The Easter Bunny dropped a few early surprises in Ald. Scott Waguespack’s basket in advance of our historic April 7 Chicago runoff election.
“The phone calls are just crazy,” Waguespack told me Thursday.
OPINION
The phone calls are coming, amazingly, from a number of the 18 aldermanic runoff candidates, some of whom — wait for this — are Rahm Emanuel’s in-the-bag-will-never-cross-the-mayor incumbents who shockingly — hold your gasps — want Waguespack’s endorsement. Waguespack’s endorsement?
Judas Iscariot’s imprimatur?
Oh, the Easter irony.
Or, more accurately, the awful fear of losing.
Waguespack, who represents the 32nd ward on Chicago’s North Side since 2007, has been called every name in the book by the so-called Regulars.
Tea Party guy. Lefty. Loser.
But Waguespack is the opposite of a loser.
In his last three elections, he has beaten back the remnants of the old Machine. And won. Without tons of money. Or big endorsements. Or clout.
And so Waguespack, unlike Mayor Emanuel and almost a third of the City Council, won his last race free and clear. He is not stuck in a runoff. And of those who are, let’s remember that most of them are the mayor’s rubber-stampers. Only 2 of the 18 belong to Waguespack’s small but vocal progressive bloc.
“My whole theme on that is that they lost their mandate, all the people who followed the mayor’s mandate. And the direction they were taking the city,” he said.
There is no question there has been a rebellion of voters in the wards. Take the 31st ward, where the head of the Cook County Democratic Party, county Assessor Joe Berrios, lives. His support of longtime incumbent Ald. Ray Suarez (31st) against challenger Milly Santiago did not carry the day in the February election. The fact that Suarez is in a runoff is a humiliation for the party.
The fact that 43rd Ward Ald. Michele Smith is in a runoff with Caroline Vickrey despite the heavy support Smith has gotten from the mayor is another embarrassment given all the cash that Chicago Forward, the pro-Emanuel PAC, has thrown Smith’s way.
Waguespack, diplomatically, won’t name the names of the threatened incumbents who have improbably sought his support. Still, it should remind all of us voters of the power of our votes. And that this runoff has thrown a little cold water in the faces of a fat, self-satisfied majority of the City Council.
But the alderman of the 32nd Ward is taking it all in stride. Let’s remember Waguespack was one of only five members of City Council back in the Daley days to vote against the hideous parking meter deal that now plagues us. And yet, he is not one of those aldermen who reflexively votes “no” to everything either Daley or Emanuel has proposed. His voting record is about 60-40 in favor of administration legislation.
Though Waguespak is a Jesus “Chuy” Garcia supporter against Emanuel, he correctly argues whoever wins needs to offer a kind of transparency we have yet to see from the mayor’s office.
Have a good Passover and happy Easter.
And then?
Go. Vote. Please.
