Chicago Mayoral Race Challengers Step Forward

Challengers of all persuasions and ideologies are considering a run.

Deborah Bayliss | As of Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Challengers of all persuasions and ideologies are considering a run or have already officially declared their candidacy.

With Cook County Board President, Toni Preckwinkle, officially announcing last month that she will not challenge Emanuel in Chicago's upcoming, 2015 Mayoral election--bowing out of an already crowded field of African Americans vying for the city’s top job--Chicago Teacher’s Union (CTU)President, Karen Lewis is now gaining all the attention as the mayor's most formidable opponent.

A Chicago Sun-Times’ Early and Often Poll conducted this month, listed with each candidate pitted against Mayor Emanuel, showed Preckwinkle, before she bowed out of the race, with the most promise for a win according to the poll’s random sampling of 1,037 registered Chicago voters. The poll showed Preckwinkle beating the Mayor with 55 percent of the votes to his 31 percent, 13 percent were undecided.

With buzz now centered on Lewis--nationally known as the feisty CTU president who galvanized and led the headline-grabbing 2012 teacher’s strike while trading barbs with Emanuel over the handling of the Chicago Public Schools closings and resulting teacher and staff layoffs-- Lewis seems poised to take on the mayor following the poll’s release, reportedly commenting that she has an unofficial exploratory committee in the works, a chairperson and is working to have a representative in each of the city’s 77 neighborhoods. 

Lewis’ spokesperson, Stephanie Gadlin, told the Chicago Citizen on Tuesday that Lewis is seriously considering entering the race but has made no decision at this time.

According to the Early and Often poll, Lewis beat the mayor with 45.4 percent of the likely votes, 18.2, were undecided.

Former 9th Ward Ald. Robert Shaw, also a former Cook County Commissioner, announced early this year that he planned to enter the race.

Shaw told The Chicago Citizen Newspaper on Tuesday that he’s a resident of Chicago's Hyde Park/Kenwood area and that he’s running for mayor because he loves Chicago. Some of the things he’d like to see changed is an elected school board, minority contracts given on a fair basis, removal of some Red Light Cameras and all of the speed cameras. He’d also like to do away with the Denver Boot, ticketing system and said that TIF (Tax Increment Financing) funds should be used in the way the late Mayor Harold Washington intended which is for blighted neighborhoods. In terms of dealing with crime, Shaw said there needs to be more African American supervisors at the Chicago Police Department and more African American detectives are needed to help solve the huge number of unsolved crimes. He also added that he’d like to see Chicago Public Schools continue and not charter schools so that teachers can get back to work.

According to the Sun-Times poll, Shaw lost to Emanuel with 29.6 percent versus Emanuel’s 47.7 percent; 22.8 percent of those polled were undecided.

Another mayoral contender, Second Ward, Ald. Bob Fioretti, who’s made it quite public that he’s no fan of the mayor, told The Chicago Citizen Newspaper recently that he is considering entering the race. Fioretti along with the Chicago City Council Progressive Reform Coalition, made up of Fioretti, Ald. John Arena (45th Ward); Toni Foukes (15th Ward); Leslie Hairston (5th Ward); Ricardo Munoz (22nd Ward); Roderick T. Sawyer (6th Ward); Nick Sposato (36th Ward); and Scott Waguespack (32nd Ward), are asking for a City Council hearing to flush out how the Chicago Police Department (CPD) manages crime statistics in light of Chicago Inspector General, Joe Ferguson’s findings that the CPD was under-reporting crime instances.

Fioretti also lost to the mayor with 30.6 percent of the votes, versus the mayor’s 45.1, 24 percent were undecided, according to the Sun-Times poll.

A sense of urgency to address the city’s crime, the troubled, Chicago Public Schools system, the city’s unemployment and the desire to change the “status quo machine driven politics,” spurred Dr. Amara Enyia, 31, the youngest challenger in the race so far, who, while setting a great example for young women of color --realizes the race is an uphill battle and is officially in it win it.

Enyia has a doctorate in education policy, a law degree from the University of Illinois, Champaign, Urbana. She owns and runs ACE Municipal Partners, an investment consulting firm and is also the executive director of the Austin Chamber of Commerce.

Business owner, Andrew C.M. Nelson, 53, also wants the mayor’s seat and is running as a Green Party candidate.

Nelson feels it’s more “expedient” to strategize how best to get elected Mayor of Chicago in a “principled, dignified” way than to talk about what he intends to do as Mayor. He did however offer that, as mayor, he intends to facilitate revenue generation by levying a financial transaction tax against the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board Options Exchange which he reasons, will generate a fresh stream of revenue.

According to his campaign website, Frederick Collins, will also be running for mayor of Chicago. The Chicago police veteran has more than 20 years experience with the Chicago Police Department, is an active member of the NAACP’s west side branch, the Chicago Coalition of African American Men, a Union Member Rep. of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #7 and an active card carrying member of the Illinois National Rifle Association. If elected, he plans to put people first and politics last and make city government more transparent.

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