Toni Preckwinkle
City of Chicago Alderman
Incumbent
Assumed office  1991
Preceded by	Timothy C. Evans
Constituency	4th ward
Born	March 17, 1947 (1947-03-17) (age 61) St. Paul, Minnesota
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Zeus Preckwinkle
Children	two
Residence	Chicago, Illinois  United States
Alma mater	University of Chicago
Website	City of Chicago 4th ward

Toni Reed Preckwinkle (born March 17, 1947) is an alderman in the Chicago City Council representing Chicago's 4th ward in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Preckwinkle first sought office in 1983, but was defeated twice before securing election in 1991 and subsequently being re-elected four times. As 4th ward alderman, she has neighborhood and municipal influence, and has an additional role in the development of the prospective Olympic Village and Olympic Stadium, which are planned in and around her ward as part of the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid.

Preckwinkle has been a critic of current Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. She has a reputation for being a progressive leader. In her first four terms in office she emerged as the council's prominent defender of affordable housing. Among other issues, she is known for her sponsorship of living wage ordinances, her expressed concerns regarding the costs and benefits of the city's Olympic bid, and her interest in both police brutality and excessive force.

Early life

Preckwinkle was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, moving to Chicago to study at the University of Chicago in the Hyde Park community area, where she earned her bachelor's and master's degrees.¹ After college, Preckwinkle spent ten years teaching history in several high schools in the Chicago metropolitan area, including Calumet High School, the Visitation School, and Aquinas.¹ She is married to Zeus Preckwinkle, a teacher at Ancona School. They have two children. Her husband is Caucasian, which at times has been a campaign issue.²

The 4th Ward

Hyde Park 2006 Independence Day parade (left to right starting at center in light green): Preckwinkle as the Statue of Liberty , Illinois State Representative Barbara Flynn Currie as Uncle Sam, and Chicago City Council Alderman Leslie Hairston as Betsy Ross

Chicago's fourth ward is adjacent to the Lake Michigan lakefront, and includes all of the Kenwood and Oakland community areas, the northern portion of Hyde Park and the eastern portions of the Washington Park, Grand Boulevard and Douglas community areas on the South Side of Chicago. In 1991, the northern part of the ward was an example of urban blight, while the southern half (Hyde Park and Kenwood) was middle and upper middle-class.³

Unsuccessful campaigns for Alderman

In her first two aldermanic election attempts for the 4th ward, in 1983 and 1987, Preckwinkle lost to the incumbent, Timothy C. Evans.⁴ Evans was Chicago Mayor Harold Washington's City Council floor leader and lieutenant.⁴⁵ In 1983, she gained enough support to force a runoff election.⁶ (Chicago Aldermen are elected without regard to political party affiliation, but must earn a majority of votes or the top two candidates have a runoff election.³ ) In the runoff, Preckwinkle carried traditionally "independant" precincts in Hyde-Park, but Evans was able to win by carrying the precincts in the north of the Ward. ⁷

In 1987, although both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times endorsed Evans, they praised Preckwinkle for her numerous qualities, including intelligence and independence, and expressed hopes she would continue in politics.⁸⁹ Preckwinkle was endorsed by state Rep. Carol Moseley Braun and also by the Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization.¹⁰ However, in the 1987 elections, Evans defeated her by a 77% to 21% margin.¹¹

Third Campaign for Alderman

In 1991 Preckwinkle and four others challenged Evans for the 4th ward alderman's position.¹² In the first round of voting on February 26, 1991, she won nearly one-third popular vote in the ward by winning 20 of 58 precincts (all in the Hyde Park-Kenwood community).³ Evans and Preckwinkle again advanced to a runoff election, as they had in 1983, but this time the majority of the eliminated candidates endorsed Preckwinkle.¹³ On April 2, 1991, Preckwinkle performed better in the northern part of the ward and was elected by a 109 vote margin,³ defeating the 17-year incumbent alderman Evans.¹⁴

Alderman

On February 27, 2007, Preckwinkle was elected to her fifth four-year term.¹⁵¹⁶ During her tenure, she has developed a reputation for progressiveness.¹⁷¹⁸¹⁹ Preckwinkle is one of the few aldermen on the current City Council occasionally critical of the policies of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.²⁰ In 2004, she and Dorothy Tillman were the only aldermen to vote against the Mayor's city budget, and in 2005, Preckwinkle was the lone dissenter.²¹

