Retiring Ald. Roberto Maldonado (26th) on Wednesday endorsed Mayor Lori Lightfoot over the only Hispanic mayoral candidate, U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-Ill.), calling Lightfoot the “only mayor” who has “talked the talk and walked the walk when it comes to affordable housing.”
“I’m being grateful to a sitting mayor who has supported my initiatives in affordable housing that, I think, are so paramount so that my community, my ward [can be protected] from being gentrified like my surrounding wards,” Maldonado, 71, told the Chicago Sun-Times.
“Under [Rahm], I had been pushing for 200 units of affordable housing. But I never was given the funding by Emanuel...because I said, `I’m not going to support your four years in a row of property tax increases.’ And he told me, `If you don’t do that, I [only] have so much money to go around.’”
He added, “The only mayor who fully funded the developments that were stagnated under Emanuel and the new ones that I came up with was Lori Lightfoot. She has been the only one who has talked the talk and walked the walk when it comes to affordable housing.”
The Garcia campaign had no immediate comment on Maldonado’s endorsement of Lightfoot. Garcia has accused the mayor of breaking her campaign promise to raise the real estate transfer tax on high-end home sales to create a dedicated funding source to reduce homelessness and build affordable housing.
Appointed by former Mayor Richard M. Daley in 2009, Maldonado dropped out of the 26th Ward race last Friday, joining what has become a mass exodus from a Chicago City Council that his retiring colleague Tom Tunney (44th) has called “not a good place to work these days.”
Sixteen alderpersons have either left the City Council already, chosen to run for mayor or opted to retire from politics entirely.
Maldonado’s exit came as a bit of a surprise, only because it came so late in the game and after he was rewarded for taking sides against the Latino Caucus he once led in the bitter battle over a new Chicago ward map.
For months, the major roadblock to a deal between the Black and Latino caucuses was the demand for a 15th majority-Hispanic ward. After leaving two Hispanic majority wards on the table 10 years ago, Latino Caucus Chairman Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th) did not want to settle for anything less than 15 this time, given the 5.2% increase in Chicago’s Hispanic population since then.
But with Maldonado’s holdout help, the City Council approved a new map that has 14 majority Hispanic wards and preserves 17 African American wards, including one with a Black plurality. Asian Americans, Chicago’s fastest-growing population, now form the majority in one ward for the first time.
Villegas ended up as the sacrificial lamb with a narrow contortion of a ward that makes the bizarrely-shaped 2nd Ward look compact.
Veteran political strategist Victor Reyes advised the Latino Caucus in the remap fight and is now supporting Garcia in the nine-candidate race for mayor.
Reyes believes that Maldonado’s endorsement of Lightfoot has as much to do with the once-a-decade political power struggle over new ward boundaries as it does with affordable housing.
“Maldonado got very special treatment during redistricting. He got exactly the ward he wanted. He was the one Latino holdout. He would not budge at all. And he got exactly the ward he wanted. The mayor had his back all the way,” Reyes recalled.
“In the 37th Ward, there were certain Latinos he did not want, and they stayed with [Emma] Mitts. Maldonado got what he wanted. Everybody else got what they could live with. And Villegas got screwed. I don’t know whether Maldonado was planning to leave then, or whether he changed his mind after the remap fight But I don’t believe affordable housing is the primary reason he’s backing Lightfoot. It’s basic payback.”
Maldonado insisted that his rationale for endorsing Lightfoot has everything to do with affordable housing. Never mind that she’s has been under fire for breaking her campaign promise.
“The real estate transfer tax is for the homeless community. This is about working families. And for working families, she’s been there,” Maldonado said.
“I voted against her three budgets that included a property tax increase. And she did not take that against me…I respect that.”
