Lightfoot makes aldermen squirm on day one
This could get very interesting - sounds like she's taking on the Chicago Machine and its corruption.
This could get very interesting - sounds like she's taking on the Chicago Machine and its corruption.
This is as good a time as any to pick a fight with Chicago aldermen — the public thoroughly disgusted by a federal investigation that has left the City Council’s most powerful member severely wounded and threatening others.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot pushed to take full advantage Monday on her first day in office.
She started by using her inauguration speech to give the aldermen a visual demonstration that the public is on her side in her call for reform, employing the audience at the Wintrust Arena to help make them squirm.
Then she followed up by delivering on a promised executive order that is intent on limiting their coveted power known as aldermanic prerogative, a move that already has been making some of them squirm for weeks.
The question aldermen keep asking is whether what plays well for Lightfoot on day one can carry a mayor through four years in which she will need to enlist the support of 26 of these very same aldermen on some extremely tough votes regarding the city’s financial future.
I don’t know the answer, but for now, it’s good to see that our tough and principled new mayor is choosing to start off being tough and principled.
In the future, Lightfoot should find it advantageous that the City Council chamber is designed so that she will always have the aldermen in front of her where she can see them while speaking to them.
On Monday, they were arrayed on the stage behind her, and while I was stationed too far away to tell how many were staring daggers into her back, it was evident from any distance that they were losing enthusiasm for her speech the further she ventured into the topic of reform.
Oh, the aldermen dutifully stood and applauded her signature line, which answered the old “Chicago ain’t ready for reform” chestnut with: “Well, get ready … because reform is here.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot pushed to take full advantage Monday on her first day in office.
She started by using her inauguration speech to give the aldermen a visual demonstration that the public is on her side in her call for reform, employing the audience at the Wintrust Arena to help make them squirm.
Then she followed up by delivering on a promised executive order that is intent on limiting their coveted power known as aldermanic prerogative, a move that already has been making some of them squirm for weeks.
The question aldermen keep asking is whether what plays well for Lightfoot on day one can carry a mayor through four years in which she will need to enlist the support of 26 of these very same aldermen on some extremely tough votes regarding the city’s financial future.
I don’t know the answer, but for now, it’s good to see that our tough and principled new mayor is choosing to start off being tough and principled.
In the future, Lightfoot should find it advantageous that the City Council chamber is designed so that she will always have the aldermen in front of her where she can see them while speaking to them.
On Monday, they were arrayed on the stage behind her, and while I was stationed too far away to tell how many were staring daggers into her back, it was evident from any distance that they were losing enthusiasm for her speech the further she ventured into the topic of reform.
Oh, the aldermen dutifully stood and applauded her signature line, which answered the old “Chicago ain’t ready for reform” chestnut with: “Well, get ready … because reform is here.”
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