chicago mayoral race

Last week, dignitaries from across the city and state celebrated the late Mayor Harold Washington, whose 100th birthday would have been April 15. Top Washington aides like Jacky Grimshaw and Josie Childs; contemporaries like Congressmen "Chuy" Garcia, Bobby Rush and former Congressman Luis Gutierrez, Cook County Circuit Court Chief Judge Timothy Evans and the Rev. Jesse Jackson; and top elected officials like Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, and current Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot all celebrated Washington’s life and legacy at his namesake library downtown. Hanging over all of it? Politics, of course. Mayor Lori Lightfoot has yet to officially declare her reelection bid, but is raising money, staffing up her campaign, and so far, playing defense. Other candidates to become Chicago’s next mayor in 2023 are already lining up. Businessman Willie Wilson and current Ald. Ray Lopez are both running. Congressman Mike Quigley is polling. Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas and state Rep. Kam Buckner both say they’re contemplating a run. Any number of spoilers could jump in over the coming months. On this week’s show, we’re talking lessons in tough campaigns and leadership with Marilyn Katz. She was a media consultant for Harold Washington’s historic run in 1983. A progressive activist throughout the late '60s, she joined the rainbow coalition of Washington backers, helping deliver captivating ads that brought him over the finish line in the 1983 primary against Jane Byrne and Richard M. Daley, and then the general election against Republican Bernie Epton. She’ll share her memories of that campaign and Washington’s leadership style when he took over the 5th floor at City Hall, and what lessons Lightfoot might take from him to hold on to her seat.

Toni Preckwinkle, president of the Cook County Board and chair of the Cook County Democratic Party, has been at the center of local politics, power and policy for years, so she has a lot of critical issues to discuss, from COVID struggles at the county’s health system and what suburbanites are getting for their federal relief money to three major retirements among county commissioners and what the party might do to replace them, and her worries about big money – specifically Ken Griffin’s money – in politics. Preckwinkle also provides an update on the ongoing spat that’s pitted county officials against Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Police Department Superintendent David Brown: the source of the surge in violence locally. Lightfoot says she’s gotten nowhere in efforts to address what she says is the big problem: electronic monitoring. That’s just garbage, Preckwinkle says, pointing to low arrests and a historic mistrust of cops in neighborhoods. But there’s some room for optimism there as well, which she discusses. Also on the agenda: Preckwinkle’s thoughts on guaranteed basic income, and why she thinks one of her riskiest political moves – raising the sales tax – was worth it.

This week's guest is Austan Goolsbee, a former economic advisor to President Barack Obama, a frequent contributor to the New York Times, and currently the Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. As the pandemic has surged, Goolsbee’s been keeping a close eye on the major questions confronting our economic future: inflation, supply chain and the future of work. We recorded on the afternoon of Jan. 14, when Chicago and Illinois seemed to be showing a dip in COVID cases, but already, the economic signs for January were pointing downward. Goolsbee says the severity of any economic turndown – like it has during the entire pandemic – will rely on our handling of the virus itself. He discussed whether pandemic changes – like remote work, the great resignation, and a reconsideration of a just-in-time global supply chain – might stick. He also explored whether federal relief is acting like it should, and whether the Build Back Better bill is necessary to cushion the blow from future crises. Goolsbee also talked about what kind of Chicago mayor his neighbor Arne Duncan would make. And Goolsbee explains why he believes cities will recover post-pandemic… if crime can be brought under control.

Chicago Public Schools families have logged four days of canceled classes and counting this month. Citing the December COVID surge, the botched rollout of take-home testing over the holidays, and low numbers of families opting for their kids to be regularly tested or to get their shot, the Chicago Teachers Union voted last Tuesday to work remotely through January 18. The city called that vote an illegal work stoppage. The district canceled classes and blocked union members from accessing their work. This is the third standoff Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has had with the union. The mayor and her public health commissioner and CPS CEO Pedro Martinez have insisted schools are just as safe as, or even safer than, staying home. This week's guest, Stacy Davis Gates, the vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union, responds to the mayor’s charge that the work stoppage is a political play. She also discusses whether this learning interruption will send CPS families packing for private schools or the suburbs, her own family’s experience of instability in the district and her possible interest in running for mayor in 2023.