle, declined to endorse Napolitano again after he “took a massive lurch to the right” once he was elected, according to a union source who did not want to be identified.

“That’s comical,” Napolitano said. “I just care about my ward.”

In 2016, President Donald Trump won 43 percent of the vote in the 41st Ward, which includes O'Hare, Edison Park and parts of Norwood Park — more than any of the city's other 49 wards. In Edison Park, Trump won four of its 10 precincts, a higher proportion than any other neighborhood beside Mount Greenwood on the Far Southwest Side.

In March, Napolitano stood with conservative Republican gubernatorial candidate and former State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) to condemn the city’s municipal identification card, which can be used by citizens as one of the forms of identification they need to register to vote.

The Chicago Board of Elections is required by State law to accept the identification, known as the CityKey as documentary proof of an individual’s identity and residency, according to City Clerk Anna Valencia.

At the news conference, Ives — who would narrowly lose the Republican primary for governor to now-former Gov. Bruce Rauner by three points — said the cards are “literally suborning voter fraud.”

Napolitano said the cards are designed “to entice or encourage people to go register to vote who are illegal immigrants.”

Napolitano later appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show to debate Ald. Ameya Pawar (47) about the cards.

Napolitano was one of four aldermen who voted against creating the municipal identification card, which is offered by the clerk’s office to undocumented immigrants as well as homeless Chicagoans and those just released from prison.

Napolitano, 42, also voted against a proposal from Mayor Rahm Emanuel to use $1.3 million in city funds to defend undocumented Chicagoans from legal threats posed by the Trump administration.

“There are rules, and those rules and laws should be followed,” Napolitano said.

Napolitano, who got help in 2015 from the Chicago Republican Party, said he is truly an independent who has no use for partisan politics.

“I don’t give a rat’s ass about parties,” said Napolitano, adding that he voted in March’s statewide Democratic primary.

Napolitano does have the endorsement of AFSCME Council 31, the state’s largest public employee union, as well as the Chicago Federation of Labor, the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 and the Firefighters Union Local 2.

“We're supporting Ald. Napolitano for re-election because during the previous term he had a 100 percent voting record on our issues,” said AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall.

Napolitano earned the Chicago Federation of Labor’s endorsement because of his support of “collective bargaining and Chicago’s union families,” the group said in a statement.

Heneghan has been endorsed by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 134, Plumbers Local 130, Operating Engineers Local 399 and the Chicago Regional Council Carpenters.

In June, Napolitano blocked a seven-story, 297-unit luxury apartment complex near the Cumberland CTA Blue Line station that would have included 30 units set aside for low- and-moderate income Chicagoans.

After the City Council’s Zoning Committee narrowly to reject the project at Napolitano’s request, a debate erupted that continues today over whether the city should do more to build housing for working-class and middle-class Chicagoans as part of an effort to reduce the racial and economic segregation that plagues the city.

Jerry Morrison, special assistant to the president of SEIU Local 1, urged aldermen to disregard Napolitano’s opposition and approve the development he said could house workers at O’Hare Airport.

Napolitano said he does not regret his decision to block the complex. The project’s developer, GlenStar, initially sued the city alleging that the housing complex was improperly rejected. But the firm later dropped that lawsuit and announced they would instead build office space.

Heneghan said he would have approved the project, which he said was in the perfect location for a dense residential development.

“Napolitano played to his base, who don’t want people of color to move into the ward,” Heneghan said, accusing Napolitano of “fear mongering.”

Heneghan said the 41st Ward needs more affordable housing, noting that his three college-age children can’t afford a home in the neighborhood they grew up in, Edison Park.

However, Napolitano said there are plenty of affordable apartments for rent in his ward.

“Affordable housing is just the cool thing to talk about,” Napolitano said.

Napolitano said he was proud to have resurfaced 250 streets, worked with the Chicago Blackhawks to bring a skating rink to Brooks Park and helped approve two annexes at Ebinger and Dirksen elementary schools, which were among the most crowded in the city.

“If people want me to stay, I’m happy to stay,” Napolitano said. “I’ll respect the will of the people.”

Napolitano campaigned in 2015 with then Cook County Clerk David Orr — considered by many to be the dean of Chicago's progressive movement — and touted the endorsement of the Chicago Teachers Union.

Now retired, Orr praised Napolitano’s independence as an aldermen, but declined to endorse him for re-election.

Napolitano was one of only 14 aldermen to vote against Emanuel’s 2016 budget, which included a $589 million property tax increase — the largest in Chicago history — touted by Emanuel as the only way to fill the city's massive deficit and shore up pensions for police officers and firefighters.

At the time, Napolitano said Emanuel's plan "put too much of the burden" of paying off the city's debt "on the taxpayers and small businesses" of the 41st Ward.

Heneghan, 56, said he would have voted for the budget, and the tax increase, to ensure that pensions for police and firefighters were not threatened.

After O’Connor lost to Napolitano in 2015, she stepped down as committeeperson and appointed Heneghan to fill out her term. Heneghan won a full term in 2016, after defeating Andrew DeVito, who was endorsed by Napolitano.

