Mayor Gutierrez?
Is Gutierrez ready to rumble?
"Should I lead this city, I have no interest in my legacy being the number of visitors to a beautiful lakefront park or the year the Olympics came to Chicago. It would be how many more kids graduated, how many quality teachers we hire and how many new schools were built."
-- REP. LUIS GUTIERREZ
May 9, 2006
Copyright by THe Chicago Sun Times
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter
Rep. Luis Gutierrez moved ever closer to a race for mayor Monday, arguing that Mayor Daley is besieged by corruption, has been in power too long and has wasted time and money on Millennium Park and attracting the 2016 Summer Olympics at the expense of public schools.
"Attention and focus and resources are not infinite. Every hour spent on the Olympics is an hour that could be spent on improving our schools. Every dollar used ... is a dollar that could be redirected to improving the wages and salaries of our teachers," he said.
"Should I lead this city, I have no interest in my legacy being the number of visitors to a beautiful lakefront park or the year the Olympics came to Chicago. It would be how many more kids graduated, how many quality teachers we hire and how many new schools were built."
Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said he has not yet decided whether to make a run and won't until sometime between Labor Day and November after consulting with his wife.
But in a luncheon address to the City Club of Chicago, Gutierrez made it sound like a done deal.
Emboldened by the show of force at last week's immigration march, he was already outlining a campaign platform based on three major tenets: improve education with more charter schools and Advanced Placement courses, higher standards and increased pay and housing assistance for teachers; reform government by outsourcing hiring and bringing campaign finance reform to City Hall, and investing in Chicago's people.
'New ideas'
"Do I want to be mayor? I'd love to be mayor of the City of Chicago. What a position of honor. What a position of respect. What a joy it would be to have such a privilege. ... It would be awfully hard to say no to a race for mayor if that campaign could help Chicago," he said.
"Government suffers from having the same leadership too long. That same leadership talks to the same people, hears the same ideas, trusts the same advisers. ... Not enough of you are being listened to. It's time to get a bigger table with new seats that lead to new ideas."
Daley's political adviser David Axelrod was out of the country Monday, and the mayor's office chose not to comment on the Gutierrez speech.
The movers and shakers in the audience came away with mixed impressions.
"I take the man at his word. He's going to talk to his wife," said Tom Donovan, former patronage chief under Daley's father, former Mayor Richard J. Daley.
Asked if he believes Richard M. Daley can be beaten, Donovan said, "Mayor Daley has done a great job. He has tremendous capital built up in this city. It's a question of whether the mayor wants to run again. Richard Daley would be re-elected. ... Last I knew, he wasn't on trial. ... I haven't seen any [corruption-related] damage that has come close to Richard Daley."
Ald. Billy Ocasio (26th), who succeeded Gutierrez as alderman, said Monday's speech was designed to position his political mentor in the event that the Hired Truck, city hiring and minority contracting scandals force Daley into political retirement.
"I just don't think the mayor is going to run. ... He's been in Israel. He's going to China. I just think the mayor is ready to spend some time with the family, relax and enjoy the rest of his life. ... And if the mayor is not running, we're running," he said.
Daley shrugs it off
Seventeen years ago, Gutierrez was Daley's most prominent Hispanic supporter. Since then, he and the mayor's forces from the Hispanic Democratic Organization have been on opposite sides in aldermanic, legislative and county board races.
Late last year, Gutierrez announced he would retire from Congress after one more term, form his own Hispanic political organization and explore a 2007 race for mayor.
Daley sloughed off the announcement by his on-again, off-again ally. "Everybody would like to be mayor. Everybody would like to be governor. Everyone would like to be president."
Political hiring recommendations
Although Daley prides himself on the steady improvement in test scores in the 11 years since his school takeover, Gutierrez homed in on a more embarrassing number: six.
"That's the number of Chicago Public School freshmen out of every hundred who will graduate from a four-year college," he said. "The number is two for Latino males. To me, that's unacceptable. It's offensive. ... Judge the next leader of our city by whether he changes that number."
The congressman's promise to turn city hiring over to a human resources company is something that Daley himself once suggested, only to be shot down by Chicago aldermen.
Gutierrez has a history on this issue: He made political hiring recommendations as an aide to former Mayor Harold Washington.
On Monday, Gutierrez acknowledged the pivotal role he played. But he insisted that his recommendations were limited to the 1,000 or so jobs exempt from the Shakman decree.
