Updated
The political fund that Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel formed recently to aid his allies has begun pouring money into the races for the City Council runoff election on April 5.
Emanuel’s New Chicago Committee on Monday reported spending $18,000 for a poll for 50th Ward challenger Debra Silverstein and almost $16,000 on a poll for Ald. Danny Solis‘ 25th Ward Regular Democratic Organization, state campaign-finance disclosure records show. The committee also paid about $10,000 for phone banks for embattled incumbents Freddrenna Lyle (6th Ward), JoAnn Thompson (16th) and Latasha Thomas (17th).
Emanuel’s committee has not yet reported who is making the donations that are funding these activities on behalf of council allies.
Emanuel had largely stayed out of the aldermanic races as he focused on winning the Feb. 22 election to replace retiring Mayor Richard M. Daley. After he was elected, though, he said he would support runoff candidates who would share his agenda.
Solis, who faces Cuauhtemoc Morfin in the runoff, had endorsed Gery Chico for mayor but quickly formed an alliance with Emanuel after last month’s election.
Silverstein was one of only two aldermanic candidates who received support from Emanuel in the Feb. 22 election. She qualified for the runoff, in which she will face incumbent Bernard Stone.
The polls for Solis and Silverstein were conducted by Greenburg Quinlan Rosner Research, Emanuel’s longtime Washington-based polling firm.
Emanuel’s committee paid Groundswell Communications Inc. of Alexandria, Va., for the phone banks for Lyle, Thompson and Thomas.
Could you provide more detail about that last paragraph please?
What are phone banks?
How is the Groundswell company you mentioned related to campaign finance?
I would hardly call the races you mentioned and the incumbents as being “embattled”. In each case the challenger barely got a fifth of the vote.