2023 Endorsements- Police District Councils
Updated: Feb 13
This will be Chicago's first time electing police district councils under the new Empowering Communities for Public Safety policy. These will be mostly symbolic as the ECPS ordinance was a highly watered-down compromise with Mayor Lightfoot that may even end up backfiring on progressives. It's one real power is that these councils will elect another level of representatives who will then provide nominations to the mayor when a new police commissioner is needed. It's a convoluted and complicated system that seems built to drain progressive organizing energy with too little payoff, unlike the CPAC ordinance which would have given more meaningful community control and had been backed by various local orgs and some alders. This all could backfire if hard-line pro-police folks are elected as council members and prevent anyone but the most militant people from getting nominated as police commissioners.
Each police district will elect 3 council members, so voters will be able to select up to three candidates for whom they wish to vote. For each district with more than three people running, I've provided a letter grade as well as noted endorsed candidates. In some cases, less than three candidates were endorsed and I'd suggest only voting for the endorsed candidates to help make sure they are not beaten out by less-good candidates, but I may have noted "least-worst" options if you really want to use all of your votes. (This election is yet another system that would benefit from ranked-choice voting!)
As these positions will be largely symbolic and important for their ability to speak out more than to govern in any meaningful way, letter grades are based on support for redirecting police funding elsewhere or abolishing police in favor of alternative solutions, rejection of increased police hiring, rejection of police involvement in mental health crises, relevant experience, affiliation with progressive groups and leaders, and vision for the police district council expressed in the Chicago Reader questionnaire.
A - typically strong progressive, often abolitionist or at least wanting to reduce police funding
B - generally liberal, wants more accountability, no increases in police funding, may want to still hire more officers and have police accompanying providers in mental health crises (think Elizabeth Warren/Chuy Garcia)
C - generally establishment moderate, maintaining the status quo, hiring more police (think Lightfoot/Emanuel/Clinton)
F - One or more of the following: former police, police-union-endorsed, represented by police union lawyer, wants to increase police funding, concerning affiliations, etc. (FF reflects significant complaints against them while an officer or other significant ethics concerns)
The Chicago Reader has created an extremely helpful questionnaire where you can see more info on most candidates.
You can find your CPD district using this tool.
I'm just an individual person doing research. I hope this is a helpful resource to people, especially those wanting to participate by voting but without the time to heavily research or engage. If you're someone deeply involved in your local elections and organizing, I doubt you need what I have to say- you know your community and election better than I do. If you think I've gotten something wrong (or right!), keeping the values on the About page in mind, I want to hear from you about it and take your input into consideration. Please comment or use the chat tool!
2nd District
Julia Kline - A - Endorsed
Coston Plummer - B - Endorsed
Alexander Perez - B - Endorsed
Ephraim Lee - C
3rd District
Ana Marija Sokovic - B - Endorsed
Anthony David Bryant - B - Endorsed
Kenya Franklin - B - Endorsed
Jim Blissitt III - B
Craig T. Carrington - C
Janice Jones - F
4th District
Julio Miramontes - A - Endorsed
Meridth Vanae Hammer - B - Endorsed
Brenda Waters - B - Endorsed
Lovie Bernard - F
Gloria Jenkins - F
7th District
Dion Terrell McGill - A - Endorsed
Krystal Peters - B - Endorsed
Cherli Montgomery - B - Endorsed
Teresa R. Chandler - Not enough info
Joseph Williams - Not enough info
Verna M. Swan - Not enough info
Linda J. Austin Sr. - Not enough info
8th District 😬
Albert “Al” Cacciottolo - F
Mark Hamberlin - F
Jason Huff - F
Letina K. Brady Pettis - F
9th District
Erin Vogel - A - Endorsed
Abe Matthew - B - Endorsed
Monserrat Ayala - B - Endorsed
Carlos Sanchez - Not enough info
Nolberto Casas - Not enough info
Denise McBroom - F
Evelyn Razo - F
Maggie Finucane - F
10th District
Elianne Bahena - A - Endorsed
Rosemarie Dominguez - B - Endorsed
Larry Lawrence - B - Endorsed
Leo Guzman - Not enough info
Kiisha Smith - Not enough info
Simeon Henderson - FF
12th District
Chloe Vitale - A - Endorsed
Leonardo Quintero - A - Endorsed
William Guerrero - A - Endorsed
Michelle D. Page - B
John Donatelli - F
Juan Lopez - FF
15th District
Deondre’ Rutues - B - Endorsed
Arewa Karen Winters - B - Endorsed
Elena X. Thompson - B - Endorsed
Oddis “OJ” Johnson - C
Darius Newsome - Not enough info
Constance Melton - F
Carmelita Earls - F
16th District 😬
David Feller - C (I guess if you have to pick someone?)
Dan Butterworth - C (I guess if you have to pick someone?)
Colleen Murphy - F
Colleen Mary Dillon - F
John Marcatante - F
Trisha Kannon - F
Daniel Martin - F
17th District
Anthony Michael Tamez - A - Endorsed
Elizabeth Rochford - A - Endorsed
Steve Spagnolo - A - Endorsed
Brian Sullivan - F
Nick Carusi - F
18th District
Amy Cross - B - Endorsed
Karen Kane - F
Brad Kessler - F
Kimberly Lynn Bowman - F
Robert Johnson - F
Lisa Seigneur - F
19th District
(This is a tricky one- there's a slate, Garcia, Schaffer, Schoenburg, that are running as a team and endorsed by a lot of people I trust, but they are fairly limited on their info in the Reader questionnaire and don't look perfect on this issues, while a couple of other candidates seem like they may be good as well even though they have some connections to past or current officials I'm not a fan of. I'm open to changing here if someone can convince me)
Demerike Palecek - B - Endorsed
Maurilio Garcia - B - Endorsed
Jennifer Schaffer - B - Endorsed
Julienn “Julie” Kaviar - B
Samuel Schoenburg - B
Dan Richman - C
20th District
Anna Rubin - A - Endorsed
Joshua D’Antonio - A - Endorsed
Deirdre O’Connor - A - Endorsed
Darrell Dacres - B
Patrick McNeil - C
22nd District 😬
Carisa Parker - C (I guess if you have to pick someone?)
Andre Pate - C (I guess if you have to pick someone?)
Patrick Kennedy - Not enough info
Matthew Bianciotto - Not enough info
Lee Bielecki - FF
24th District
Marilyn Pagán-Banks - A - Endorsed
EdVetté W. Jones - B - Endorsed
Veronica Arreola - B - Endorsed
Cynthia McFadden - C
Daniel Wolk - C
David Earl Williams III - F
Mitchell Rose - F
25th District
Saul Arellano - A - Endorsed
Angelica P. Green - B - Endorsed
Jacob Arena - Not enough info
Edgar “Edek” Esparza - F
Perry Abbasi - F
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