Tom Carey, an adviser to Carol Moseley Braun's mayoral campaign, dishes some dirt with Chicago Magazine's Carol Felsenthal about the chaos that engulfed her campaign and makes one very interesting tidbit during the interview. more ›

We've put together a great panel to discuss yesterday's election results from all across the city. Join in, will you? more ›

It's nice to be a Democrat in Illinois with an ability to raise campaign funds. The Sun-Times reports today that 31 of the top 50 war chests in the state are controlled by Democrats, led by Rahm Emanuel's $8.3 million fund for the Countdown to Rahmageddon. But a majority of that was raised before the state's new campaign fundraising laws kicked in at the beginning of 2011. Since then, Gery Chico has managed to keep pace with Emanuel in the fundraising department. Emanuel has raised $1.5 million this year; Chico $1.1 million. Emanuel's having to return campaign money from Jimmy John's executives didn't help matters. Chico's total war chest is just over $2 million. more ›

All six candidates for mayor criss-crossed the city yesterday, making their final cases as to why each of them should be the one to succeed Richard M. Daley while hoping to implore enough voters to the polls to force an April runoff. Frontrunner Rahm Emanuel, perhaps recognizing the damage that has been inflicted on his campaign by Gery Chico's "Rahm Tax" attacks and his letter to city workers trying to clarify his position on pension reform, seemed to temper expectations for tomorrow's election, acknowledging that a runoff may be necessary. "It may take one or two bites of the apple" to get elected, Emanuel said. more ›

Rahm Emanuel is returning $50,000 in campaign donations after questions surfaced regarding whether those donations violated the maximum of $10,000 allowed by a company, according to new state law. Greg Hinz at Crain’s reports that, after he made inquiries into 10 donations of $5,000 each by people with connections to Champaign-based Jimmy John’s, the Emanuel campaign decided to hand the money back “out of an abundance of caution and to avoid even the suggestion of impropriety.” more ›

If Mayor Daley thinks you said something wrong, you probably did. May Day took some time yesterday to rebuke a comment made earlier in the week by Jim Sweeney, a union leader with Operating Engineers Local 150. Sweeney called Rahm Emanuel a "Wall Street Judas" who collected "bags of silver" while helping pass NAFTA through Congress. Daley said Sweeney's comment was anti-Semitic (Emanuel is Jewish) and that the tone of the campaign should not be lowered. more ›

Last night it was ABC7's turn to host a mayoral debate at the Oriental Theatre, the final one before Tuesday's election. In between Ron Magers' admonishments to the audience that he would clear the auditorium if they didn't stop cheering, Gery Chico, Carol Moseley Braun and Miguel del Valle each took turns trying to score points off Rahm Emanuel, particularly on immigration reform. Now, what the next mayor of Chicago can do to spur immigration reform (a federal issue), we have no idea. In a last-ditch appeal to a wide base of Hispanic voters across the city, we can see why Braun, Chico and del Valle did attempt to paint Emanuel into that corner. more ›

Every Chicagoan is used to getting solicitations from candidates during election season. One letter Rahm Emanuel's campaign recently sent out though, has some city employees up in arms. The Sun-Times reports that Emanuel sent a personal letter to the homes of city employees and other households attempting to clarify the candidate's position on the pension crisis. Some recipients want to know how the Emanuel campaign got their information and if someone from City Hall could have leaked sensitive information. more ›

The Tribune had an interesting article today following up on Rahm Emanuel's tweak at 14th Ward Alderman Ed Burke during Monday night's debate on WTTW. The Tribune quotes numerous unnamed aldermen and Emanuel staffers as saying his comments were a warning to Burke that he's willing pick a fight with the second most powerful man at City Hall. more ›

One of Rahm Emanuel's latest ads takes bits and pieces from the October press conference at the White House where President Obama sent him off in style as something of a tacit endorsement for his campaign. At least, that's how we think it could come across to casual viewers and the undecideds. The ad itself is not an actual Obama endorsement. Emanuel's opponents have been quick to call him out on the shifty nature of using the ads to infer an endorsement from Obama. more ›

Prior to last night's debate on WTTW, Miguel del Valle held a press conference at the intersection of Halsted and Madison, where he said that he would review how the city is implementing its red light camera program if elected mayor and would reform what he called "oppressive" city driving and parking policies. more ›

There was drama both mild and heavy at last night's mayoral debate on WTTW. Candidates Patricia Van Pelt Watkins and William "Dock" Walls sat in the Channel 11 lobby, demanding equal time and a presence at the debate. Carol Moseley Braun showed up with moments to spare before the debate commenced. Possibly the biggest surprise of the night was the mention of 14th Ward Alderman Ed Burke's name. The powerful Finance Committee chair is in Gery Chico's corner, although he formally hasn't endorsed Chico. But that didn't stop the candidates, particularly Rahm Emanuel, from saying that, if elected, Burke would have to relinquish not only his ever present police detail, but some political power. more ›

With a week left before the polls open, two questions remain in the mayoral race. Who will come in second to Rahm Emanuel? And will that second place finisher be able to force an April runoff with Emanuel? Gery Chico seems like the most likely of the major candidates to be able to pull this off. He's found a bullet point issue to attack Emanuel with "the Rahm Tax" and has been repeating it ad nauseam in campaign ads, mailers and even a website. As we mentioned last week, Chico will keep beating people over the head with this so long as Emanuel refuses to define those "luxury items" that would be subject to his proposed tax swap, in exchange for a 20 percent decrease in the city's portion of the sales tax, hoping that our collective Pavlovian negative response toward the word "tax" will sway undecideds in his favor. If that doesn't work, Chico's already shown that he's shameless enough to use the "he isn't from Chicago" argument. more ›

