‘The Status Quo Is Not Good Enough’

Rahm Emanuel was a key figure in the Obama Administration. Many expected him to be appointed to a similar role by Joe Biden. But so far, that has not happened yet. 

The city’s former mayor remains a symbol of all they say is wrong with Democratic politics in Illinois.

In Chicago, grassroots activists are happy to hear Emanuel will most likely not have a place in the Biden Administration. For them, the city’s former mayor remains a symbol of all they say is wrong with Democratic politics in Illinois: the corporate-capitalist influence on public policy, decision-making that prioritizes profit over equity, and entrenched political corruption that rewards the well-connected. 

On December 11, as demonstrators across the country rallied for a Green New Deal Day of Action, supporters of Democratize ComEd—a campaign centered on the largest electric company in Illinois, Commonwealth Edison Company—gathered outside Emanuel’s home in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago. 

“A lot of the structural difficulties and challenges that we’re facing this year are a result of Rahm’s tenure,” says Rory Gilchrist, campaign director for Democratize ComEd. “That’s true from a school standpoint, that’s true from a mental health standpoint, that’s true from a housing standpoint.”

Another demonstrator, thirty-three-year-old Robert Wilson Jr., has a son who had to transfer schools when his previous school shuttered as a result of Emanuel’s public school closings in 2013. 

His son’s teachers had already been providing after-school programming without getting paid—a stark contrast to the ample extracurriculars available at wealthier schools.

“It’s easy to look at the harm the Republicans do. But Democrats like Rahm are able to do racist acts, are able to have Homan Square be a thing while he was still in office,” Wilson, Jr. says, referring to the secret “black site” where Chicago police illegally detained and tortured thousands (two-thirds of the facility’s arrests occurred under Rahm Emanuel’s tenure). “Work like this needs to continue to happen to make sure he doesn’t get a job. And we’ve got to continue to really assess: How is a party that’s supposed to be about the working class even considering him in the first place?” 

Over the past few weeks, Chicagoans erupted in fury at the idea of Emanuel being considered for a position in the Biden Administration. Activists, politicians, and the president of the Chicago Teachers Union penned op-eds decrying the former mayor for closing mental health clinics and schools. 

Much of the focus was also on Emanuel’s mishandling of the police murder of seventeen-year-old Laquan McDonald. Emanuel denies any sort of cover-up of that incident, and maintains that the delay in release of the video footage of the shooting had nothing to do with his re-election campaign. 

While his administration does deserve some credit for improving bicycling and transit infrastructure in the city, many of his other moves left progressive transportation advocates feeling lukewarm. They believe his transit improvements mostly favored the more affluent areas of the city over areas that have faced years of disinvestment. 

“Every single one of his transportation ideas are heavily influenced by the private sector, corporate giveaways, and represent not the needs of Chicago as a whole, but a downtown, corporate, rich, affluent elite.”

“Every single one of his transportation ideas are heavily influenced by the private sector, corporate giveaways, and represent not the needs of Chicago as a whole, but a downtown, corporate, rich, affluent elite. So if we see that model expanded to the nation as a whole, it’s going to be disastrous,” Rory Gilchrist says.

Gilchrist is referring to Emanuel’s now infamous failed idea to build a high-speed train tunnel to O’Hare airport. Business magnate Elon Musk had promised to contribute $1 billion to the pet “hyperloop” project, but the scheme fell apart. 

Emanuel also appointed two people linked to a massive public utility bribery scandal to his administration while serving as mayor. One of them, former ComEd CEO Frank Clark, who is currently under investigation by the FBI over a custodial contract he approved while running the Chicago Board of Education. ComEd, the lone electric provider for Chicago and most of Northern Illinois, recently agreed to pay $200 million following a federal investigation into illegal lobbying. 

Seventy-eight-year old Illinois Speaker of the House Mike Madigan is at the center of the allegations. A chorus of local politicians, including Governor J. B. Pritzker, have called for Madigan’s resignation should the accusations prove to be true.

Madigan, the longest-serving state Speaker of the House in the country (and a big supporter of Emanuel’s 2014 re-election bid), allegedly accepted bribes in exchange for contracts, pressured the former CEO of ComEd to appoint allies to the company’s board of directors, and cut deals in Springfield that benefited ComEd’s parent company, Exelon Corporation, at the expense of utility customers. Exelon drew ire from Illinois residents in 2006 when it was revealed that the Fortune 100 company had waited four years to disclose that three of its nuclear plants had leaked millions of gallons of radioactive hydrogen into the environment multiple times over the course of a decade. 

Supporters of a democratized electricity provider assert that direct elections in municipal utility leadership would lead to greater transparency and accountability, preventing political patronage from festering like it has for so long in Illinois. While investor-owned utilities like ComEd must always put the wealth and interests of stockholders first, public ownership of utilities would enable communities to select plans that best suit their individual needs, proponents say. And with climate collapse looming, activists also believe that centering the public good over motivation for profit would help usher in a rapid transition to more renewable forms of energy. 

“Public power is one part of a Green New Deal,” Gilchrist adds. 

In the midst of widespread unemployment, a locally democratized utility company could institute income-adjusted caps on utility bills, or cancel payments altogether until the crisis subsides. Governor Pritzker claims he lacks the authority to do either. 

So far, most of the Biden Administration picks appear, to progressives, to simply be more of the same. 

Relying on other legislators downstate to act in the public interest instead, however, has simply left many in the dark. South Side Weekly reported on Monday that after the state’s moratorium on utility shut offs expired in September, at least 73,000 households have had their electricity shut off due to nonpayment—a move many would consider downright ghoulish in the midst of a pandemic that has now left more than 300,000 Americans dead and millions without work. 

So far, most of the Biden Administration picks appear, to progressives, to simply be more of the same. 

“We see Biden winning with Reagan-like popular vote margins, and marching straight into the middle of the road, even amongst popular leftist support,” Rory Gilchrist, campaign coordinator for Democratize ComEd, says. 

Activists are circulating a petition demanding that Illinois Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth vote no on any Senate confirmation of an Emanuel appointment in D.C., including an ambassadorship. 

“The status quo is not good enough. We want something better,” Wilson Jr. says.