In the Feb. 28 election, City Council candidates appointed over the prior year by Mayor Lori Lightfoot didn’t fare very well.
One lost the race outright. Three couldn’t get over the 50% vote hurdle, forcing them to face off against their closest rivals in Tuesday’s municipal election.
Despite their ties to an unpopular mayor — who lost her own re-election run in embarrassing fashion — those appointees all were leading in their races Tuesday, with two seemingly poised to win and keep their seats for four years.
In the 11th Ward, covering the Daley family’s longtime South Side enclave of Bridgeport, Ald. Nicole Lee declared victory over her opponent, Anthony Ciaravino, a Chicago police instructor.
With all precincts reporting, Lee had nearly 62% of the vote compared to Ciaravino with about 38%, records show.
That translated into more than 2,800 votes for Lee over Ciaravino, more than enough to cover the up to 1,234 mail-in votes that still haven’t been counted, records show.
Lightfoot appointed Lee in March 2022 to replace Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson after he was convicted a month earlier on tax charges and had to step down.
While Lee — the City Council’s first Asian American woman — had been publicly backed by the Daley clan, including Thompson’s uncle, Cook County Commissioner John Daley, Ciaravino’s campaign donors included a number of businessmen with ties to the Daleys.
With Lee’s victory and Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth apparently on track to win in the 48th Ward on the North Side, the number of Asian American City Council members could grow to two.
On the West Side, Ald. Monique Scott has been representing the 24th Ward since Lightfoot appointed her to the post in June to replace her brother, who took a job with Cinespace Chicago Film Studios.
Scott had a strong lead over opponent Creative Scott, who is not related to her, and appeared headed toward victory on Tuesday.
With 95% of precincts reporting, Monique Scott secured nearly 67% of the vote compared to about 33% of the vote for her opponent, who ran unsuccessfully for the same seat in 2019.
The two were more than 2,000 votes apart. There are as many as 687 mail-in ballots still not counted, records show.
Things were tighter in the North Side’s 43rd Ward, which Ald. Timmy Knudsen has represented since Lightfoot appointed him to the seat in September after Michele Smith stepped down.
Knudsen, a former member of Chicago’s zoning board of appeals, had under 52% of the vote to Brian Comer’s more than 48%, with all precincts reporting.
They were more than 500 votes apart, but with as many as 3,380 mail-in ballots still not counted.
That race, like so many across the city, focused significantly on public safety and what many feel is out-of-control crime.
“Since I was appointed back in September, we’ve gotten right to work on crime,” Knudsen, the City Council’s youngest member and the first openly gay person to represent his ward, said in March during a debate.
Of the 14 City Council runoff races on Tuesday’s ballot, six featured incumbents — the three appointed by Lightfoot in 2022, and three others: Ald. James Gardiner in the 45th Ward on the Northwest Side; Ald. Gilbert Villegas in the 36th Ward that was redrawn to include parts of Humboldt Park, among other areas; and Ald. Chris Taliaferro in the 29th Ward that includes Austin.
With all precincts reporting, Gardiner had more than 55% of the vote over opponent Megan Mathias, who was down more than 1,700 votes, though there are as many as 1,992 mail-in ballots still uncounted, records show.
With all precincts reporting, Villegas had about 58% of the vote compared to about 42% for Leonor Torres Whitt.
Villegas was up nearly 1,500 votes, with up to 1,764 mail-in ballots not counted, records show.
Taliaferro was the only incumbent in obvious trouble after polls closed.
With 88% of precincts reporting, he was a handful of votes apart from opponent CB Johnson. Up to 1,114 mail-in votes remain uncounted.
Eight City Council races featured all newcomers, including in the 30th Ward, where Jessica Gutiérrez, the daughter of former U.S. Rep. Luis Gutiérrez, was 260 votes shy of opponent Ruth Cruz with all precincts reporting but up to 1,584 mail-in ballots not counted.
The racial and gender make-up of the new City Council was still to early to know for sure, but minority representation should be rising.
After the 2019 election, there were 18 white members of the City Council; with Tuesday’s election, that number could drop to 14.
Hispanic representation on the City Council will reach a record high, growing from 12 members in 2019 to 14 when newcomers take office in May.
The number of women will also increase from 15 to at least 17 and depending on final results could break the record of 18 set back in 2007.
Housing organizer Angela Clay appears poised to be the first Black person to represent the North Side’s 46th Ward, as she secured 55.8% of the votes compared to 44.2% for Walgreens executive Kim Walz, who conceded the race to Clay.
The candidates were about 1,828 votes apart with all precincts reporting, though there were as many as 3,481 uncounted mail-in ballots.
If Clay’s lead holds, the number of Black City Council members will remain the same as 2019 with 20 members.