Chicago is not a democracy

Image by AFP/Getty Images via Daylife

People really don’t understand Chicago. That was made clear during the national conversation about whether Chicago should host the 2016 Olympic games. Not to beat a dead horse, but one of the most asked questions during the whole hullabaloo was along the lines of, if the people don’t want them, why would elected officials pursue them so hotly?

Because elected officials in Chicago don’t answer to the people here. In fact, they aren’t really elected.

Chicago has no term limits. Alderman can  sit on the city council for life, becoming perpetual incumbents with all the muscle of the machine. When one steps down, the mayor appoints the successor, who then runs in the next election as an incumbent.

That’s what happened this week.  And as Steve Rhodes writes on NBC’s local news site, no one even noticed.

Sometime between the post-Olympic bid post-mortems and the fallout from the Derrion Albert tragedy, Chicago got a new alderman.

Ho-hum.

Mayor Daley appointed – because that’s how you get to be an alderman in Chicago – John Rice to succeed the retiring and clouty 36th Ward Ald. William Banks.

Ho Hum if you live in Chicago and are desensitized to the kind of politcal manuevering that passes for democracy here. Those living in other cities are often surprised to hear about people like Rice being appointed to positions of power.

Rice had been an aide to the Alderman he is replacing, had worked for various city departments, has already been  caught soliciting money for his successor under the guise  of a retirement party, and was caught with a Fraternal Order of Police medallion and sticker on his car. Rice is not a cop.

Appointing people like Rice is business as usual in Chicago, not a democratic process. In case anyone was wondering where some of this distrust of, and disagreement with “elected” officials comes from.

We didn’t elect them. Not really.

Rhodes: New Alderman Sneaked Onto Council | NBC Chicago.