We're almost at the beginning
Chicago’s upcoming municipal election offers an opportunity for the church to set an agenda for the city
By Pastor
This coming Tuesday, February 28, is Election Day in Chicago. Voting is already very much under way in the city, with early voting numbers nearly tripling what election officials say the numbers were one week out from the election in 2019. But Tuesday is the last day of voting in this year’s municipal elections.
We’re almost at the beginning.
I say this not simply because most observers expect the nine-way mayoral contest and several hotly-contested aldermanic races to go into a April 4 runoff election (The runoff is a second election contest between the top two vote-getters when no candidate secures the required majority of 50 percent of votes in the General Election). I say this because it is important for the church in Chicago to recognize that with so many problems facing our city, the work of faithful civic engagement does not conclude, but BEGINS with the election of a new mayor.
This past Sunday, the AND Campaign partnered with The Chicago Partnership, Progressive Baptist Church, and more than 30 congregations to host one of (if not the) only mayoral candidate forums completely driven by the church. [Editor’s note: you can watch the forum above.]
I was deeply moved to see a multiethnic, interdenominational, cross-community coalition of churches come together to speak powerfully into the election. It was a great forum. I think it helped a lot of people clarify some things in terms of whom they plan to support.
The church’s civic engagement absolutely includes active engagement of the electoral process and providing platforms and resources for the faithful to be informed voters. But, it also encompasses having intentional, respectful conversations about civic issues, attending community meetings, advocating for policies that are important to the church, ensuring meaningful opportunities for citizens to engage with decision makers in government, and building networks of relationships to support one another and work together for the peace of the city.
As we wind down this election season, I’d like to humbly propose an agenda that the church could begin to build up to in the area of faithful civic engagement.
1. Reform City Council and CPS public meetings
Accountability for city government and public school officials (two of the entities that most impact the everyday lives of Chicagoans) begins with transparency. People need to know what decisions are being debated and made on a regular basis that pertain to their homes, city services, taxes and fees, and perhaps most importantly their children’s education. Currently, the primary outlet for public engagement and public accountability is the public meetings of these governing bodies. But, both meetings presently take place in the loop at 10 a.m. on Wednesday mornings.
Think about where you are on the average Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. Regular people are at work, at school, taking care of household chores and so on. Most of us don’t have time to run downtown for a public meeting. One of the reasons that lobbyists and special interest groups are able to influence (and sometimes dominate) our public officials is that these opportunities for public engagement lend themselves to professional political operators much more than regular citizens. Something needs to change.
2. Fully engage the transition process
Whoever wins the mayoral election is going to have to set up an administration. They’ll have to decide what positions they will keep, eliminate, expand, or create, and they will have to hire people to fill those roles. As the saying goes, personnel is policy. Who runs various aspects of government is the first indication we’ll get as to the direction the administration headed. The church should be engaged and attentive as the newly elected mayor moves through this process.
3. Understand and monitor Civilian Police Board
The February 28 election will not only elect a mayor and members of the City Council. We will also put in place the first publicly-elected police accountability board in Chicago. This is a very exciting innovation in our city that holds a ton of potential. But the only way that we can ensure that we harness the potential of this new body is to understand it, engage it, and ensure that special interests don’t dominate the institution and leverage its power for their own gain.
4. Build the civic discipleship and civic engagement capacity of the church
Ultimately, the ability of our city to overcome the difficult issues that we’re facing (violence, education improvement, housing, poverty) is to equip as many people as possible to be part of the solution. For the church, that begins with discipling our congregations to be engaged civically.
Civic engagement isn’t something that can be achieved once and forgotten about; it’s a skill that requires practice. It is a lifestyle. Part of the mission of the Civic Update is to provide a resource for church leaders and church members to remain informed about what’s happening in Chicago politics and stay inspired to engage. We expect to be on the front lines of building a more robust civic engagement environment within the church in this city. From hosting small groups around the helpful books, to preaching from the pulpit, to sharing articles and podcasts, we can all contribute to building out this space.
5. Track, report and discuss key outcomes on a regular basis
The church needs to begin to drive conversations in this city. Media, politicians, and cultural influencers are very skillful at telling us what should be important in our communities. From the very early days of the incoming administration, we have to know what we want to see change across our city and in our neighborhoods. We have to create a set of metrics and track outcomes on those metrics. When we are equipped with this information, we can continue to direct the attention of our elected leaders to these issues and avoid distractions.
So, go vote. And then, let’s get to work providing leadership and seeking the peace of Chicago.
The Round Up
Here are the stories that caught our eyes this week and what they mean for the weeks ahead.
