A Republican view of the Chicago mayor’s race
Chicago will soon conduct mayoral and aldermanic elections while mired in crisis. The Chicago Republican Party did not have the extensive financial resources required to fund a Republican candidate for mayor, but the base Republican vote in Chicago hovers around 17%, enough to affect the outcome on Feb. 28, when only the top two candidates will advance to an April runoff.
Republicans held hope that the departure of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and other longtime officeholders would unleash the same industrious spirit that built Chicago into an economic dynamo, to revitalize this giant capital of the American heartland.
Chicago government must adopt radical change to promote “prosperity,” a term that encompasses not just economic gain but also a thriving quality of life that is increasingly absent from this terrorized and ever-poorer city. “Make no little plans” are the famous words of Chicago urban planner Daniel Burnham. With the mayoral candidates, however, those brave words appear to have been reduced to this: “Hide behind general statements, talk about ‘equity’ and don’t offend Chicago Teachers Union leadership.” A candidate courageous enough to advocate for increased prosperity for Chicagoans should consider the following:
Endorse a pension debt solution.
Experts have proposed various plans, and all include a good amount of economic pain. Nevertheless, continued delay means worse pain. Empty phrases such as “we will look at every option” will not suffice when the best workable options are already known. Be honest with the people: Until the can kicking ends by adoption of a realistic pension solution, Chicagoans will never find long-term prosperity.
End the chokehold on small businesses.
Chicago will never prosper under the burden of taxes, fees, corruption and regulations currently imposed upon small businesses by a plainly hostile government. A total reformation of City Hall’s approach and attitude toward business is required to restore a commercial tax base
that will lessen the crushing taxes on individual residents. Minority neighborhoods will begin to enjoy prosperity when job-creating small businesses are freed up to succeed. Chicago youths can reject crime when their neighborhoods enjoy prosperity, not poverty. Capitalist economic expansion of Chicago business, not government payments, is the only path to lasting prosperity.
Junk the new police oversight plan.
The recently installed police accountability board will just continue current political policing that guarantees a weak, undermanned and discouraged Chicago Police Department, which will be unable to halt the current pattern of increased robberies, carjackings and homicides. The Chicago
Republican Party has offered a reform proposal for effective and accountable “professional policing,” drawn from successful police structures in other cities. It includes a five-member police commission with broad powers, replacement of the ineffective Civilian Office of Police Accountability and an elected corporation counsel, while revamping CPD administration with more support for the officers. The people want more — and better run — policing.
Fight in Springfield for school reform.
Chicago Public Schools needs a major expansion of school choice and fundamental reform to cure our failing, deficit-ridden educational system. Minority children in particular are ever less equipped to
build prosperity in their lives or communities. Much of Chicago’s education system is mandated from Springfield, so a new mayor must be ready to demand expansion of better-regulated charter schools and other alternatives, while forcing emphasis on basic education, vocational skills and an end to the operating deficits at CPS.
Listen to parents on education.
When asked, some parents will vocally state that their children need a basic education and vocational training to gain good jobs, happiness and success later in life, not instruction on social politics. The children are worth facing down the CTU’s core leadership.
Establish a municipal charter.
Under home rule, Chicago rather than Springfield decides on our form of government, but Chicago has no charter that defines in simple terms the organization, powers and procedures of that government. There is instead a rabbit warren of state statutes, county ordinances and a multivolume municipal code that only politicians, bureaucrats and lawyers can begin to comprehend. A charter will allow all Chicagoans to understand fully their governmental structure, while providing the power to alter it as they see fit in pursuit of prosperity.