Fran Spielman Show: Chicago politics podcast

Video poker machines at a flower shop in Oak Lawn in 2013.

City Hall

Chicago's search for new revenue targets video gaming, wealth taxes, heliport, downtown digital ads

The ideas are expected to be part of a report issued within 30 days by a City Council panel overseeing Mayor Brandon Johnson’s search for new revenue.

By Fran Spielman

A rendering of the interior of a proposed new stadium for the White Sox at The 78 in the South Loop.

Fran Spielman Show

Top lawmaker says Sox must say how they hope to finance South Loop ballpark

Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, briefed on the Related Midwest plan, told the Sun-Times “pretty pictures” building public interest are not enough. “If they’re trying to do something in this legislative session, they need to start educating and informing people relatively soon.”

By Fran Spielman

Podcast

The Fran Spielman Show

Fran Spielman Show

Civic Federation’s acting president makes case for major reform of city government

Over the years, the Civic Federation has repeatedly advocated for cutting the 50-member City Council in half, only to have alderpersons protect their fiefdoms.

By Fran Spielman

Fran Spielman Show

New mayor off to ‘very encouraging start,’ local business leader says

Jack Lavin, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce president, still isn’t willing, however, to back $800 million in business taxes Mayor Brandon Johnson wants for social programs that are key to his anti-violence strategy.

By Fran Spielman

Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th) speaks during the debate over accepting $20 million in state funding to help asylum seekers at the City Council meeting on Wednesday, March 15, 2023.

Fran Spielman Show

Johnson urged to fire CTA and CHA chiefs

Ald. Jeanette Taylor argued that CHA CEO Tracey Scott deserves to be ousted because the agency has failed to deliver on its fundamental mission — and the same goes for CTA President Dorval Carter Jr.

By Fran Spielman

Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. (27th meets diners at Manny’s Deli in the West Loop on Feb. 28, 2023.

Fran Spielman Show

Ald. Walter Burnett says nothing nefarious about how he spent unaccounted for $165K — otherwise, ‘I’d be in jail’

“My accountant and my lawyers are working on that. It’s fine. It hasn’t gone anywhere. We’ve just got to reconcile it. And it will be reconciled,” Burnett said Thursday.

By Fran Spielman

Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) Chicago City Council

Fran Spielman Show

Inside the political survival of Chicago City Council dean

Ald. Walter Burnett expected to be stuck in the political wilderness. Instead, he became vice-mayor, with a $400,000 budget, keeping the staff he had as chairman of the Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety.

By Fran Spielman

Mike Flannery, political editor of Fox-32 Chicago and host of weekly interview program, “Flannery Fired Up.” |

News

After 50 years, dean of Chicago television’s political reporters calling it a career

On June 30, Mike Flannery, political editor of Fox 32-Chicago, will retire after 50 years on the beat. He sat down with the Sun-Times, where he got his start, to reminisce about his storied career and the “blind spots” of the Chicago mayors he has covered.

By Fran Spielman

Chicago’s new mayor, Brandon Johnson, hugs his predecessor, Lori Lightfoot, after she executes her last official act in office.

Fran Spielman Show

Johnson’s City Council floor leader portrays Lightfoot as sore loser undermining smooth transition

“Mayor Lightfoot, in her final days, really worked to harm this incoming administration. It’s sad. It’s unfortunate. But we now have to come together as a city and clean up the mess that she left us,” Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, the mayor’s City Council floor leader, told the Sun-Times.

By Fran Spielman

Migrants’ belongings are seen through the window of the 8th District police station in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood in May 2023.

Fran Spielman Show

Immigrant crisis ‘one of the most challenging’ problems facing Chicago’s new mayor, chief of staff says

Rich Guidice, who spent nearly 20 years running the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, said he has never seen an emergency quite like the thousands of asylum-seekers who have poured into Chicago since September, with scores more on the way.

By Fran Spielman

Rich Guidice, then executive director of the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, discusses winter travel in November 2021.

Fran Spielman Show

Faster police response would not have saved slain Officer Areanah Preston, Johnson’s chief of staff says

Rich Guidice, who for 20 years ran the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, said “Chicago Police did the best they could to get to the scene of the incident as quickly as they did.”

By Fran Spielman

Anthony Driver Jr., president of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, at City Hall on March 15, 2023.