Heneghan said he was proud of his work as committeeperson, as well as his record of volunteerism. If elected, he said he would increase the office’s communication with residents and operate more transparently.

Napolitano has about $54,000 in cash on hand for the final weeks of the election, according to the Illinois Sunshine database, while Heneghan has about $22,000 in cash on hand in two committees he controls, according to Illinois Sunshine.

Chicago Police are now under the watchful eye of a federal judge, more than four years after an officer fired 16 shots at Laquan McDonald, remaking both Chicago politics and the day-to-day operation of the police department. A strike by charter school teachers looms, as the Chicago Teachers Union schedules a rally.

Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown — who has been under investigation by federal authorities for several years — will make her pick in the crowded mayoral contest, but it won’t be Toni Preckwinkle, who booted her from the ballot. Amara Enyia sat down with one of her most famous supporters, while Lori Lightfoot backed three challenges trying to unseat incumbent aldermen.

As the city enters its third month of Burke-related scandal, with news continuing to break about Ald. Danny Solis’ (25) role in Burke’s troubles with the feds (and his own debts), and with few weeks to go until the polls close and the field likely narrows, mayoral candidate Bill Daley sat down for The Daily Line’s Aldercast podcast.

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The former Chief-of-Staff for Barack Obama and former U.S. Commerce Secretary for Bill Clinton had stints in the private sector at SBC Communications, JPMorgan Chase, and at  Swiss hedge fund, Argentiere Capital. And, of course in Chicago, Daley’s name carries weight – baggage or clout, depending on who you talk to –  as the son of Mayor Richard J. Daley, the brother of Mayor Richard M. Daley and Comm. John P. Daley (D-11) and uncle of Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11).

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Daley is sticking to bread and butter issues on the trail – crime, education, and housing affordability – but expounded in this interview to discuss continuing #MeToo issues in Chicago, the potential for future school closings, and his thoughts on progressivism.  

Five takeaways:

• Surveillance on every block; build the new police academy – “We have more cameras than most cities, I’d have a camera on every block in the city, a very high definition camera in order to give comfort to people, not just in those areas that have high crime, but throughout the city,” he said. The ACLU described the city's already-extensive surveillance system in 2011 as "a pervasive and unregulated threat to our privacy." His crime platform also includes further investments in police Strategic Data Support Centers, incentives for businesses to invest in security cameras, and the use of drones. “I think the training part is the most important, that’s one of the reasons I think I’m the only one of the 13 people that are actually for a new academy,” Daley said. That’s in addition to investing $50 million in violence reduction programs similar to CeaseFire, a reinvestment in CPD’s CAPS program, and asking Springfield for harsher gun penalties and an assault weapons ban. 


• Strip down the FOP contract – The city’s contract with the Fraternal Order of Police is long-expired, and for reformers, is a key impediment to changing the culture of the police department. “The contract should be there, I get, to protect the police officer. He has rights. But it should not be there as an impediment for investigations or actions where actions are needed to correct a wrong,” Daley said. “I’ve asked somebody to bring in the copies of the contracts and I’ll be you need a Harvard Law degree to figure them out, which is ridiculous, okay? And usually, when it’s hard to understand these thing, it’s done for a reason – nobody wants you to understand them. So I think we ought to simplify them.” Many public employee contracts are “layered on, layered on, layered on,” he said. The FOP’s should be streamlined so they can be used “for the purpose they were originally developed: to make sure people are paid fairly, compensated fairly, and that they are not subject to political interference and a fair process for them to be adjudged when they make mistakes and not just the sort of tragedies we’ve seen with Laquan McDonald.”  


• On the millions he’s raised from out of state and corporate interests – “I’ve been fortunate over the years of having a lot of friendships and relationships around the country. I had one senior businessperson, a Republican, give me a substantial amount of money and has no interest in Chicago other than his attitude was we need reasonable sensible leadership in urban America,” he said. While many connected Chicagoans have donated to his campaign, including the Ricketts, former Tribune owner Sam Zell’s trust, and dozens of Chicago-based investors, he said, “The people that have supported me don’t play in the game of Chicago politics, they have no business interest in that sense. I’m proud of the fact that I am pro-business. I think the opportunity to address so many of our issues in this city relate to our ability to grow economically.” 


• On his definition of liberal – “Let’s be honest, ‘progressive’ is just because Democrats didn’t want to call themselves ‘liberals’ anymore because it was such a negative term... I think you understand that government is there to provide a service to help people and that it must interact and must interdict themselves for social good, but that you also must be part of making sure that the economic pie grows and isn’t just the economic pie of government, it’s the economic pie of the private sector, which is much larger and much more meaningful than government’s ability to affect things. Some people look at using government as a stick to force private sector to do what you want, or what you think is the right policy. I think you’ve got to work with the business community in many ways, and that’s one of the biggest challenges for the next mayor.” 


