UCDI’s Citizen Bulletin      

Subscribe here.

March 5 – April 1

Good morning. Our highlights include: Mayor Rahm Emanuel proposed a plan for a police civilian oversight board which angered the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability because the plan does not give the board sufficient power; Governor Bruce Rauner vetoed a bill that would have imposed additional licensing regulations on firearm dealers, claiming that it would not actually increase safety; Representative Bobby Rush voted against the $1.3 trillion federal spending bill, supported by Illinois’s two Democratic senators and signed into law by President Donald Trump, that did not provide stability for Dreamers but achieved other Democratic priorities.

CHICAGO CITY GOVERNMENT

Alderman Leslie Hairston (5th Ward) ~ call your alderman! (773) 324-5555

• Mar 19—Asked Mayor Rahm Emanuel to provide higher tax incentives to support Shop & Save, which has signed a contract to move into a vacant Dominick’s store in Jeffery Plaza

• Mar 26—Promised to vote against the O’Hare modernization bond package unless city officials are shown a list of small, minority-owned business which will be brought into the project

Alderman Willie Cochran (20th Ward) ~ call your alderman! (773) 955-5610    

• Mar 16—Demanded that his bribery and extortion charges be dropped, claiming that the key witnesses were pressured by the FBI to incriminate him

Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) ~ call your mayor! (312) 744-3300

• Mar 13—Criticized Governor Rauner’s plan to veto gun control legislation, calling it “a slap in the face to crime victims, faith leaders, and police”

• Mar 14—Negotiated a deal with American Airlines regarding the O’Hare airport expansion, agreeing to speed up construction of gates used by American Airlines at the airport

• Mar 27—Declared his support for a plan to prevent Asian carp, an invasive species, from entering the Great Lakes

• Mar 28—Proposed a plan for a police civilian oversight board, which angered The Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability because the plan does not give the board sufficient power

• Mar 29—Announced the city’s goal of repaving 275 miles of streets this year

COOK COUNTY BOARD

President Toni Preckwinkle ~ call your Cook County board president! (312) 603-6400

• Mar 20—Won the Democratic primary for Cook County Board President, taking roughly 61% of the vote to opponent Bob Fioretti’s 39%

• Mar 23—Announced her intention to run for the chairmanship of the Cook County Democratic Party following current chairman Joe Berrios’ primary election defeat in the race for Cook County Assessor

ILLINOIS STATE GOVERNMENT

Representative Barbara Flynn Currie (D–District 25) ~ call your state rep! (773)-667-0550

• [No News]*

Senator Kwame Raoul (D–District 13) ~ call your state senator! (773) 363-1996

• Mar 21—Defeated former governor Pat Quinn and six other candidates to secure the Democratic nomination for attorney general

Governor Bruce Rauner (R–IL) ~ call your governor! (312)-814-2121

• Mar 15—Vetoed a bill that would have imposed additional licensing regulations on firearm dealers, claiming that it would not actually increase safety

• Mar 20—Won the Republican primary for governor by a surprisingly small margin over social conservative Jeanne Ives; Rauner will face Democratic nominee J.B. Pritzker in the general election this November

• Mar 29—Stated that Illinois would be able to fund “step increases” to the pay of unionized workers, in response to a court order

• Mar 31—Encountered opposition to his plans to build a private park in the vacant lot across from his mansion, as community labor leaders are demanding a project labor agreement; this would require that workers be unionized and paid “prevailing wages”

U.S. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Representative Bobby Rush (D–IL1) ~ call your representative! (773) 779-2400

• Mar 15—Had his wages garnished in order to pay down $1 million debt

• Mar 20—Received the uncontested Democratic nomination for U.S. Representative for the first District of Illinois, a seat he has held since 1993

• Mar 22—Introduced the Data Accountability and Trust Act, which would provide more rulemaking authority to the Federal Trade Commission regarding consumer data

• Mar 22—Voted against the $1.3 trillion spending bill on the basis that it failed to provide stability for the Dreamers, although the bill satisfied most of his other priorities

Senator Tammy Duckworth (D–IL) ~ call your senator! (312) 886-3506

• Mar 6—Introduced bipartisan legislation to strengthen the background check system on firearms

• Mar 8—Introduced a bill aimed at reducing recidivism rates by enabling more communication between prisoners and their families

• Mar 16—Argued that a veteran who had served two tours in Afghanistan should not be deported to Mexico following a felony drug conviction and subsequent denial of his citizenship application

• Mar 27—Announced $6.7 million in federal funding to combat HIV/AIDS in Chicago

• Mar 27—Voted for $1.3 trillion bipartisan spending bill, stating that the compromises in the bill were necessary for good governance

Senator Richard Durbin (D–IL) ~ call your senator! (312) 353-4952

• Mar 5—Expressed his support for the construction of the McCook reservoir in Illinois by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

• Mar 18—Urged Wells Fargo to stop plans to further expand into college campuses, citing sanctions by the Federal Reserve in retribution for the bank’s apparent abuses of its customers

• Mar 15—Called on leaders of the the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee to fund a CDC study about the public health effects of gun violence

• Mar 22—Supported the Debt-Free College Act which provides grants to states which support public education and achieve debt-free college goals for their students

• Mar 23— Criticized the successful omnibus spending bill for failing to address DACA concerns but supported it nonetheless for addressing other important economic issues

• Mar 28—Demanded that the Justice Department commit to protecting Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s “integrity and independence” in his investigation into Russian election meddling

President Donald Trump (R) ~ call your president! (202) 456-1414

• Mar 8—Signed a 25 percent tariff on steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum, while exempting Mexico and Canada

• Mar 13—Fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson; tapped CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him

• Mar 18—Fired, through Attorney General Jeff Sessions, FBI Director Andrew McCabe less than 48 hours before he was eligible to retire with pension benefits

• Mar 23—Fired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster as his National Security Advisor, replacing him with foreign policy hawk John Bolton

• Mar 26—Expelled 60 Russian diplomats after Vladimir Putin’s alleged use of nerve agent to assassinate an ex-Russian double agent in the U.K.

• Mar 30—Revealed the first phase of the border wall plan, which includes $1.6 billion worth of congressional appropriations

• Mar 30—Tightened immigration standards, specifically choosing not to extend work permits for 840 Liberians and choosing to hold pregnant women in detention during immigration proceedings

• Mar 31—Placed a hold on more than $200 million in recovery funds for Syria, demanding more transparency on how the money is being used

• Mar 31—Named April as second chance month for convicts and sexual assault awareness and prevention month

The Citizen Bulletin is a product of the University of Chicago Democracy Initiative (UCDI). UCDI is proudly supported by Andrew Goodman Foundation’s nonpartisan Vote Everywhere project. In addition to the UCDI website, you can find past versions of the bulletin here. For news closer to campus, subscribe to the twice weekly newsletter produced by our partners at the Chicago Maroon.

To learn more about the UChicago Democracy Initiative, please visit ucdemocracy.weebly.com.

Get the news highlights by following us on Twitter or liking our Facebook page

Feedback? Tell us here.

*Our research process involves searching for press releases from the elected representatives, Google News stories, and any Twitter and Facebook posts. If no information is displayed in the Citizen Bulletin, then our research process turned up nothing new from this past week.