CTU Chief Lewis Reportedly Mulling Mayoral Run
By Chuck Sudo in News on Jun 27, 2014 2:00PM
In what could be one of Rahm Emanuel’s greatest nightmares, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis is considering a mayoral run next year. NBC 5 reports Lewis met with election attorneys and will make a final decision in August. Lewis denied meeting with attorneys Thursday in a telephone conversation with Sun-Times reporters Lauren Fitzpatrick and Fran Spielman but did acknowledge she’s “seriously thinking” about challenging the Tiny Dancer.
“I’m a little sick of the mayor and I don’t see anyone stepping up,” Lewis said.
The reports come immediately after Chicago Public Schools laid off 1,150 union-backed employees (500 of them teachers) Thursday, which CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett called the “impacted teachers.” Lewis said it was another shot in Emanuel’s war on public education in Chicago. In her statement, Lewis highlighted the disconnect between Byrd-Bennett blaming declining enrollments in neighborhood schools as the reason for the layoffs and the school district authorizing 33 charter schools in the past three years.
Lewis has been one of Emanuel’s most vocal critics since he took office three years ago. Her leadership of CTU during the 2012 teachers strike helped her gain significant political clout and a national profile, which she’s used at every subsequent opportunity to criticize Emanuel, Byrd-Bennett and senior CPS staffers and Emanuel’s hand-picked school board. Lewis is the only labor leader to stare down Emanuel since he took office.
Lewis had previously promised to make Emanuel’s re-election campaign a bumpy one. She declared the union will not accept an extension of the three-year deal they negotiated with the school board in 2012 and said she would support a run by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. She also marshaled CTU’s political action committee to launch a multi-year legislative agenda against lawmakers the union believes don’t have the best interests of public education in Chicago in mind.
Should Lewis decide to run she would find support among African-American voters disappointed in Emanuel. Recent polls have shown the mayor carrying a 29 percent approval rating; his support among black voters is at 8 percent.
Even with the low approval numbers, Emanuel currently has a clear path to re-election. His only opponents so far is community activist Amara Enyia.