• On the CTU’s demand for higher pay and hiring nurses, librarians and aides – “Conceptually, everyone would like to see everybody get a pay raise as much as she could, and give everybody whatever they want. The reality is, we have to deal with reality. I’ve had three sisters teachers, daughter a teacher, I understand what a tough job and how we expect much more of them. I have respect. I plan to sit down with the leadership if I’m elected mayor, and we will work to being fair to them, fair to the kids of Chicago, and fair to the taxpayers and the future of this city,” he said. He floated a private partnership to provide some of those services, including healthcare, but said he didn’t believe “one should say that’s totally out and therefore you must just layer on more people into a system” already struggling to pay teachers.

A rendering of the proposed Lincoln Yards development. [Sterling Bay]

Nine aldermen are on record as of Thursday vowing to vote against the $6 billion Lincoln Yards development because it fails to combat Chicago’s affordable housing shortfall or reduce the economic or racial segregation plaguing the city.

As the opposition to the project swelled Thursday, Ald. James Cappleman (46) — who controls the fate of the megaproject as the new chairman of the City Council’s Zoning Committee — said he would insist developer Sterling Bay commit to building affordable units earmarked for the city’s poorest residents in the 2nd Ward — but not as part of the development itself.

A hearing is set on whether city officials should create a new tax-increment financing district to fuel the massive development set to reshape the riverfront between the South Loop and Chinatown. Mayor Rahm Emanuel touted a new record for Chicago Animal Care and Control, as more animals than ever are finding forever homes.

Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown — who has been under investigation by federal authorities for several years — will make her pick in the crowded mayoral contest, but it won’t be Toni Preckwinkle, who booted her from the ballot. Amara Enyia sat down with one of her most famous supporters, while Lori Lightfoot backed three challenges trying to unseat incumbent aldermen.

Chicago voters have no idea where $75,000 contributed to the candidates running for mayor came from because of a “loophole” in state campaign finance regulations, according to an analysis by The Daily Line.

With potentially record-breaking cold enveloping the city, some county offices and the courts will close — but others will be open, officials announced. The the deputy CEO for finance and strategy at the Cook County Health and Hospitals System announced his retirement, and the city clerk is looking for some feedback on fines and fees.

Arrestees at Illinois jails would be afforded three phone calls within an hour of being detained, if a push from Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Public Defender Amy Campanelli and First Defense Legal Aid is successful.

The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners — responsible for next month’s municipal elections — “cannot assure the public that it would be able to maintain election operations in the event of an attack or disaster,” according to an audit by Inspector General Joe Ferguson.

Early voting finally started Tuesday after being delayed by numerous ballot challenges — but then was frozen in place by the Polar Vortex. Meanwhile, requests to vote by mail surged, and the mayor’s biggest contributor backed several aldermen running for re-election.

Ald. Danny Solis (25) resigned Tuesday evening as chairman of the City Council's Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and building standards, less than 12 hours after the the Sun-Times reported he received sex acts at massage parlors, the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra and campaign contributions in exchange for ushering deals through City Council.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement that Solis "made the right decision" by resigning.

“Alderman Danny Solis has recognized that he cannot effectively preside over the matters before the Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards, and he has communicated with my office his intent to resign as chairman," Emanuel said. "I commend him for making the right decision for the City Council and the City of Chicago.”

Solis will be replaced by the committee's vice chairman, Ald. James Cappleman (46) under the City Council's rules of procedures.

It will be up to Cappleman to shepherd the mega-projects fueled by $1.6 billion in subsidies through the City Council during Emanuel's final weeks in office.

Solis is the second close ally of Emanuel's to be forced from a powerful perch by the spiraling investigation that has upended politics as usual at City Hall. The Sun-Times reported that Solis wore a wire as part of the investigation into Ald. Ed Burke (14), who was forced to step down as chairman of the Finance Committee after being charged with attempted extortion. Burke maintains his innocence.

Solis, who is not running for re-election, has not been charged with wrongdoing.

Two of the candidates running to replace Solis — Hilario Dominquez and Alex Acevedo — reiterated their calls Tuesday for the alderman to step down, although window for Emanuel to appoint a replacement before Solis' replacement is elected is closing quickly.

At a City Hall news conference, mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot called for Emanuel to issue an executive order to rein in aldermanic prerogative, as she called for in her platform, and audit zoning decisions going back to 2014.

Rival Paul Vallas also headed to City Hall — brandishing another broom — to blast opponents’ past ties with Solis and Burke.

"I think I’m going to need a bigger one to clean up City Hall,” Vallas said, who has an ethics plan. "This is a new low."

Mayoral candidate Amara Enyia, who released a good governance plan several weeks ago, noted her lack of ties to Burke or Solis.

"This is just the tip of an iceberg that could entangle more public officials who've been part of the political machine for years," Enyia said.

City officials are on the cusp of approving $1.6 billion in city subsidies to fuel two massive developments that will transform Chicago’s landscape with 16,000 new apartments and condominiums — but barely put a dent in Chicago’s affordable housing shortfall or reduce the economic or racial segregation plaguing the city.