Chicago Mayor Election: candidate policies side-by-side comparison

The election is on Tuesday April 7, 2015

Find your voting place here: http://www.chicagoelections.com/en/your-voter-information.html

 

Chuy Garcia	Rahm Emanuel
Past employers and sources for campaign money
2011 – present Cook County Board of Commissioners 1993 – 1999 Illinois Senate 1986 – 1993 Chicago City Council	2009–2010 White House 2005–2007 Democratic Campaign Cmte 2002–2008 US House of Representatives 2000–2001 Freddie Mac 1999–2002 Dresdner Kleinwort 1993–1998 Executive Office of the President 1989–1989 Richard M Daley Campaign (Center for Responsive Politics: Revolving Door Summary) Hired by one of Chicago's largest corporate investment firm (New York Times 12/3/2008)
SEIU Illinois (Chicagoist 12/3/2014) American Federation of Teachers (Chicago Business 12/12/2014)	Top Contributors for 2008: UBS AG, AT&T Inc, Simmons Cooper LLC, Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs (Center for Responsive Politics: Contributors summary) 2011: Chicago Mercantile Exchange (NBC Chicago 10/21/2011) Top contributors 2015 Grosvenor Capital Management, Madison Dearborn Partners, Plumbers and Pipefitters unions, Citadel, Muneer Satter (Steve Can Plan 2/1/2015)
City services
Wait-and-see approach to firing (In These Times Nov 12, 2014) 1,000 new police officers on the street and expand neighborhood policing(Chicago For Chuy: Safe Neighborhoods) Replace foreclosed properties with community peace hubs on high-violence blocks Fund and coordinate mental health services for residents. Reduce the risk of exposure to toxic materials and unsafe physical conditions in our homes Remove tipped subminimum wage, and replace it with an hourly wage to reduce poverty and increase economic growth (Chicago For Chuy: Women's Rights) Expand social and economic programs for women and with concern for women of color Use public funds to integrate poor into communities by supporting rent or mortgage Open the books of the neighborhood investment TIF program and move more of it back into schools away from hotel development (Chicago For Chuy: Tax increment finance reform) Earned sick leave (Chicago For Chuy: Equity in health) Advocate for state and federal funds for healthcare Raise awareness of domestic violence Promote a nursing mom’s bill of rights Review the clinic closings Train police in to respond appropriately to mental illness Heavily lobby Springfield to create an elected school board out of the mayor's control (Chicago for Chuy: Elected school board) Lobby state and federal governments to expand roads, buses and trains in Chicago as opposed to downstate (Chicago for Chuy: Safe and reliable transportation) Consider private funds for transit Lobby for a state gas tax to expand buses and trains, and encourage public transit by taxing car drivers complete the railroad and intersection projects identified by the CREATE public-private partnership to speed rail shipment through Chicago Expand dual language programs in schools Halt school closings Reduce standardized testing Require that charters report the same data as traditional public schools (Chicago For Chuy: Better Neighborhood Schools) Create councils and registers to allow immigrants to learn about city services (Chicago For Chuy: Inclusive City) Advocates neighborhood festivals (In These Times Nov 12, 2014)	Sent development money to River Point office complex (Chicago Reader 12/12/2012) The largest Chicago TIFs in 2013 by revenue are: Near South ($65.2 million); Canal/Congress ($19.9 million); Chicago/Kingsbury ($19.0 million); Kinzie Conservation ($18.6 million). (Cook County Clerk: 2013 Report) Ended effective $1 million grant for therapy for gang members in 2013, replaced it with database analysis (Chicago Sun-Times 05/14/2014, PBS 6/4/ 2012) Fired 200 CTA employees and cut 12 bus lines (NBC 10/13/2011, The Daily Northwestern 11/12/2012 ) Rebuilt the Red Line for 2 years, spending $425 million on it (Chicago Tribune 7/3/2013) Plans to renovate Chicago Blue Line with $492 million (Red Eye Chicago 2/5/2015) Closed 6 health clinics, and fired 125 medical employees to save $1.7 million dollars (Chicago Reader 3/26/2013) Supported the demolition of Prentice Hospital (Chicago Tribune 10/30/2012) Replaced janitors and schoolteachers with new hires to Aramark and charter schools that are not covered by contracts applied to other employees (In These Times 1/21/2015, Democracy Now! 2/23/2015) Hired financial firms Madison Dearborn and John Buck to invest worker pensions (International Business Times 11/13/2014) Fired 150 music and visual arts teachers, and tilted millions of dollars of culture funds towards wealthy neighborhoods. (Chicago Sun-Times 07/09/2014) Created a 3:59 second video of Chicagoans saying they don't know what TIF means (Chicago Reader 6/6/2012)