Melissa Conyears-Ervin Easily Wins City Treasurer Runoff


State Rep. Melissa Conyears-Ervin on Tuesday easily defeated 47th Ward Ald. Ameya Pawar in the runoff election for city treasurer.

Conyears-Ervin took 60 percent of the votes to beat Pawar by 20 points.

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The city treasurer oversees and manages all money and investments for the city of Chicago, its four employee pension funds and the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund. 

As a candidate, Conyears-Ervin told WTTW that the city should leverage “billions of dollars of municipal deposits … to help Chicago’s communities grow at the same rate, regardless of their zip code.”

She also said that as city treasurer her most important task would be “to ensure that the money Chicago invests goes to benefit all of us.”

Conyears-Ervin is also on record as wanting to move the responsibility for analyzing the financial impact of key City Council legislation to the treasurer’s office.

Were that to happen, it could raise potential conflict-of-interest questions, given that her husband, 28th Ward Ald. Jason Ervin, provided significant financial support to her campaign. Conyears-Ervin’s campaign also got financial backing from a number of public sector unions – including the Chicago Teachers Union – that could be impacted by City Council legislation.

Conyears-Ervin joins Brandis Friedman to discuss her election victory and plans for the city treasurer’s office.


Related stories:

Candidates for City Treasurer Play Nice With Just 2 Weeks Until Runoff

City Treasurer Candidate Forum: Conyears-Ervin vs. Pawar

Candidate Forum: Chicago City Treasurer Hopefuls Face Off


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