Countdown to Rahmageddon: Staking Horses in the Runoffs

By Chuck Sudo in News on Mar 7, 2011 3:30PM

Ald. Walter Burnett has already warned Mayor-elect Emanuel that City Council is like a "family that sticks together" and that any challenges to the authority of 14th Ward Ald. Ed Burke may be an attack against the whole. But with 14 wards — nine of them incumbent aldermen — facing runoff elections next month, Emanuel is already targeting runoff elections where he can have support in City Council once he takes office.

The Emanuel campaign has formed a political action committee called The New Chicago Committee that will bankroll his political operation. The monies raised by the committee will go towards causes in line with an Emanuel Administration agenda and political campaigns from aldermanic races and beyond. Under the new state campaign finance guidelines, political action committees can only raise $50,000 per ward race. Already, Emanuel has targeted eight runoff elections in which to raise money. Seven of them are incumbents. Emanuel, through the new PAC, is also raising funds for Debra Silverstein, who's in a runoff in the 50th Ward against longtime curmudgeonly Ald. Bernie Stone (who once joked that re-electing him would save the city money compared to paying out his pension). Given Emanuel's knack for raising money, those ward raises and others may be getting a shot of capital in no time.

The New Chicago Committee is the fourth PAC formed by Emanuel since he resigned as White House Chief of Staff to return to Chicago.