The Chicago City Council voted 41-8 to approve a new ward map for the city of Chicago. The matter is now settled and starting in the 2015 municipal election, a new ward map will be in place.
Not so fast says an organization called Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). Elisa Alfonso, a spokesperson for MALDEF, recently told Carol Felsenthal of Chicago magazine are considering a challenge to the new map.
Elisa Alfonso, Midwest redistricting coordinator for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), told me by telephone yesterday that her group, which is headquartered in Los Angeles with a regional office here, is “still studying” whether to challenge the map in court. She points out that there is “no statute of limitations as far as legal challenges go.”
Former City Clerk Miguel del Valle, loser-by-a-mile to Rahm in the mayoral race (and now a self-described “retired elected official”) told me in a telephone conversation yesterday that Emanuel “muscled the map thorough” without giving aldermen, much less the public—there were no public hearing on this final iteration—any time to study it. A small group of aldermen led by Richard Mell made the final changes to the map in a private City Hall all-nighter. Tens of thousands of Chicagoans will find themselves in new wards with new aldermen, but they didn’t get a look at it. There was a manufactured sense of urgency in the air, says del Valle, even though the new map doesn’t take effect until the next municipal election in 2015.
MALDEF’s Alfonso says that Rahm’s impatience was no surprise to her. “He barely had the 41 votes he needed; had he waited longer his support would have dissipated.” Weeks after the map’s passage, she still got emotional as she described watching the “appalling” process and the mayor presiding “with a smirk on his face.”
Former City Clerk Miguel del Valle is also critical of the new map, telling Chicago magazine that Mayor Rahm Emanuel “muscled the map thorough.” As evidence, they point to 43rd Ward Alderman Michele Smith who changed her vote late in the process for a more favorable map that included Lincoln Park.
Cash and clout count, Alfonso maintains. She points to 43rd Ward Alderman Michele Smith, whose Lincoln Park base had earlier been slated to be split among five wards. Residents there not only have power, they have attorneys ready to pounce. In the end, most of Lincoln Park remains in the 43rd. The Back of the Yards neighborhood, on the other hand, remains split into five pieces. And the new map splits Chinatown up, too—“atrocious,” says Alfonso, who adds that the Asian community “was not much talked about.”
In the end, Rahm got his 41 votes, says del Valle, “because incumbents were mainly concerned about protecting their own re-election chances” and preserving their good relations with the mayor. (Could it be that a couple of the “yes” votes await specific favors from the mayor?)
“Redistricting one of the basic civil rights everyone has,” Alfonso says. “Citizens have been brainwashed into letting politicians have the last say.”
Whether this lawsuit has any legs remains to be seen. These fights are difficult, if not impossible for the plaintiffs to prevail. Since the vote in favor of the map was 41-8, an overwhelming majority, the chances for success are limited. Several aldermen that The Examiner talked to stated off the record that the lawsuit is a nonstarter and that the council now wants to move onto highr priority items.
Send John Presta an email and your story ideas or suggestions, johnpresta@att.net.
John is the author of an award-winning book, the 2010 Winner of the USA National Best Book award for African-American studies, published by The Elevator Group Mr. and Mrs. Grassroots: How Barack Obama, Two Bookstore Owners, and 300 Volunteers did it. Also available an eBook on Amazon. John is also a member of the Society of Midland Authors and is a book reviewer of political books for the New York Journal of Books
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