Free Republic

CHICAGO — Mayor Lori Lightfoot is the first to admit her bid for re-election will be far from smooth. “There’s nine people on the ballot,” Lightfoot said in an interview with NBC News. “It’s impossible not to have a runoff.” What’s appearing increasingly possible, however, is that Lightfoot will fail to make it even that far. In Chicago’s municipal election, if a candidate fails to win a majority, then the top two vote-getters face off against each other in a second round of voting in April. But with less than two weeks to the Feb. 28 election, the firecracker Democratic...

A group of House Democrats will propose a resolution urging the Biden administration to condemn Israel and support six Palestinian groups designated as terrorist organizations by the Jewish state. Rep. Betty McCollum (D., Minn.) plans to introduce a resolution celebrating the designated Palestinian groups for the "value and importance" of their "courageous work," according to Haaretz. The resolution will be cosponsored by several House Democrats, including Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), and Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.). Among the groups backed in the Democratic resolution are the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is designated...

WASHINGTON — The election is still 18 days away but Democrats are already drawing battle lines over what a Biden administration ought to look like. Left-wing House members including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Katie Porter, Ayanna Pressley, Raúl Grijalva and candidate Jamaal Bowman along with 39 progressive groups signed a letter, obtained by POLITICO, arguing that no C-suite level corporate executives or corporate lobbyists ought to have Senate-confirmed positions in a Biden administration. “One of the most important lessons of the Trump administration is the need to stop putting corporate officers and lobbyists in charge of our government,” they wrote. “As...

Rahm Emanuel Re-Elected as Chicago Mayor in Runoff Incumbent defeats challenger Jesus ‘Chuy’ Garcia after failing to win a second term outright in February By MARK PETERS and BEN KESLING April 7, 2015 CHICAGO—Mayor Rahm Emanuel was re-elected Tuesday following a spirited runoff here that tested the policies and personality of the nationally known politician.

Rahm Emanuel won re-election Tuesday as voters in Chicago’s first mayoral runoff decided that, despite his brusque management style, the former White House chief of staff was best equipped to deal with the many dire challenges facing the nation’s third-largest city. Emanuel was forced to campaign furiously across the city to beat Cook County Commissioner Jesús “Chuy” Garcia after failing to capture a majority against four other candidates in a February election. The mayoral runoff was the first since the city changed the way it conducts elections about 20 years ago. […] Emanuel raised far more money than Garcia, plastered...

Though Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) recently praised Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) for making Chicago the “friendliest” city for immigrants, especially illegal immigrants, pro-amnesty advocates and progressives are lining up beyond his opponent, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who is in a dead heat with Emanuel in the mayoral runoff. (SNIP) “He told targeted Democrats in tough re-election fights that he wanted them to vote for this anti-immigrant bill,” Gutierrez said then. “That’s a fact, an irrefutable fact. So it’s nice that Rahm Emanuel the candidate is for the DREAM Act kids now, but actions speak louder than words.”

Mayoral candidate Jesús “Chuy” Garcia got the endorsement of the Rev. Jesse Jackson on Monday as both the challenger and Mayor Rahm Emanuel compete for the crucial African-American vote ahead of next month’s runoff election. Jackson cited Garcia’s “consistent track record of service” including his work with Harold Washington, Chicago’s first African-American mayor. Jackson also said his support of President Barack Obama, who has endorsed Emanuel, had no bearing on endorsing Garcia.“This is not about President Obama and me; it’s about Chuy and Rahm Emanuel. It’s about whether there’s a plan for reconstruction,” said Jackson, who did not directly criticize...

ities: The problem with socialism, Margaret Thatcher once noted, is you eventually run out of other people's money. In progressive Chicago, that's hit home as Moody's has cut its credit rating to two grades above "junk." Chicago's finances are staggering under the weight of an unfunded pension liability that Moody's Investors Service has estimated at $32 billion, eight times the city's operating revenue. Chicago has a $300 million structural deficit. And Illinois law requires the city to up its 2016 contributions to its police and fire pension funds by $550 million. "This is an unfortunate wake-up call for anyone still...

CHICAGO (CBS) — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel will take on Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia in a runoff election on April 7. With 92 percent of precincts reporting, Emanuel had 45 percent, shy of the 50 percent plus one vote needed to avoid a runoff. Garcia had 34 percent of the vote, separating him from the rest of Emanuel’s challengers and putting him in position for the runoff. Trailing Garcia is businessman Willie Wilson in third with 10 percent, Alderman Robert Fioretti in fourth with 7 percent and William “Dock” Walls was in last with 3 percent.