On the City Council Preckwinkle has become known as a progressive member, independent of current Mayor Richard M. Daley, with whom she dissented more often than any other alderman.²²²³ She has championed set-asides for affordable housing as her signature issue, and the municipal ordinances she sponsored in 1993 and 1999 for affordable housing increased city expenditures on low and moderate income housing by 50 percent.¹ In 2007, she pushed for increases in the existing Affordable Requirements Ordinance. This mandates housing developers using land bought at a discount from the city to make at least 10 percent of their housing units "affordable", or to contribute money to an affordable-housing fund by increasing the percentage to 15 percent.¹⁸ The issue is considered a key element in the debate about ending homelessness in Chicago.²⁴ Her detailed knowledge of public housing has been recognised in the national press, which has cited her defense of the maligned Vince Lane when the federal government took over Chicago's public housing projects.²⁵²⁶

In 1998 and 2002 Preckwinkle successfully sponsored living wage ordinances.¹ On July 26, 2006 Preckwinkle was one of 35 aldermen who voted to approve the 2006 Chicago Big Box Ordinance sponsored by Alderman Joe Moore (49th)²⁷ which for 7 weeks made Chicago the largest United States city that required big-box retailers to pay a "living wage." This legislation was widely watched and reported in the national press, especially among Associated Press affiliates. More than two dozen publication, including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Houston Chronicle, The Kansas City Star , Rocky Mountain News, The Seattle Times, and Philadelphia Daily News, carried the story.^282930313233 This ordinance would have required companies with more than $1 billion in annual sales and stores of at least 90,000 square feet (8,400 m²) to pay wages of at least $10 an hour plus $3 in fringe benefits by mid-2010. (The minimum wage in Illinois at the time of the ordinance's passage was $6.50 an hour, the federal minimum being $5.15). Other U.S. cities with living wage laws include Santa Fe and Albuquerque in New Mexico; San Francisco, California; and Washington D.C.³⁴ but Mayor Daley vetoed the ordinance on September 11, 2006, and two days later the City Council sustained the veto.³⁵

In October 2007 Preckwinkle opposed naming a landmark in the 4th ward for 1976 Nobel literature laureate Saul Bellow, reportedly on the grounds that Bellow had made remarks that Preckwinkle considered racist.³⁶³⁷ She also opposed the renaming of a stretch of street near the original Playboy Club "Hugh Hefner Way",³⁸³⁹

Another local controversy was Preckwinkle's 2006 decision to whitewash artistic and memorial murals at the 47th Street Metra underpass. Preckwinkle subsequently apologized to offended local graffiti artists, who had worked with permission from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs to create the murals. These murals represented themes that included Latin-American, African, Mayan, Indian, and Native American spiritual practices.⁴⁰ A year later, controversy still surrounded the re-creation of murals on the underpass.⁴¹

Preckwinkle has been outspoken in support of the city settling the Jon Burge torture case, rather than continuing to spend money in the litigation process.⁴² Preckwinkle has also been proactive in the effort to pursue compensation for victims of police brutality in the Jon Burge cases and sought hearings on the initial special prosecutor's report.⁴³ She has been a critic of the decades-long delay in settling the case,⁴⁴⁴⁵ and she was a proponent of the settlement.⁴⁶

In 2007, Preckwinkle pursued disclosure of Chicago Police Department officers who used excessive force. The United States District Court had ruled that the records be unsealed and made available to the public. However, on July 13, 2007 the city, through its corporation counsel, filed an emergency motion to stay the judge's order. When the city argued in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to against disclosure, it made the point that aldermen would have access to the information. Preckwinkle's August 23, 2007 request for disclosure was denied.⁴⁷⁴⁸

Relationship with Barack Obama

Preckwinkle's views on Obama were prominently featured in a July 2008 New Yorker cover story on Barack Obama's political origins.⁴⁹⁵⁰⁵¹ The article begins by recounting a 1995 meeting between Preckwinkle and Obama in which he discussed a possible run for the Illinois Senate seat then held by Alice Palmer⁵¹ According to the New Yorker's account, Preckwinkle "soon became an Obama loyalist, and she stuck with him in a State Senate campaign that strained or ruptured many friendships but was ultimately successful." ⁵¹⁵² In 1995, she successfully challenged the signatures of Obama's opponents in the Democratic Primary for the Illinois Senate, allowing Obama to run unopposed.⁵³