Fran Spielman Show

Back-channel search for Chicago’s top cop? Not this time, says president of civilian oversight panel

Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson’s transition team members “have not tried to influence our process. They have not tried to submit names,” said Anthony Driver, president of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, which is conducting the search.

By Fran Spielman

Brandon Johnson waves to a supporter after speaking at his election night party at the Marriott Marquis Chicago after defeating Paul Vallas in the mayoral runoff election on Tuesday, April 4, 2023.

City Hall

Brandon Johnson not ready to clean house at City Hall, adviser says

Don’t expect “wholesale, universal changes” in city departments, said Jason Lee, a senior adviser to Johnson’s mayoral campaign and transition team, citing a need for “at least some initial continuity so that we can make sure that government maintains its core functions.”

By Fran Spielman

Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) discusses the city’s 2023 budget during a Chicago City Council meeting in November 2022.

Fran Spielman Show

Mayor-elect warned: don’t mess with City Council reorganization

Finance Committee Chair Scott Waguespack is among the committee chairs who could be pushed out in favor of more chairs loyal to Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson.

By Fran Spielman

Chicago mayoral candidates Brandon Johnson (left) and Paul Vallas (right) debate at WBBM-TV CBS Channel 2’s studio on Tuesday.

Fran Spielman Show

Chicago won’t have clear winner on election night, Vallas team predicts

Veteran Democratic political strategist Joe Trippi, advising the Paul Vallas campaign, said the number of mail-in ballots is almost certain to be bigger than the margin separating Vallas and Brandon Johnson Tuesday.

By Fran Spielman

Chicago Ald. Tom Tunney, shown inside the Belmont Street Ann Sather location in 2020.

Fran Spielman Show

Tunney on Ann Sather’s future, election, leaving City Council and why he didn’t run for mayor

Tunney, chairman of the Council’s Zoning Committee, came close to joining the race after his longtime friend and political ally, U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., took a pass.

By Fran Spielman

Jim Franczek, Chicago’s chief labor negotiator.

City Hall

City’s chief labor negotiator fired over interview on Sun-Times podcast, sources say

Neither the city’s longtime negotiator, Jim Franczek, nor Mayor Lori Lightfoot commented on the situation.

By Fran Spielman

Fran Spielman Show

Chicago’s longtime chief labor negotiator sizes up Paul Vallas, Brandon Johnson

Jim Franczek described Vallas as a “pretty independent guy” while he’s wary of Johnson’s ties to the Chicago Teachers Union.

By Fran Spielman

Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates listens as Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson speaks to reporters in September 2022 at a ceremony in front of CTU headquarters. The street there was designated as Honorary Karen Lewis CTU Way after the former CTU president, who died in 2021.

Fran Spielman Show

Garcia, progressives will unite behind Johnson, CTU president predicts

Johnson’s campaign manager said Johnson and Garcia have had “several good conversations.” More meetings with a “broader group” of Garcia supporters are scheduled for next week, in hoipes of securing Garcia’s endorsement.

By Fran Spielman

Chicago mayoral candidates Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas participate in a candidates forum at WTTW studios Feb. 7.

Fran Spielman Show

Johnson’s momentum could land him in April 4 runoff with Vallas, analyst says

David Axelrod has helped to elect mayors, senators and the nation’s first Black president. While not ready to “write the epitaph” of incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot, he said: “She definitely has a very, very steep uphill climb.”

By Fran Spielman

Chicago mayoral candidate U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia answers reporters’ questions after speaking at a City Club of Chicago luncheon in January 2023.

Fran Spielman Show

Garcia questions whether Johnson, a CTU organizer, can be an objective mayor

Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson is a paid organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union who helped lead it in two strikes and two job actions since 2012.

By Fran Spielman

Chicago mayoral candidate former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas participates in a mayoral forum at the University of Illinois Chicago, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023.

Fran Spielman Show

Defensive Vallas responds to controversies

“I’m the frontrunner. That’s the reason. They know I’ve got momentum. They know I’m rising in the polls. They know that I’m a threat. And this time, they’re gonna try to attack me personally as opposed to challenge me on the issues,” mayoral challenger Paul Vallas told the Chicago Sun-Times.

