City Clerk Anna Valencia wins re-election after rivals tossed off ballot

SHARE City Clerk Anna Valencia wins re-election after rivals tossed off ballot
chivote_022719.jpg

City Clerk Anna Valencia at Manny’s Deli, Feb. 26, 2019. | James Foster/For the Sun-Times

Complete coverage of the local and national primary and general election, including results, analysis and voter resources to keep Chicago voters informed.

Incumbent City Clerk Anna Valencia, once tagged by Rahm Emanuel as part of the “next generation of leadership,” came away unscathed — and unopposed — in the first election of her career in front of Chicago voters.

Seen as a rising star in political circles, Valencia won re-election for city clerk on Tuesday in perhaps the most uneventful and anticlimactic race of the night.

“As your city clerk, I want to continue to fight for these hard-working families,” Valencia said during her acceptance speech Tuesday night. “That includes making city services available and accessible to all Chicago residents, no matter what neighborhood you live in.”

Valencia initially faced competition from two hopefuls — Elizabeth “Betty” Arias-Ibarra and Patricia Horton.

But last month, five weeks before the election, Valencia essentially ensured her victory when the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners accepted the recommendations of hearing officers to kick Arias-Ibarra and Horton off the ballot.

Horton, the board said, was around 800 signatures short of the minimum. Horton claimed the objector to her petitions wasn’t registered where he said he lived, which should’ve meant the objection was thrown out.

“This is all political,” Horton said. “I believe this is the machine working against me … they don’t want me in that seat.”

Though Horton’s and Arias-Ibarra’s names still appeared on the ballot while their appeals were heard, neither candidate had more than a sliver of hope in the race other than running as write-in candidates.

Valencia was appointed to the office in 2016 to replace newly elected State Comptroller Susana Mendoza. Emanuel had high praise for his political operative after she took a pay cut to move into the clerk’s office.

“I’m about promoting another generation of leadership for this city,” Emanuel said at the time. “I’m not threatened by that. I actually want to promote that. As a millennial who happens to be Hispanic, she’s the next generation of leadership.”

The Latest
Another federal judge in Chicago who also has dismissed gun cases based on the same Supreme Court ruling says the high court’s decision in what’s known as the Bruen case will “inevitably lead to more gun violence, more dead citizens and more devastated communities.”
Women make up just 10% of those in careers such as green infrastructure and clean and renewable energy, a leader from Openlands writes. Apprenticeships and other training opportunities are some of the ways to get more women into this growing job sector.
Chatterbox doesn’t seem aware that it’s courteous to ask questions, seek others’ opinions.
The way inflation is measured masks certain costs that add to the prices that consumers pay every day. Not surprisingly, higher costs mean lower consumer confidence, no matter what Americans are told about an improving economy.
With Easter around the corner, chocolate makers and food businesses are feeling the impact of soaring global cocoa prices and it’s also hitting consumers.