- Richard A. Chapman/Sun-Times
- 43rd Ward alderman Michele Smith, fighting hard for reelection
When you’re an incumbent alderman in a race with three opponents (plus one write-in), it should be pretty good news that you’ve raised the most money and that you’re leading the latest poll by 15 percentage points. And that’s a poll conducted for Aldertrack, an impartial source. Hooray for you!
Her opponents, she claimed, are naive and inexperienced and have no clue what it’s like being an alderman. And, yes, it is true, none of them has ever held the job. Quandt is a former international businessman who is now active in the neighborhood CAPS program and has been hosting weekly meetups to discuss ward issues. (“If you want to be elected alderman,” he said more than once, “you have to start acting like an alderman.”) Despite his business experience, he admitted ruefully, he has not been very good at raising money; he lags far behind his opponents.
Some are also unhappy with the way Smith handled these developments. “Michele Smith rejected a request for a forum to discuss the Lincoln Annex,” Vickrey accused. “We need have have a discussion in the community before there are changes in that community.”
Mostly, the debate came down to this: the challengers want voters of the 43rd Ward to vote for them because they are not Michele Smith. Smith, for her part, contends that if they think it’s a huge picnic to be an alderman, they should just wait. Whatever the case, Smith’s got a lot of hands to shake and backs to slap because not only does she have to worry now about getting elected, she has to worry about avoiding a runoff.
