The FBI executed a search warrant this morning on Chicago Ald. Carrie Austin’s South Side ward office. Around the same time that was happening, Austin was at a news conference with Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
With President Donald Trump officially announcing last night that he’s running for a second term — he’ll easily secure the GOP nod — and next week’s debates among 20 of the Democratic hopefuls looking for the party’s nomination, it’s easy to forget that some high-profile local races will unfold during next year’s election cycle.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx seems to be gearing up to run for a second term, with a fundraiser scheduled for June 28. Hosts for the downtown event include some heavy hitters in Chicago’s political and legal community. She may need that kind of muscle if she faces any real competition; her public and political enemies alike will likely criticize her repeatedly about her office’s handling of the Jussie Smollett case.
Welcome to The Spin.
About Ald. Austin and the raid on her office
My colleagues Jason Meisner, Gregory Pratt, John Byrne and Juan Perez Jr. are hard at work on the story, which you can find here.
Today: An FBI search warrant was executed at her ward office on 111th Street in the Roseland neighborhood this morning and what appeared to be law enforcement vehicles were still there this afternoon. As it was unfolding, Austin appeared with the mayor this morning at a news conference in her ward to announce summer anti-violence initiatives for young people.
Austin’s history on City Council, Part I: A key black supporter on the City Council for the agendas of former Mayor Richard M. Daley and later Mayor Rahm Emanuel, she chaired the powerful Budget Committee for years, brusquely shepherding those mayors’ annual spending plans through the City Council. She backed Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s failed campaign against Lightfoot earlier this year. The new mayor stripped Austin of the Budget Committee chairmanship when she took office last month.
History, Part II: Then-Mayor Richard M. Daley appointed Austin to the aldermanic seat in 1994; she succeeded her husband, Lemuel Austin Jr., as 34th ward alderman when he died of a heart attack.
Kim Foxx gearing up for reelection?
The Tribune obtained a copy of the invitation to Foxx’s June 28 fundraiser. The event is a signal she’s gearing up for reelection in 2020. It also will serve as a test of whether she’s weathered the Smollett storm enough to not only keep her job but also reclaim her status as a rising star in local Democratic politics. Clearly some of the city’s big players are still backing her.
The money: Ticket prices range from $100 to $5,800, according to the invitation.
As my colleague Gregory Pratt noted on Twitter today: “Foxx is a polarizing figure, admired for her dedication to criminal justice reform and criticized for it by people who believe she’s too soft on crime in a city that sees astonishing street violence. Her re-election campaign bears watching to see if anyone formidable takes her on.”
Competition? There has been, of course, chatter that Jerry Joyce, the Southwest Side attorney and onetime assistant state’s attorney, entered this year’s Chicago mayor’s race to get his name out there and wants to become the county’s top prosecutor himself. But Joyce told the Tribune in March, after losing his mayoral bid and with the Smollett case still smoldering, that he wasn’t thinking about the job. You can read Byrne’s story here.
Heavy hitters in Chicago’s political and legal circles are among the hosts of the upcoming fundraiser for Foxx, including: business executive and former Obama White House social secretary Desiree Rogers; Melody Spann-Cooper, chairman of Midway Broadcasting Corporation, which owns radio station WVON-AM. Tarrah Cooper Wright, a onetime spokesman for former Mayor Rahm Emanuel and now a partner at public relations firm Rise Strategy Group; Aviva Futorian, a civil rights attorney who serves on the nonprofit prison reform organization the John Howard Association; Drew Beres, an attorney with Kirkland & Ellis LLP; political consultant Marilyn Katz; John Kamis, an attorney who worked for former Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration, served as a lobbyist for the city of Chicago and has worked on a number of campaigns including Quinn’s, former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s 2007 bid, and former Vice President Al Gore’s presidential bid, among others; and Larry Rogers Jr., a commissioner on the Cook County board of property tax appeals.
The race for Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court: Dorothy Brown, Chicago’s own Teflon politico, also is facing some competition. Jacob Meister, who ran against Brown and lost in 2016, has announced he’s running against her again next year. The longtime attorney also made a bid for U.S. Senate.
Politico and the Chicago Sun-Times previously have reported that Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Michael Cabonargi and state Sen. Iris Martinez of Chicago also are exploring a bid for the office.
Timing, judicial races: Tomorrow marks the first of two days of preslating or endorsement meetings between candidates for local and statewide office and local Democratic Party leaders. That includes judicial seats which normally fly under the radar.
One race to watch?
