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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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