UIC Study Shows Joe Moore’s Independent Voting Record

By Bob Spoerl, for rogerspark.com

Alderman Joe Moore is approaching the quarter-century mark as Chicago City Council representative of the 49th Ward. Having handedly defeated Brian White in a February municipal election, Moore continues his crusade as a progressive not only in Rogers Park but citywide.

A University of Illinois-Chicago report released Tuesday shows that Moore is a man of his word when he says he’s an independent on the council. That’s at least in relation to council peers.

The 35-page report, co-authored by prominent UIC political science professor Dick Simpson, a former city councilman, details the voting records of alderman during the last four years, 2007-2011, of Mayor Richard M. Daley’s reign as Chicago’s head.

Read the University of Chicago-Illinois City Council Voting Report:
http://www.uic.edu/depts/pols/ChicagoPolitics/CityCouncilReport_Mar2011.pdf

According to the report, which looks in detail at the 14 wards where there is a runoff election April 5, incumbent alderman who face competition in a runoff voted with Mayor Daley on roll call votes 83 percent of the time. Interestingly enough, the more closely aligned an incumbent’s voting record was with outgoing Mayor Daley, the closer the competition in his or her runoff election. In short, there’s a correlation between voting with Mayor Daley and getting a serious challenge from someone vying for your aldermanic seat.

But then there’s those aldermen like Ed Burke who voted with Mayor Daley 100 percent of the time and faced no challenge in the 2011 election.

“You know people voting with the mayor 100 percent of the time are controlled by the mayor,” Dick Simpson, co-author of the UIC study, said. He said such aldermen are “rubber-stamped politicians.”

Alderman with a comfy seat stay in their job so long because they have an incredible amount of neighborhood and campaign resources, in some cases, they slide into campaigns with a spending budget well into the millions.  Nobody could financially compete, Simpson concludes. And with a special in to Daley, alderman in cushy jobs potentially had more political sway with the former Mayor. But, as you know, there’s a new mayor-elect in town.

Rogers Park Alderman Joe Moore said he will play the same political game he played when Daley was in office, voting on issues on a case-by-case basis.

Simpson said that it’s no surprise that Moore’s voting record was the least aligned with Daley in the last four years of city council.

“[Moore’s] clearly one of the leaders of the independent bloc in the city council,” Simpson said.

Simpson added that previous 49th ward Alderman David Orr made it fashionable to be a kind of renegade within the council.

“There’s a history of independence in the 49th ward that goes back almost 40 years ago,” Simpson said.

Joe Moore was just one of seven aldermen who voted with Daley on less than 70 percent of all roll call votes. Teaming with Moore in the independent aldermanic league, so to speak, were city council members Toni Preckwinkle – now the Cook County Board President – and the current 22nd ward Alderman Ricardo Munoz.

While Moore disagreed with Daley the most out of all aldermen, he still sided with Daley on 51 percent of all votes.

That included the now infamous parking meter deal from several years ago that privatized Chicago parking.

Since, Moore has come to publicly denounce the deal along with other alderman who originally sided with Daley on the measure that was supposed to generate millions of dollars of revenue for the city.

Please share your answer to our question at the end of the article. But before that, an exclusive interview with Alderman Moore.

Moore responded to an e-mail I sent Thursday. To the alderman’s credit, he sent the reply message while on a flight to South Africa with his wife to visit their son studying abroad. Here’s a recap of the message; my questions are starred and Moore’s responses follow each question.

*What does this say about the way you handle city council, Alderman Moore?
I have always approached each issue and vote on a case-by-case basis.  If I agreed with the Mayor’s position on a given issue and believed it to be in the best interest of the people of my ward, I would support him.  If, however, I did not believe that a given Mayoral initiative was in the best interest of the residents of Chicago and the 49th Ward, I would respectfully vote against that initiative.
*What does this say about the way you will conduct business with Mayor-elect Emanuel?
I expect to approach Mayor Emanuel’s initiatives on the same case-by-case basis.  However, I’ve been extremely heartened thus far by the Mayor-elect’s approach, especially his sincere commitment to reform city government and re-energize community policing.  And I take him at his word that he will take a different and more collaborative approach with the City Council.
*Should city residents be discouraged that citywide aldermen sided with Mayor Daley more than 85 percent of the time on all votes?
If I believed all my colleagues agreed with the Mayor 85% of the time, that would be one thing.  Unfortunately, far too often, many of my colleagues simply side with the Mayor because that’s just the way it’s always been done in this town and they really don’t take the time to examine the various legislation that they are called upon to review and pass.  This makes for bad government.  No mayor, no matter how wise and benevolent, has a corner on all wisdom.
*People like Alderman Ed Burke, several others—- why did they side with Daley on every single vote?
You’ll have to ask them.  Though I am happy to comment on the City Council as a whole, I will refrain from prejudging the actions of any individual alderman.
*Do you foresee a shakeup in how city council operates with the advent of the Emanuel mayoral reign?
It’s hard to predict.  As I indicate above, I trust that Mayor Emanuel will adopt a more cooperative and open approach with the City Council which will be extremely healthy for Chicago’s body politic.

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Now it’s time for the neighborhood to react:: Do you feel Joe Moore is as independent and progressive an alderman as his city council voting record implies? Share your thoughts and opinions in our comment section below.

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* Bob Spoerl is a young journalist based here in Chicago. He attends the Medill school of Journalism and interned for the WTTW news hour ‘Chicago Tonight.’ Before Medill, he earned a bachelor’s degree in English and Philosophy from Loyola, where he developed an affection for Rogers Park. Read his weekly contributions at rogerspark.com.

 

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