As many of you may now know, Rahm Emanuel has won the mayoral contest, beating out candidates such as Gery Chico, Miguel Del Valle, and Carol Moseley Braun. As yet there are few news agencies reporting on the consequences of this election - a turning-point for Chicago politics, or Daley III? - but one thing is clear: the Latino community will prove a decisive factor in Emanuel's development and maintenance of a strong constituency in the coming term. According to NPR, the Latino vote was divided in this election, and Emanuel garnered very little Latino support. Moreover, Emanuel has modeled his education policy on ex-Mayor Daley's, holding up charter schools like UNO as models - and yet, according to pundit and professor Maria de los Angeles Torres, these schools overtly discourage students from speaking more than one language. Although Torres did not specify which language was encouraged, we can assume it to be English.
How will Rahm fare against the Latino community (or rather, communities) and the unions? Stay tuned...
Those of us who went to Dr. John Marquez's talk yesterday know a fun fact about Mr. Emmanuel: apparently during the Clinton administration, he was sent to the San Diego port of entry on the eve of border militarization to trump up support. If he was acually speaking from his own beliefs, how then will he treat the undocumenteds in the city of Chicago?
ReplyDeleteOops, Mr. Emanual NOT Emmanuel. VERY different words.
ReplyDeleteI meant Emanuel. typing is hard
ReplyDeleteGood question, Carl. I heard that Emanuel has pledged to keep Chicago a sanctuary city (http://www.ojjpac.org/sanctuary.asp), which it currently is, which is good. But there's really no telling, because the hallmark of RE's campaign was essentially being very tight-lipped about his future plans as mayor. One can only wonder, since power shifts in Chicago have huge implications for the way that the city functions (see the parking meter scandal for evidence of that: http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/fail-parking-meters-lease-deal/Content?oid=1098561.
ReplyDelete