Rahm Emanuel Re-Elected Mayor of Chicago, Tells Voters 'I Hear You'

Jerry on the North Side voted for the “arrogant, miserable (expletive)“ Tuesday morning in Chicago’s first-ever mayoral runoff election.

And whaddaya know? His guy won.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel beat Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, securing another term with 56 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results with all 2,069 precincts reporting:

• Emanuel: 315,545 votes
• Garcia: 250,773 votes

WGN News called the race for Emanuel one hour after the polls closed, and Garcia conceded at 8:20 p.m.

Not that Jerry, who declined to give his last name to a Sun-Times reporter, really likes Emanuel. Jerry actually expects the mayor to deliver some bad news soon.

“Thursday, somebody is going to say, ‘Well, we’re going to have to raise property taxes,’” Jerry predicted.

But Tuesday night, amidst chants of “four more years,” Emanuel heartily shouted “thank you, Chicago” in rock-star fashion. Then he joked that his wife and his son, who voted for the first time, were undecided up until they walked into the polling place Tuesday morning.

He acknowledged the indecision and doubt of so many voters who forced him into this unprecedented runoff.

“To all the voters, I want to thank you for putting me through my paces. I will be a better mayor because of that. I will carry your voices, your concerns into the mayor’s office. I hear your on the importance of neighborhood high schools and better choices. I hear you on the importance of raising the minimum wage,” Emanuel said. “And I hear you on the importance on building a new Chicago where everyone gets a chance to participate in this great city.”

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The financial health of the city was a prime issue in this campaign. So, too, were the closing of city schools, the creation of jobs, and mayhem in city neighborhoods.

Garcia portrayed Emanuel, a former North Side congressman and President Obama’s chief of staff before he succeeded Richard M. Daley as mayor, as the mayor for the rich and powerful and a man who paid little attention to the beleaguered South and West Sides of Chicago. Garcia counted on the support of union workers, African Americans and Latinos.

Garcia vowed to give control of city school back to the people by voicing support for public election of the board of education. He won the support Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis, who considered challenging Emanuel before cancer dashed those hopes.

Garcia promised to be a mayor for the people.

The Case Against Emanuel

For weeks, political watchers, news media and Emanuel foes discussed the mayor’s vulnerability and surmised there was a real danger he’d fall in the runoff. In February, Emanuel had faced four challengers and received just 45.6 percent of the vote.

Garcia received 33.5 percent, and speculation was rampant that Garcia stood a real chance at unseating Emanuel if he could secure the support of the disaffected majority.

Garcia hammered away at the mayor on his ability to deal with violent crime. A number of prominent African-American pastors, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, endorsed Garcia. The challenger promised to hire 1,000 new police officers.

Emanuel, more at home in Washington, D.C. and the Gold Coast than in Englewood or Roseland, has struggled with the crime issue.

“He has no discernible strategy to rescue the South and West sides from cancerous gang activity and crime. He would rather focus on the well-to-do regions of the city,” wrote Chicago Tribune editorialist Kristen McQueary. “If one of his drivers plopped him at a South Side intersection, he would need Google Maps to get back home.”

Garcia espoused a different philosophy for city schools. Emanuel closed 50 schools with low enrollment during his first term. Three years ago, city teachers went on strike for the first time in 25 years. The antipathy of the teachers union toward Emanuel manifested itself in a movement to draft Lewis, the teachers union president, to run against Emanuel. After she fell ill, Lewis and the CTU backed Garcia.

Garcia promised to get rid of the hated red-light camera program, found to be deeply flawed in a Chicago Tribune investigation and a deeply flawed financial deal for the city.

But the African-American community didn’t move in lockstep and didn’t wholly fall in line behind Garcia.

Mother Josephine Wade, owner of Captain’s Hard Time Dining & Josephine’s Cooking in Chatham, near Martin Luther King Drive, told the Chicago Reader she was entirely on Emanuel’s side. The nine Rahm Emanuel campaign signs in front of her diner kind of gave her away.

“I love me some Rahm Emanuel. I think he’s doing a phenomenal job. And I’m upset with the way they’re abusing him. When I say abusing him, I mean, mothers are protective of their sons. I don’t care what color, I’m not into color—Rahm’s my son,” Wade said, telling the Reader’s reporter that the community is at fault for not supporting neighborhood schools. “Most people wanna blame him for the red light cameras, let’s talk about that. The red light cameras was going out and he inherited that. Most of this stuff he inherited. Mayor Daley sold everything and nobody ever challenged him on nothing. ....

“It don’t have nothing to do with the damn mayor. See, we wanna blame the mayor for everything, even the damn killing. But these are our badass kids.”

Deep in debt, with repeated downgrades of its bond rating, a $1 billion city schools deficit and $20 billion in unfunded pension obligations, a case could be made that change was desperately needed.

But Garcia did himself no favors in making that case by failing to offer a detailed alternative to the management of city finances, saying he’d do so after the election by appointing a panel of expert financial advisers.

The people didn’t give him the chance to find some experts.

Meet the New Mayor, Same as the Old Mayor

Mean. Arrogant. Condescending. Disdainful.

And victorious, again.

Emanuel’s plan to claw Chicago back financially hinges on the state legislature granting Chicago a casino and expanding the sales tax.

During the campaign, however, the news media seemed more intent on Emanuel the personality.

A photograph of a shirtless, 18-year-old Emanuel protesting at an anti-Nazi rally in 1978 captured people’s fancy for a while after the image, captured in a documentary titled Marquette Park II, was published in the Chicago Reader.

A video of Emanuel meeting with mental health advocates on the North Side also furthered the anti-Emanuel fervor, as it was widely reported that Emanuel went nose to nose with one and screamed, “you’re gonna respect me.” That exchange wasn’t recorded on video, and the mayor’s office denied Emanuel uttered those words.

For his part, Emanuel acknowledged that his personality was an issue. He cut a campaign ad to address that.

“I can rub people the wrong way, or talk when I should listen,” the mayor explains. “I own that. But I’m driven to make a difference.”

Perhaps the most telling campaign moment, however, was Emanuel securing an endorsement a few weeks ago from one of his leading city council antagonists, Ald. Bob Fioretti, who challenged the mayor in the Feb. 24 election.

“Anybody but Rahm,” Fioretti told voters at the time.

He changed his tune, however, as April 7 drew close, sitting with Emanuel at a press conference and throwing his support to the mayor, saying he was best equipped to deal with the financial issues facing Chicago. Fioretti deflected reporters questions about the massive debt his campaign incurred, and questions about whether he’d been “bought off” for his endorsement.

Fioretti said Garcia’s lack of a financial plan bothered him, and that’s why he flipped his support to Emanuel.

Indeed, Garcia’s own fumbling of questions about city finances gave Emanuel his best campaign ad.

Garcia Concedes

Shortly after 9 p.m., Garcia took the stage to address campaign supporters, noting how 50 years ago he came to America as a little boy.

“And that little boy, now all grown up with kids and grandkids of his own, stands before you tonight humbly and gratefully as a candidate for mayor,” Garcia said. “The people of Chicago have made me who I am today. We may have missed by a little but you put me here tonight. ...

“We didn’t lose today. We tried today. We fought hard for what we believed in.”

PRECINCT-BY-PRECINCT MAP OF VOTES

Rahm Emanuel’s votes were strongest across the North Side, along the lakefront, and in some areas of the South Side. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia won the heavily Hispanic neighborhoods. DNAinfo Chicago reporter Mark Konkol reports that Emanuel’s late “get out the vote” effort — in the model of Richard Daley and John Stroger — is what cinched the election for him.