AFSCME pressures Lightfoot with strike threat days before election
AFSCME, a union that represents thousands of city workers, has put pressure on Mayor Lori Lightfoot to finalize a new deal with the threat of picketing and a potential strike days before Election Day 2023.
Lightfoot’s administration is at the bargaining table with the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, represented by AFSCME Local 31 in Chicago, trying to reach a deal with the union's more than 3,000 city workers.
Chicago groups scramble to find housing for newly arrived immigrants 6 months after busing began
As asylum seekers continue to arrive in Chicago, officials are dealing with the problem of finding a place for them to stay. Converting spaces into temporary housing has, at times, generated controversy.
According to the city’s Department of Family and Support Services, more than 3,000 beds at 50 facilities get support and funding from the city.
Chicago expects to receive $20 million from the state for shelter, transportation, basic health, food and first aid for new arrivals, though Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked for $53.5 million.
Chicago Teachers Union under fire from within for campaign spending
The Chicago Teachers Union faces criticism from its own rank and file, and the union has been forced to amend election filings or risk breaking state law.
The union has been vocally supportive of one of its own, Brandon Johnson, as a candidate for Chicago mayor. A Chicago Teachers Union political action committee has donated more than $1 million to Johnson’s mayoral campaign, and union leadership has supported Johnson, a paid CTU officer and Cook County commissioner.
But that support is not unanimous among the 27,000 union members, a more ideologically diverse group than leadership allows for, according to members.
Newsclips
What’s next for Chicago’s City Council?
Ald. Jason Ervin now faces challenger in West Side’s 28th Ward as opponent is reinstated
‘It’s a joke!’ City Council members grill Chicago police officials about extremists in their ranks
Chicago wants to make left turns safer using ‘traffic calming’ speed bumps, bollards
R. Kelly learns his fate after prosecutors sought what could have been a ‘life' sentence
Mayoral race highlights
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is in danger of an early re-election knockout
Chicago mayoral election: New poll shows Lightfoot in third behind Vallas, Johnson
Chicago mayoral candidates prepare with election day less than a week away
Lori Lightfoot claims she ‘misspoke’ when telling voters who don’t support her not to vote
Forum offers rare opportunity to address life issues in mayoral race
In a post-Roe America, pro-choice politicians shouldn’t just get to pander to their base on the issue of abortion.
By
This past Sunday, four of the candidates vying to be Chicago’s next mayor, incumbent mayor Lori Lightfoot, Brandon Johnson, Paul Vallas and Willie Wilson, met at the Faith & Politics Forum at Progressive Baptist Church to field questions from Pastor Charlie Dates and Pastor David Marrero. If you weren’t able to make it to the event live, we’ve provided the video above.
And Campaign Chicago co-sponsored the event, and I had the opportunity to write questions for the forum, among them a question on what ways, if any, the candidates on the stage, all of whom identify as pro-choice, would work to find common ground with people who are pro-life.
As a pro-life person myself, I was particularly happy to see the question asked of and answered by the candidates. You can find their responses at the end of the video above.
What I find most interesting, though, is the fact that a forum like ours will probably be the only occasion where these candidates will face such a question. In our debrief after the event, we talked about that fact.
In a post-Dobbs world, where everything from legal abortion in certain circumstances to abortion-on-demand is no longer simply a given based on a 50-year-old ruling of unelected justices, but is instead a matter for the people’s representatives to decide in a democratic fashion, it’s no longer acceptable, if indeed it ever were, that pro-choice politicians shouldn’t have to face this issue from a questioner who might not share their views on the topic.
I have seen mainstream media cover this issue, and when they do, I rarely see pro-life voices creep into the conversation. In a deep blue city like ours, it would be rare for a pro-choice political candidate to encounter an unsympathetic ear on this topic, and it would not be difficult to manufacture a situation where they would rarely encounter a contrarian, pro-life voice.
But pro-life people live in Chicago, too, and pro-life voters deserve to have their concerns addressed. We certainly would not expect the candidates to suddenly make a heel turn on this issue, though I’m sure I would not be alone in rejoicing if they did. But is it too much to ask that they have this issue raised more than once in an election cycle?
I hope that in an America after the fall of Roe, it might become more common for them at least to be confronted with the fact that pro-life voters are out there, even in the Democratic Party. In fact, one in three Democrats identifies as pro-life, and as Pastor Dates made clear, it’s not easy to pigeonhole pro-life people on the left in the caricatured ways pro-choice people like to think of pro-life people, though that hasn’t stopped people from trying.
As you head to the polls this Tuesday, I hope you’ll join me in praying for the candidates and for our eventual mayor among them. And let’s hope and pray for a better way forward on this divisive – but important – issue.
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