Preckwinkle supported Barack Obama early in his political career, endorsing him in his campaigns for Illinois Senate in 1995–6,⁵⁴ U.S. House in 1999–2000,⁵⁵ and U.S. Senate in 2003–4.⁵⁶ She was among those who encouraged Barack Obama to make his first run for the United States Congress in 2000,⁵⁷ and she was an early supporter when he ran in 2004.⁵⁸ When Obama later became a United States Senator following the 2004 United States Senate election in Illinois, Preckwinkle had a large say in his Illinois State Senate replacement.⁵⁹ She became Obama's Alderman when he moved from Hyde Park to South Kenwood in June, 2005.⁶⁰

According to the New Yorker article, Preckwinkle had since become "disenchanted" with Obama. The article’s author suggested that Preckwinkle's "grievances" against Obama were motiviated by Preckwinkle's perception that Obama was disloyal.⁵¹ Notwithstanding any such concerns, Preckwinkle was an Obama delegate at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Democratic Party Committeeman

Preckwinkle is also the Democratic Committeeman for the 4th Ward,⁶¹ a position within the Cook County Democratic Party.⁶² Each of the 50 wards of the city and the 30 townships of Cook County elect a Democratic Committeeman to the Cook County Central Committee. These committeemen form the official governing body of the Cook County Democratic Party which, among other purposes, endeavors to attract, endorse, and support qualified Democratic candidates for office.⁶²⁶³⁶⁴

Preckwinkle succeeded Evans as 4th Ward Democratic committeeman in 1992, defeating former Evans administrative assistant Johnnie E. Hill by 6,227 to 2,327 votes in the March 17, 1992 primary election; Evans had filed nominating petitions to run for re-election as committeeman and run for judge, but withdrew his name from the ballot for committeeman so his name would only appear once on the ballot, for the judgeship (to which he was elected).⁶⁵ Preckwinkle was re-elected as 4th Ward Democratic committeeman on March 19, 1996, running unopposed on the ballot after her successful challenges to the nominating petitions of Charles S. Williams and her 1995 and 1999 aldermanic challenger Kwame Raoul, who were both just a few dozen signatures short of the number required to earn a place on the ballot.⁶⁶ Preckwinkle was re-elected, again running unopposed on the ballot, as 4th Ward Democratic committeeman in March 2000, March 2004 and February 2008.

On November 6, 2004, the 10 Democratic ward committeemen whose wards make up parts of the 13th Illinois legislative district voted to appoint Kwame Raoul to the state senate seat vacated two days earlier by then U.S. Senator-elect Barack Obama; 4th Ward Democratic committeeman Preckwinkle and 5th Ward Democratic committeeman Leslie Hairston had the largest says in the appointment with 29% and 27%, respectively, of the weighted-vote based on the percentage of votes cast in each ward in the 13th legislative district for Obama in the November 5, 2002 general election.⁶⁷

Other activities

In 1985 & 1986 Preckwinkle was President of the Disabled Adult Residential Enterprises (DARE). Preckwinkle has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence, Political Action Director of the Near South Chapter of the Independent Voters of Illinois (IVI-IPO).¹ During and after her 1987 aldermanic election campaign, she worked as a planner for the Chicago Department of Economic Development.⁸⁶⁸ By 1990, she had become executive director of the Chicago Jobs Council, and become allied with civil rights attorney R. Eugene Pincham.⁶⁹⁷⁰

Preckwinkle's Future

In the 2008 New Yorker article, Preckwinkle expressed no aspiration for higher office. ⁵¹ A recent column in the Chicago Sun Times asserted (without attribution) that she is considering a run for Cook County Board President.⁷¹

Assuming that she remains the 4th Ward Alderman, Preckwinkle will have a role in the 2016 Olympics if the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid is successful. The current plans for the Olympics place the main site of the $1.1 billion residential complex, which will accommodate athletes in an Olympic Village in the 4th Ward. The complex will be redeveloped from a truck parking lot, mostly in the Douglas and Near South Side community areas immediately south of McCormick Place and across Lake Shore Drive from Burnham Park and Lake Michigan.⁷² This accommodation will become rental and condominium units, regardless of whether the Olympic bid is successful. Preckwinkle has already expressed her reservations about the current plan, and will be involved in plan revisions.⁷³⁷⁴ Washington Park, the proposed site of the Olympic Stadium, is partially located in the 4th Ward, although the stadium itself will be situated a few dozen meters outside the ward boundary, in the 20th ward. In December 2008, the olympic swimming venue was added to the park.⁷⁵ Since the Olympic developments will particularly impact on the part of the park within her ward, her opinion on the stadium plans will be relevant. She has already expressed her reservations about the impact of the plan on public park usage.⁷⁶

Notes

External links

• 4th Ward Map
• Preckwinkle's Biography
• Developing Government Accountability Report Card