Lightfoot “wins” battle; we’ll need to see how she prevails in the “war”

Mayor Lori Lightfoot had her first official meeting Wednesday with the City Council, and the aldermen didn’t go out of their way to try to humiliate her.

LIGHTFOOT: Prevailed, for now

Now as far as how Lightfoot treated the aldermen, that is debatable. For it could be that Lightfoot came ahead on her first political conflict, but may also have cemented a reputation that is bound to have her name taken in vain in certain City Hall offices.

LIGHTFOOT GETS CREDIT for a “win” because the council formally approved her picks for whom amongst them ought to be in charge of the various council committees.

Including the selection of 32nd Ward Alderman Scott Waguespack as chairman of the almighty and powerful Finance committee. While the senior-most alderman who was the long-time Finance chair, Edward M. Burke, got nothing.

Another council veteran who didn’t get any sort of committee posting was 9^th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale – who had been vocal in his criticisms of Lightfoot and made it pretty clear he didn’t think much of her mayorality. Regardless of the so-called historic nature of her term that many attributed to her.

For what it’s worth, Lightfoot’s committee chairmanships were approved by the aldermen by a voice vote. Meaning there is no recorded roll-call.

Will Burke and Beale (below) become … 

IT IS MORE a matter of the mayor deciding that the “ayes” had it, and as for the “nays,” well, she didn’t hear any, so she says her side prevailed. She won! She so declared it.

Which strikes me as just as much a political “boss” behavior as any of the past mayors from City Hall history whom the Lightfoot proponents are quick to lambast.

For what it’s worth, various news accounts of the council session place the number of potential critics at about 10 – which would mean about 40 supported Lightfoot. Although the Chicago Sun-Times went so far as to say there were four aldermen who voted “no,” with Burke and Beale most definitely being amongst them.

… a bi-racial coalition speaking out against Lori?

But we should keep in mind that nobody recorded a vote, so we can’t say definitively that either man was opposed. Because, after all, the “ayes” have it.

NOW AS FAR as Lightfoot’s appointments on Wednesday, she chose 18 of the 50 aldermen to have committees that they would oversee – thereby giving them some degree of influence; if not outright power.

The appointment that caught my attention was that of 44^th Ward Alderman Tom Tunney, who in addition to being Zoning committee chair also is now vice mayor. Not bad for an alderman whom the Ricketts family tried to single out for political defeat because he wouldn’t cater to all the whims the family had in the way they wanted the Lake View neighborhood surrounding Wrigley Field to be remodeled to the financial benefit of the Chicago Cubs.

Then again, there’s the way the new mayor gave the back of her hand to Burke – who has been an alderman for 50-plus years but now has brought national notoriety (if not outright shame and disgrace) to the City Council for the criminal investigation now pending against him.

At one point, Burke tried to lecture Lightfoot on the use of the pronoun “he” in her measure, and tried to play the moralistic high-ground by calling for gender-neutral terms – to which she cut him off.

WHEN HE TRIED to bring up other issues, she responded, “Alderman, please. I will call you when I want to hear from you.”

TUNNEY: Chicago's new vice-mayor

I don’t doubt that Burke took it as a personal snub, and it most likely was intended as such. For all I know, Burke and Beale (who had been a council committee chair under mayors Emanuel and Daley) may form an alliance – which could also wind up including several Latino aldermen.

Some of whom are miffed over the notion that only two of the 18 committee chairs came from their ranks. Which may be given the political spin of being a multi-racial and ethnic coalition of people who object to the coming of the Lightfoot years.

But then again, we have to concede, Lightfoot did say “please” before treating Burke as coldly as the legendary Richard J. Daley ever treated those opposing aldermen who suddenly saw their microphones turned off in mid-rant!

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