Sadly, the new mayoral era is starting off pretty slowly and continues to be a bit tough for Rahm Emanuel. On top of Judy Erwin resigning her position on Emanuel's transition team in the wake of an ethics probe, Miguel Del Valle rejected Emanuel's offer to co-chair the same transition team. more ›

After months of speculation and campaigning across the city, including a last-minute flurry of scheduled stops and media events, we're here. The first mayoral election in nearly a generation that doesn't involve Richard M. Daley is upon us and all eyes are upon Rahm Emanuel and whether he can close it out today, or require a six-week blitz to an April 5 runoff election. If you had asked me a month ago, I would have said that Emanuel would have won this election handily. But that was before he made three errors. 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 ›

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 this being Valentines Day and the mayoral campaign heading into its possible final week, we though we'd have some fun and make some Valentines Day cards for the respective primary challengers. 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 ›

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 ›

The political drama that ended the Hispanic Democratic Organization's grip on city hiring ended yesterday, with the sentencing of long-time HDO chief and former Streets and San commissioner Al Sanchez, who was convicted of four counts of mail fraud last year. U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman handed down a sentence of 2-1/2 years in federal prison for Sanchez. But he didn't go quietly. 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 ›

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 ›

Just wanted to give you all a reminder that the Tribune and the City Club of Chicago will be hosting a mayoral debate tonight at 7 p.m. The Tribune Co. has made it nearly impossible for you not to find it. The debate will be broadcast on WGN-TV, CLTV, WGN-AM 720, CLTV.com. wgntv.com and chicagotribune.com. Rahm Emanuel will partake in the debate. more ›

While the state Supreme Court has yet to weigh in on Rahm Emanuel's appeal of his being tossed off the mayoral ballot for residency issues, Gery Chico worked to solidify his support with city workers yesterday. Chico said yesterday that he's open to abolishing the rule requiring city workers to live within the city limits. Chico said the city has "outgrown" the residency rule and that Chicago's middle class is strong enough to survive without it. (It's also a rule that, truth be told, many city workers we know already ignore.) more ›

With a month to go before next month's mayoral election, a new poll conducted by the Tribune shows Rahm Emanuel expanding his lead. Emanuel had the support of 44 percent of those surveyed. Which means, at this point, Carol Moseley Braun and Gery Chico are battling not only for second place, but to force Emanuel into an April runoff. more ›

Gery Chico and Miguel del Valle took the opportunity of Bill Clinton's visit to Chicago to slam Rahm Emanuel for his “cozy relationship” with Clinton, his ties to mortgage giant Freddie Mac and the national housing crisis. Clinton was in Chicago for a private fundraiser for Emanuel. “When Rahm Emanuel had the chance to blow the whistle on corrupt activity taking place on the Freddie Mac board, he sat on his hands, looked the other way and took the cash,” Chico told CBS2. “It was a character test and Rahm Emanuel failed.” Citing a Tribune report that Emanuel was paid almost half a million dollars as a board member at Freddie Mac and was informed by board executives of a plan to mislead shareholders about profits, Chico compared Emanuel's experience to Enron, calling it “an illegal scheme to misstate profits” from risky investments “almost exactly like Enron did.” “We can’t afford a mayor who would look the other way when presented with this kind of corruption," Chico said. more ›

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The four major mayoral candidates for mayor — Rahm Emanuel, Gery Chico, Miguel del Valle and Carol Moseley Braun — took questions from 250 high school students last night in a candidate forum organized by WTTW and Mikva Challenge (the folks behind the "Dear Mayor" project). The kids asked the candidates questions ranging from gauging their opinions on public safety and police harassment to how they would improve public transportation and other city services. The students at times asked questions that the media hasn't up to this point. more ›

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Gery Chico launched his first campaign ad yesterday, as he snagged the endorsement of 4th District Congressman Luis Gutierriez. Meanwhile, the Sun-Times dug up an article it published in 2003, when Chico was running for the Senate seat that Barack Obama ultimately won. Back then, Chico was touting his business experience as a chairman of the Chicago law firm Altheimer & Gray. That quickly turned into a liability for the mayor's former school chief, as the firm went under in the summer of 2003, closing after 88 years in business, leaving hundreds unemployed. more ›

