UIC Political Science professor and former alderman Dick Simpson released a study today that predicts next month's ward runoff elections have the probability of shaping a City Council more independent from the agenda of Mayor-elect Emanuel. Early voting for the ward runoffs starts Monday and 10 incumbent aldermen are fighting for their jobs. more ›

Dick Simpson, professor and head of the political science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has authored (yet another) report on the voting patterns of elected officials in the region. And unlike the conclusion he reached in his previous report (that the city council is the mayor’s rubber stamp), he’s discovered that a majority of Cook County’s commissioners don't, in fact, like Todd Stroger. more ›

Adding to post-impeachment “stop corruption in Illinois” demands, a new University of Illinois at Chicago report draws on the state’s 150-year history of political sleaze to offer tips for improvement. The 49-page delve into Illinois dirty laundry traces its corruption record back to the 1860s, when the report’s authors say disorderly and rapid population growth in Chicago, in addition to a mass influx of immigrants needing support from local officials, fed the fire of the now infamous Machine. more ›