An Illinois Supreme Court seat that represents Chicago and the Cook County suburbs. Tribune Editorial Board member Kristen McQueary was all over it earlier this month, writing: “At least seven candidates, including the appointed incumbent, Justice P. Scott Neville Jr., have filed paperwork or expressed an interest in running for the Supreme Court seat.” Read McQuery’s opinion piece, including her take on the judicial slating process without indicted Ald. Edward Burke chairing the Cook County Democrats’ judicial slating committee, here.
Lightfoot is back in Chicago today, after a trip to NYC, and dealing with the city’s most imminent issues including crime and the sea of red ink that are the city’s finances.
She was meeting with police brass to talk about weekend violence this afternoon and talked only vaguely about how to plug a $700 million hole in the city budget.
Tribune reporter John Byrne has a dispatch on the city’s fiscal mess:
Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday said everything is on the table as she tries to figure out how to close a massive 2020 budget hole, and wouldn’t rule out trying to expand the city sales tax to cover services.
Lightfoot again declined to talk specifics about dealing with a deficit that could approach $1 billion. Asked about the sales tax expansion, she said she’s working with lawmakers and Gov. J.B. Pritzker on a bunch of ideas.
“We’re looking at a variety of options, and I’m not ready to roll those out. We’re still talking about them,” she said at a Far South Side news conference to announce summer mentoring programs for Chicago youth. “But we’ve been engaged with our partners in Springfield, from the governor to legislative leaders from both parties, and individual members from Chicago, both to talk to them about the challenges that we see going into next year, and talking with them collaboratively about a range of possible solutions. So we’ll be rolling out those specifics in the next few weeks here. But certainly looking at every option, measuring the downside risk to different ways in which we can generate revenue is something we’ve been focused on for many, many weeks.”
When Rahm Emanuel was running for his first term as mayor in 2011, he floated the idea of expanding Chicago’s sales tax to apply to some services, among them tanning parlors, limo rides, private club memberships and pet grooming. After challenger Gery Chico dubbed the plan the “Rahm tax,” Emanuel did not follow through on the idea.
State budget is ‘good news’ to colleges and universities: Read Dawn Rhodes’ story in the Tribune here.
Trump’s immigration threat draws ire of U.S. Rep. Jesus ‘Chuy’ Garcia, Mayor Lightfoot
Lightfoot calls the president’s pledge to use U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to remove “millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States” harmful, but suggests that perhaps it’s best to just ignore him. Read Byrne’s story here.
U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, a Chicago Democrat, issued a written statement chastising the president for “terrorizing” immigrants.
“Instead of terrorizing people who have helped build our country, start businesses, pay taxes and contribute to the best of our country, the President and Republicans in Congress should embrace new Americans. Trump should work with Democrats on real solutions to fix our broken immigration system,” Garcia is quoted as saying in a statement from his Washington office.
Poll: Obama tops for leadership, inclusion ‘rhetoric’; Trump last
A new poll asking which modern-day U.S. presidents were the strongest leaders and offered the best “rhetoric” on issues of diversity and inclusion shows former President Barack Obama came out on top.
While Obama, Chicago’s adopted son, rated highest — scoring 75 out of 100 points — his successor, President Trump, had the lowest overall score with nine points, according to the poll conducted by Northwestern University’s Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy. Northwestern worked in conjunction with Christina Greer, associate professor of political science at Fordham University. You can read the poll results here.
Some 113 academic researchers were asked to rate the 14 modern presidents on leadership overall and, specifically, their rhetoric on diversity and inclusion on a scale of 0-100, according to Northwestern University.
The pool: The respondents emerged from an “invitation pool of 400 scholars who have published works dealing with presidential leadership on diversity and inclusion,” according to a news release. That pool included “an oversample of scholars who teach at institutions that are ranked among the ‘Top 20 Most Conservative Colleges’ by The Princeton Review,” according to Northwestern.
2 Chicago police officers cleared in controversial Mount Greenwood shooting: Read Morgan Greene’s story in the Tribune here.
Mark your calendar: Cook County property tax bills are due Aug. 1, Treasurer Maria Pappas reminded in a news release today.
Remembrance: Kitty Kelly, mother of longtime lobbyist John Kelly, died over the weekend of an apparent heart attack. The 72-year-old had been a companion of former Illinois Gov. George Ryan. In 2018, she was part of Ryan’s entourage on a trip to Cuba, the Chicago Sun-Times’ Michael Sneed reported.
Services: There’s a wake today from 2 to 9 p.m. at Robert J. Sheehy & Sons Funeral Home in Orland Park. Another will be held tomorrow from noon to 1 p.m. at Old St. Patrick’s Church on the West Side followed by a funeral Mass.
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