The Chicago Disorder Preservation Society is a group that seeks to commemorate the unique culture of Chicago politics. To that end, they've created a set of wooden nickels honoring those candidates that filed mayoral petitions to commemorate what has become a historic and eventful mayoral election. more ›

Rahm Emanuel, looking to burnish his "Rahmformer" credentials, announced earlier this week that he would freeze spending on his first day in office, if elected, and ask department heads to find $75 million in spending cuts. Emanuel also said he would fix the city's pension system, which is way underfunded. more ›

City Clerk Miguel del Valle has asked state Attorney General Lisa Madigan to investigate the city's ballyhooed parking meter lease deal, believing that because Morgan Stanley employees didn't register with the city as lobbyists, the deal violates Chicago's ethics ordinance. more ›

Gery Chico has the distinction of being the first mayoral candidate to launch an attack ad with the video below pouncing on Rahm Emanuel's proposed tax plan. more ›

While Miguel del Valle tries to move past "undecided" in the polls and Carol Moseley Braun considers paying her staff in tea and organic food, Rahm Emanuel and Gery Chico's latest campaign ads up the ante in their respective campaigns as to why each is the man for the job. There's also some unintentional comedy in each. more ›

With Blizzaster 2011 somewhat behind us and city neighborhoods digging out around Chicago, the streets are going to be overflowing in chairs, crates, industrial-sized jugs and other junk to save the parking spaces that have been shoveled out by car owners. more ›

Flanked by Congressmen Danny Davis and Bobby Rush, Carol Moseley Braun offered a public apology to Patricia Van Pelt Watkins for saying she was "strung out on crack" at Sunday's mayoral forum. Reading from a prepared statement, Braun said, “Patricia Watkins said she does not expect an apology from me. She is wrong." more ›

Rahm Emanuel now has 23 more days of shaking hands at grocery stores, bowling alleys and "L" stops. Emanuel took advantage of today's early voting opening, as did City Clerk Miguel del Valle. more ›

Carol Moseley Braun may have had a problem releasing her tax returns, but not 53rd Ward Alderman Ed Bus. Bus released his returns Friday as part of his ongoing campaign. As you can see from the numbers, representing the 53rd Ward has been very good to him and his. more ›

Now that he has the endorsements of Chicago policemen and firefighters who don't want to live in the city, and found a slogan he can beat Rahm Emanuel over the head with, Gery Chico's next stop in his late push for second place in next month's election is to pander to football fans. The Chico campaign responded to an article by the Tribune's David Haugh in which Haugh laid out the chances of Soldier Field hosting a future Super Bowl with a press release that said, if elected Mayor, Chico would work to bring a Super Bowl to the Windy City. more ›

While Carol Moseley Braun was busy calling other mayoral candidates crack addicts at Trinity United Church of Christ, Rahm Emanuel continued his slow and steady march towards trying to avoid an April runoff election by... having a fundraiser at the Park West. The fundraiser featured musical performances by local retro-soul masters JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound and Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, who gave Emanuel the shot in the arm he promised a couple of weeks back. more ›

Trinity United Church of Christ hosted a mayoral forum yesterday notable for two things. First, Rahm Emanuel skipped it (you'll see why in about a half-hour) and another gauche statement from the mouth of Carol Moseley Braun. more ›

It's not a stretch to say that a lot of drama has occurred concerning the Chicago mayoral elections over the past week, but business is moving along as usual now that Rahm Emanuel's name was ordered back on the ballots in time for the upcoming election. more ›

“Need a plumber? Pay the Rahm Tax. Need a taxi? Pay the Rahm Tax. Need to park your car? Pay the Rahm Tax,” Gery Chico said. “If Rahm Emanuel gets his way, we will all pay the Rahm Tax.” more ›

Throughout this saga regarding Rahm Emanuel's residency, the question has been a matter of interpretation of the law. Emanuel and his attorneys argued that, even though he rented out his Ravenswood home, he still intended to move back; still maintained an Illinois drivers license; still had a checking account; still paid property taxes on the home and still maintained his voter registration in Illinois. Those objecting to Emanuel's candidacy argued for a narrower, more orthodox interpretation of the residency rule: he didn't live there for the past year, so he can't run. Intent versus actuality. Obviously, the state Supreme Court sided with Emanuel yesterday and put him back on the ballot. And that's as it should be. That wasn't surprising. What was was the majority opinion authored by Justice Bob Thomas, which was dismissive of the Illinois Appellate Court's decision Monday to remove Emanuel from the ballot. It was an unctuous and rude opinion that caused Justices Anne Burke and Charles Freeman to write their own special opinion on the case, while still siding for Emanuel. Speaking of Burke, so much for that perceived conflict of interest, eh? more ›

Last night I was in the media pool for the Tribune/City Club of Chicago mayoral debate. The first time I covered one of these events, I had raised, possibly delusional expectations: I imagined grabbing my press pass and heading to the edge of the dais as Barack Obama gave his first speech to Chicago as a presidential candidate, camera in hand, rubbing shoulders with reporters from Politico and the New York Times. The rubbing shoulders part was right - I was herded over to a platform with the rest of the press as we were shoehorned in and told that we couldn't leave the area we were in. The mayoral debate was no different. more ›

The Illinois Supreme Court voted unanimously to keep Rahm Emanuel on next month's mayoral ballot, reversing Monday's Appellate Court decision to toss him from the ballot. Read the decision here. more ›