47th Ward Alderman Race

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on February 22, 2011 at 10:02pm

In general I'd be careful about:

-prioritizing a green party candidate simply for being the green party candidate; in this election there were at least a few that espouse typical neo-conservative values and wouldn't know what green party values were if they bit them in the heiny.

It's sad to see, because I think we need more choices.

 

-dinging a candidate for not attending a particular event-- often these forums are planned around a specific candidate's inavailability intentionally. And prior engagements do happen. Looks like you ought to be reasonably happy with the results in the 47th:

47th Ward Alderman

98% of precincts reporting

Updated 9:28 p.m.

Source: Associated Press

Votes

Candidate	Votes	Pct.
Pawar	8,351	50.8%
O'Donnell	7,157	43.5%
Reichel	600	3.6%
Jacks	342	2.1%

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on February 22, 2011 at 11:06pm

It always pays to read about the candidate's history and values and not make assumptions based on party affiliation.

 

The 47th ward results look good.

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Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on February 22, 2011 at 11:18pm

At the celebration party with fellow chainlers now at Timber Lanes. Good guy, great ideas!

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Permalink Reply by Anne B. on February 22, 2011 at 11:51pm

Stopped by Timber Lanes earlier- what a great outcome!

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Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on February 23, 2011 at 2:11am

From Huffington Post:

 

And as mentioned earlier in the night, Che “Rhymefest” Smith is headed for a runoff with incumbent Willie Cochran in the 20th. Rey Colon narrowly avoided a runoff in the 35th Ward, and Ameya Pawar pulled off the upset win in the 47th, beating Tom O’Donnell without requiring a runoff.

The Chicago News Cooperative reported just how surprising Pawar's win was:

So stunning was the victory that Pawar’s campaign had not scheduled the customary election-night gathering. As returns came in showing that Pawar was winning, his campaign hastily organized a victory gathering at the Timber Lanes bowling alley on West Irving Park Road. Pawar himself hurried in from the suburbs, where he had been watching the returns with his parents.

“I’m surprised,” Pawar said when he finally arrived. “Very surprised.”

Story continues below

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“We raised about $10,000,” he said, in response to a reporter’s question. “$100 at a time.”

“We were blown away by what happened,” said Pawar’s campaign manager, Sam Yanover. Ward residents “want something new, something fresh, and they were upset that O’Donnell was anointed to be the successor.”

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on February 23, 2011 at 6:24am

Very cool!

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Permalink Reply by Mark Kenseth on February 23, 2011 at 9:55am

Yesterday morning, after voting for Pawar, I saw O'Donnell had arrived to vote.  Also, I didn't like how the guys outside on the corner were pushing for people to vote for O'Donnell.  Just leave people alone on voting day.

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Permalink Reply by Melanie K on February 23, 2011 at 10:06am

I met Pawar in front of the Western Brown Line train station on one of those sub-zero days a week or so ago- he seemed nice enough and had a nice little pamphlet on his proposals, and even thanked me for bicycling to the train station on such a cold day. I hope he works out well.

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Permalink Reply by Davo on February 23, 2011 at 10:22am

I am pretty stoked about this. O'Donnel had guys that had to have used a tape measurer to be the 100' min from my polling place asking for concideration. You know the types, ole time chigago guys (Ald Ed Buss from Shadenfreud).

 

As far as the green party thing, I usually vote that way so hopefully one day we will have more than 2 big partys. I know that if third partys recieve a certain % of votes, then that party gets some federal funding. This is true in federal and state elections but I'm not sure if that goes for city elections.

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