"There have been times when I have made recommendations. That is quite distinct from putting together a scheme in which people are selected, mandated" based on their political work, he said.
fspielman@suntimes.com
"Should I lead this city, I have no interest in my legacy being the number of visitors to a beautiful lakefront park or the year the Olympics came to Chicago. It would be how many more kids graduated, how many quality teachers we hire and how many new schools were built."
-- REP. LUIS GUTIERREZ
May 9, 2006
Copyright by THe Chicago Sun Times
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter
Rep. Luis Gutierrez moved ever closer to a race for mayor Monday, arguing that Mayor Daley is besieged by corruption, has been in power too long and has wasted time and money on Millennium Park and attracting the 2016 Summer Olympics at the expense of public schools.
"Attention and focus and resources are not infinite. Every hour spent on the Olympics is an hour that could be spent on improving our schools. Every dollar used ... is a dollar that could be redirected to improving the wages and salaries of our teachers," he said.
"Should I lead this city, I have no interest in my legacy being the number of visitors to a beautiful lakefront park or the year the Olympics came to Chicago. It would be how many more kids graduated, how many quality teachers we hire and how many new schools were built."
Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said he has not yet decided whether to make a run and won't until sometime between Labor Day and November after consulting with his wife.
But in a luncheon address to the City Club of Chicago, Gutierrez made it sound like a done deal.
Emboldened by the show of force at last week's immigration march, he was already outlining a campaign platform based on three major tenets: improve education with more charter schools and Advanced Placement courses, higher standards and increased pay and housing assistance for teachers; reform government by outsourcing hiring and bringing campaign finance reform to City Hall, and investing in Chicago's people.
'New ideas'
"Do I want to be mayor? I'd love to be mayor of the City of Chicago. What a position of honor. What a position of respect. What a joy it would be to have such a privilege. ... It would be awfully hard to say no to a race for mayor if that campaign could help Chicago," he said.
"Government suffers from having the same leadership too long. That same leadership talks to the same people, hears the same ideas, trusts the same advisers. ... Not enough of you are being listened to. It's time to get a bigger table with new seats that lead to new ideas."
Daley's political adviser David Axelrod was out of the country Monday, and the mayor's office chose not to comment on the Gutierrez speech.
The movers and shakers in the audience came away with mixed impressions.
"I take the man at his word. He's going to talk to his wife," said Tom Donovan, former patronage chief under Daley's father, former Mayor Richard J. Daley.
Asked if he believes Richard M. Daley can be beaten, Donovan said, "Mayor Daley has done a great job. He has tremendous capital built up in this city. It's a question of whether the mayor wants to run again. Richard Daley would be re-elected. ... Last I knew, he wasn't on trial. ... I haven't seen any [corruption-related] damage that has come close to Richard Daley."
Ald. Billy Ocasio (26th), who succeeded Gutierrez as alderman, said Monday's speech was designed to position his political mentor in the event that the Hired Truck, city hiring and minority contracting scandals force Daley into political retirement.
"I just don't think the mayor is going to run. ... He's been in Israel. He's going to China. I just think the mayor is ready to spend some time with the family, relax and enjoy the rest of his life. ... And if the mayor is not running, we're running," he said.
Daley shrugs it off
Seventeen years ago, Gutierrez was Daley's most prominent Hispanic supporter. Since then, he and the mayor's forces from the Hispanic Democratic Organization have been on opposite sides in aldermanic, legislative and county board races.
Late last year, Gutierrez announced he would retire from Congress after one more term, form his own Hispanic political organization and explore a 2007 race for mayor.
Daley sloughed off the announcement by his on-again, off-again ally. "Everybody would like to be mayor. Everybody would like to be governor. Everyone would like to be president."
Political hiring recommendations
Although Daley prides himself on the steady improvement in test scores in the 11 years since his school takeover, Gutierrez homed in on a more embarrassing number: six.
"That's the number of Chicago Public School freshmen out of every hundred who will graduate from a four-year college," he said. "The number is two for Latino males. To me, that's unacceptable. It's offensive. ... Judge the next leader of our city by whether he changes that number."
The congressman's promise to turn city hiring over to a human resources company is something that Daley himself once suggested, only to be shot down by Chicago aldermen.
Gutierrez has a history on this issue: He made political hiring recommendations as an aide to former Mayor Harold Washington.
On Monday, Gutierrez acknowledged the pivotal role he played. But he insisted that his recommendations were limited to the 1,000 or so jobs exempt from the Shakman decree.
"There have been times when I have made recommendations. That is quite distinct from putting together a scheme in which people are selected, mandated" based on their political work, he said.
fspielman@suntimes.com
posted by Carlos T Mock at 9:04 AM
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