City Clerk and mayoral candidate Miguel del Valle told the media Wednesday that what he lacks in campaign funds, he'll make up for in integrity. “I’ve raised $150,000 thus-far,” del Valle said during a campaign stop in Logan Square. “People are not going to vote based on the millions of dollars raised by candidates ... who have made a personal fortune off of their connections with government and their prior positions with the federal government or the city government." more ›

Folks interested in seeing politicians sling BS should pencil January 27 into their calendars. That's when the Tribune and the City Club of Chicago will host a debate between Rahm Emanuel, Gery Chico, Carol Moseley Braun and Miguel del Valle. more ›

Gery Chico and Carol Moseley Braun attacked Mayor Daley's controversial deal to lease the city's parking meters to Morgan Stanley bank on Monday, while drawing contrasts to each other. more ›

Only a few hours after saying she would not release her tax returns "because (she didn't) want to," mayoral candidate Carol Moseley Braun did an about face did an about face and announced that she will release them. more ›

The Independent Voters of Illinois/Independent Precinct Organization released its endorsements for the February 22 city elections. City Clerk Miguel del Valle gets their nod for Mayor and, in somewhat of a surprise for us, they also endorsed Che "Rhymefest" Smith's in his campaign for 20th Ward Alderman. It wasn't hard to find his name, either, among the nods. more ›

Now that Carol Moseley Braun is standing tall as the so-called "consensus Black candidate" for mayor, the field for the mayoral campaign's final weeks is starting to take shape. One question we still have after Danny Davis's late Friday announcement that he was dropping out and backing Braun is - "Carol Moseley Braun? Really?" more ›

Mayor Daley’s announcement that he wouldn’t seek a seventh term rocked the city to its foundation. But almost immediately after Daley uttered the words that would lead to the first truly open mayoral election in a generation, speculation began as to who would run and who would drop out. And then Rahm Emanuel moved back to Chicago and rendered all that moot within a few weeks with a campaign that could have been lifted directly from Daley’s playbook. more ›

Carol Moseley Braun, the Rev. James Meeks, Gery Chico and City Clerk Miguel del Valle, four of the five primary politicians trailing Rahm Emanuel in the mayoral election polls, gathered at Walter Payton Magnet High School to debate education reform last night in a forum moderated by Better Government Association President Andy Shaw. None of them said that the Chicago Public Schools system was performing well, campaigning as much against the recent record of Mayor Daley as each other. more ›

Chicago City Clerk and candidate for mayor Miguel Del Valle called on Congress to pass the DREAM Act, which provides for temporary residency and a path to citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants that are enrolled in college or enlisted in the U.S. military. “We don’t have immigration reform in this country because a number of legislators have not had the courage to act,” del Valle told CBS2. Del Valle also called on new Senator Mark Kirk to support the bill. “We need him to make as one of his first official acts as senator an act in support of the DREAM Act,” del Valle told the Sun-Times. Kirk has said that he won't support the act. more ›

With campaign ad season ramping up ahead of November's general election, City Clerk Miguel del Valle has struck the first advertising blow for the 2011 Mayoral election with this, the first official ad of the first post-Daley campaign. Given how many people are considering running, it also promises to be the first of many, many ads. more ›

In what the Sun-Times is calling the "first Chicago mayor poll" - which we guess works as long as you don't count that other Chicago mayor poll - it seems that the front-runners are Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and state Sen. James Meeks. The poll - which, like that other poll, ignored a few key potential candidates - came out like so, with a margin of error of 4.3 percent meaning these numbers actually don't mean a whole heck of a lot: more ›

The City has officially begun archiving City Council meetings for later viewing online. While meetings have been streamed live for almost two years, the City is finally archiving them for later viewing, meaning if you don't have a chance to watch at the office but want to know what your alderman said about a particular issue at the meeting, you can track it down later. The site is through the City Clerk's office and went live earlier today with meetings dating back to October 2009. (Or so they claim because we couldn't get any of the videos to show in either Firefox or Internet Explorer.) Andy Shaw, executive director of the Better Government Association, is pushing City Clerk Miguel del Valle to broadcast the meetings on cable TV to reach a wider audience that doesn't necessarily have access to the Internet. The next meeting of the City Council is April 14, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. more ›