By Fran Spielman

Chicago Police Detective Bob Bartlett is running for president of the Fraternal Order of Police against John Catanzara.

Fran Spielman Show

Challenger for FOP president says incumbent has alienated everyone — and hurt rank-and-file cops

Bob Bartlett, a veteran CPD detective, is trying to unseat union president John Catanzara. Like Catanzara, Bartlett is no fan of Mayor Lori Lightfoot or CPD Supt. David Brown — but he disagrees with Catanzara’s scorched-earth rhetoric.

By Fran Spielman

Chicago mayoral candidate Ald. Sophia King (4th) at a news conference outside the Chicago Police Department Central District station on Oct. 20, 2022.

Fran Spielman Show

Mayoral candidate Sophia King unveils education plan

King, who represents the 4th Ward on the Chicago City Council, was a chemistry teacher at the Latin School of Chicago and helped found Ariel Community Academy in North Kenwood-Oakland.

By Fran Spielman

Chicago mayoral candidate and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson speaks during a mayoral forum organized by Health and Medicine Policy Research Group and Chicago Women Take Action Alliance at the Chicago Temple in the Loop, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023, where eight mayoral candidates discussed their stances on issues affecting women.

Fran Spielman Show

Brandon Johnson accuses Chuy Garcia of ‘abandoning the progressive movement’

Mayoral challenger Brandon Johnson, the Cook County commissioner and Chicago Teachers Union organizer, came out swinging during a free-wheeling interview with the Chicago Sun-Times.

By Fran Spielman

Ald. Roberto Maldonado dropped out of the 26th Ward race last Friday, joining what has become a mass exodus from the Chicago City Council.

City Hall

Retiring Ald. Roberto Maldonado chooses Lightfoot over Garcia

“The only mayor who fully-funded the developments that were stagnated under [Rahm] Emanuel and the new ones that I came up with was Lori Lightfoot. She has been the only one who has talked the talk and walked the walk when it comes to affordable housing,” Maldonado told the Chicago Sun-Times.

By Fran Spielman

News

Mayoral challenger Ja’Mal Green unveils $5 billion public safety plan

His plan takes aim at causes of crime in an effort to stop the exodus of businesses and residents from the city and Chicago police officers from the department.

By Fran Spielman

Flanked by supporters, U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-Ill.) kicked off his campaign for mayor of Chicago at Navy Pier on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022.

Fran Spielman Show

Chuy’s in: Garcia makes another run for mayor of Chicago

“Folks know me,” the 66-year-old Garcia told the Sun-Times. “They know what I’ve done.” In 2015, Garcia, now a Democratic congressman, forced then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel into Chicago’s first mayoral runoff election.

By Fran Spielman

Proco Joe Moreno walks with supporters out of the Leighton Criminal Courthouse on May 15, 2019 after a hearing on charges that he had filed a false police report.

Fran Spielman Show

After descent into alcoholism cost him City Council seat, Proco Joe Moreno hits the comeback trail

In a soul-searching interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, former Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1st) talked about going into his own tailspin after failing to talk a beloved friend out of committing suicide.

By Fran Spielman

Brandon Johnson kicked off his campaign for mayor of Chicago on Thursday morning, Oct. 27, 2022 in Seward Park, 375 W. Elm St.

City Hall

Brandon Johnson joining crowded race for Chicago mayor

The Cook County commissioner said he is running because incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot has failed progressives. “The hopes and desires of working families have been ignored,” Johnson told the Sun-Times.

By Fran Spielman

Paul Vallas presents his documentation in 2018 to run for mayor on the first day of the filing period for the last municipal elections.

Fran Spielman Show

Latest fundraising has Vallas eager for campaign fight

A $500,000 donation from prominent GOP donor and golf course magnate Michael Keiser has left an opening for some opponents, including the Chicago Teachers Union, to attack Vallas, a former CPS CEO, as a closet Republican.

By Fran Spielman

Ald. Matt Martin (47th) speaks at a rally for striking Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73 members and their supporters at the Thompson Center in 2019.

Fran Spielman Show

Ald. Matt Martin urges City Council to shake off rubber-stamp reputation

Last month, the 47th Ward Council member introduced a resolution calling for making himself chair of the Committee on Ethics and Government Oversight, replacing retired chair Michele Smith.

By Fran Spielman