Praise for Mayor 1%
“This book provides deep insight into the political career of Rahm Emanuel. Painstakingly researched, Mayor 1% provides the reader with the ability to understand the hard-line neoliberal mindset that blinds the man to the harsh realities of entrenched poverty and disenfranchisement. The relentless attacks on Chicago’s working class, from the janitors at O’Hare to the librarians, mental health workers, and members of the Chicago Teachers Union have shown the true nature of a man who will have plenty of money from the billionaires to run his re-election campaign, but none of the love of the people who will not pull the lever for him. Kari Lydersen ends on a hopeful note: that Mayor 1%’s brutal reign can actually lead to a better Chicago as people get up, stand up and fight the ‘power.’”
—Karen Lewis, president, Chicago Teachers Union
“While banks and corporations continue to enjoy record-breaking profits, working families across Chicago continue to face school closings, foreclosures, and devastating privatization. Lydersen’s book lifts up the extraordinary power of everyday people to stand up, fight back, dream big, and join together to make transformative change. Rarely does a journalist do such justice to the in the trenches organizing work that is vital to undermining oppressive city policies and abusive corporate influences.”
—Amisha Patel, Executive Director, Grassroots Collaborative
“In Mayor 1% Kari Lydersen surveys the expansive and deeply contested first-term record of Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel. Her work touches every flashpoint of Emanuel’s kinetic drive to govern the city as he sees fit. Along the way, Lydersen admirably and poignantly gives voice to the activist community that has become the mayor’s fiercest critic, while calling out his staunchest business allies.”
—Robert Bruno, University of Illinois at Chicago
“Lydersen’s book demonstrates the type of thorough investigative journalism we need in Chicago to keep all politicians and public servants accountable. It exposes the public policy that the city of Chicago and its constituents didn’t expect from a Democratic mayor of the “City that Works.” Lydersen’s book shows the real Rahm Emanuel, leading the race to the bottom by killing off good middle-class jobs instead of upholding job standards that help build a strong workforce and the robust economy our city desperately needs.”
—Tom Balanoff, President, SEIU Local 1
“If you want to understand how a Democrat became so reviled among the middle and working class citizens in modern day Chicago, please read this book. This is the story of organized money vs. organized people in the Second City, and the impact of what happens here ripples across the nation in our public schools, in our healthcare centers, and in our streets. It might be that Obama brought the Windy City to the Potomac, but Emanuel attempts the reverse in Chicago, and as Lydersen notes in great detail, “Rahm” might be a master at fundraising and manipulating the image of his public office, but confrontations are unavoidable when a city manager doesn't respect his electorate.”
—Adam P. Heenan, Chicago Public Schools Civics Teacher
© 2013 Kari Lydersen
Published in 2013 by
Haymarket Books
P.O. Box 180165, Chicago, IL 60618
773-583-7884
www.haymarketbooks.org
ISBN: 978-1-60846-285-8
Trade distribution:
In the US, through Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, www.cbsd.com
In the UK, Turnaround Publisher Services, www.turnaround-uk.com
In Canada, Publishers Group Canada, www.pgcbooks.ca
In Australia, Palgrave Macmillan, www.palgravemacmillan.com.au
All other countries, Publishers Group Worldwide, www.pgw.com
Special discounts are available for bulk purchases by organizations
and institutions. Please contact Haymarket Books for more information
at 773-583-7884 or [email protected].
Cover design by Eric Ruder. Cover photo of Rahm Emanuel at a press conference in Washington, DC. Photo by Olivier Douliery, Abaca Press.
This book was published with the generous support of the Wallace Global Fund and Lannan Foundation.
Library of Congress CIP data is available.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To the Chicago Mental Health Movement
Acknowledgments
I’m very grateful to Haymarket Books for proposing and working with me on this project; to Mark Sorkin for his meticulous editing and encouragement; to Lance Selfa, Julie Fain, Jim Plank, Rory Fanning, Rachel Cohen, and the rest of the Haymarket team; to the many Chicagoans who took time to speak with me and allow me a window into their lives; to Curtis Black for invaluable editing and research assistance; to Pat Lydersen for reviewing drafts; to Chuy Campuzano, Joe Iosbaker, Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle, Jo Patton, Izabel Miltko, Don Wiener, Amisha Patel, Andy Thayer, Jesse Sharkey, and other community and union leaders who very generously shared their ideas and insight; to In These Times magazine’s Working blog and editor Jessica Stites for providing a real-time outlet for many of these stories; and to the dogged reporters at the Chicago Reader, WBEZ, Chicago Reporter, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago News Cooperative, Better Government Association, and other outlets that continually prove that despite the crisis in journalism, our city’s proud tradition is still alive. Thank you.
Notes on Sourcing
From the mayoral race to the conclusion, this book is based primarily on firsthand reporting and interviews. One can assume scenes and quotes without footnotes are taken from the author’s direct observation and on-the-spot interviews. Lengthier formal interviews by the author are footnoted. Analysis by pundits and columnists, investigations or reports by media outlets and watchdog groups, press releases from the mayor’s office, and other documents are also referenced and footnoted throughout the book. In many cases facts and statistics are documented by multiple sources, but generally one or two sources are listed for the sake of brevity. In some cases scenes that the author observed include footnotes from other sources, so the reader can view videos or seek more information. The sections of the book dealing with Rahm Emanuel’s childhood through his time in the Obama White House are drawn primarily from books and media coverage, as noted in the text and footnotes. A spokesman for Mayor Emanuel declined to speak for this book or to respond to a list of questions and main points.
Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images.
Rahm Emanuel at Barack obama’s 2008 inauguration.
Introduction
March 4, 2012, was Chicago’s 175th birthday, and the city celebrated with a public party at the Chicago History Museum. The event promised actors portraying famous Chicagoans including Jane Addams, founder of Hull House and advocate for immigrants, children, and factory workers. Little did the organizers know that the show would be stolen by a woman some viewed as a modern-day Jane Addams—more eccentric and irascible, less renowned and accomplished, but just as willing to raise her voice and speak up for the weak and vulnerable.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel grinned broadly as the Chicago Children’s Choir, dressed in red, sang a lively version of “Happy Birthday.”
He had reason to smile.
Ten months earlier he’d been inaugurated as leader of the nation’s third most-populous city, taking the reins from legendary Mayor Richard M. Daley. And while his term hadn’t been a cakewalk, so far things seemed to be going well. He had inherited a nearly $700 million budget deficit and attacked it with an aggressive