2023 Chicago Election Voter Guide

Candidate Q&A

Why are you running?

I am running for alderperson because I believe in Chicago’s potential, and I think it is time to get rid of the nickname “The Second City.” I believe that Chicago can be second to none when it comes to safe streets, a dynamic economy, and an innovative public education system that prepares our students for the future workforce.

I also believe that I can help tamp down the divisiveness seen in the politics at City Hall. When I worked on the Hill, the Republicans controlled the House of Representatives, so our office had a goal of making each new piece of legislation we wrote have a bipartisan co-sponsor. This forced me to take every issue I wanted to work on and constantly think, “How can I get Republican buy-in?”

At the time, America was still recovering from the Great Recession, and I wanted to work on unemployment. So I started reading proposals from conservative think tanks until I found an idea that would work for both sides. It was a proposal to allow long-term unemployed workers to use their federal extended unemployment benefits as a lump sum to move to a better job market. While we had to make some compromises on the bill, we were able to introduce the American Worker Mobility Act with a Republican as our lead co-sponsor.

I will take this same coalition-building approach to City Council, and my first act after winning this election will be to schedule meetings with all of my 49 future colleagues in their wards and find at least one issue on which we can work together.

What does this office do well, and what needs fixing?

From talking with neighbors across the 43rd Ward, I have heard that for the most part Alderwoman Smith’s office was pretty good with individual constituent services and I have heard similar things about Alderman Knudsen’s team.

The first thing I would prioritize in taking over the office would be standing up for our ward’s small businesses. I think an alderman has the responsibility of having the back of our small business owners in disputes with the city or out of town landlords. If landlords are found to be kicking small businesses out of their properties with no plans to fill those vacant storefronts, the alderperson needs to do whatever it takes to stop this. The alderperson should also make recruiting new businesses to our ward a priority and ensure their permits and licenses are received promptly. It is clear by the amount of vacant storefronts in the ward that the alderperson’s office is not doing nearly enough on this front.

What is the most pressing issue facing your constituents and how do you plan on addressing it?

Crime is clearly one of the biggest problems facing Chicago today. One of a government’s most essential roles is protecting its citizens. Chicago is failing to keep people safe, and our crime issue exacerbates our city’s biggest problems — children can’t learn in unsafe neighborhoods, residents flee for the suburbs, and businesses can’t bring new jobs to our city. We must make crime our first priority and invest in changes to bring peace to Chicago.

If elected, I will fight for investments for peace. Because crime requires a holistic solution, we must invest in mental health professionals and violence prevention groups. We must also increase funding to law enforcement so that they can adequately investigate crimes, hold guilty parties accountable, and monitor hotbeds of crime.

What specific steps would you take to ensure your office is accessible and responsive to your constituents?

The key to effective constituent services is hiring a phenomenal staff and empowering them to grow in their jobs. This also means you will have to be hiring often as when you push people to grow in their jobs, they typically find better job opportunities. Upward staff churn is a strength not a weakness and will show that my office is delivering for its constituents. When I worked for Congressman Cardenas, his first congressional staff was full of all-stars. Out of his original staff of eight, one went on to run for Congress, two became chiefs of staff, one is now the executive director of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, one left to attend Harvard Law School, one left for a role in the Department of Transportation and one is now VP of operations at a consulting firm. I hope to emulate this practice and hire top notch staff and help them grow in the role so that my office can provide our constituents with world class services.

In addition to great staff, I want to be available and responsive to my constituents. I plan on holding weekend office hours, because I know people’s work weeks are often full enough already. I also want to host monthly meetings at various businesses around the ward, to both highlight our great small businesses and make sure it is easy for members of the community to contact me. Another goal would be to ensure a 48-hour response time to constituent requests. Obviously not every problem can be solved that quickly,  but residents should know that the request was received and is being worked on.

Do you believe in the tradition of aldermanic prerogative, which gives each City Council member the final say on issues in their ward?

I believe that alderpersons should have a strong say in what occurs in their ward, but we have seen far too often that the absolute ward power that aldermanic prerogative gives has led to corruption. I believe the majority vote of ward residents should be the final say.

Should the $1.9 billion budget for the Chicago Police Department increase, stay the same or decrease?

I am strongly against defunding the police. And while I believe that we can accomplish our city’s safety goals with better implementation of the current budget, I will not rule out increasing the police budget if I feel it is necessary to guarantee the safety of all Chicagoans.

Should the city raise the Real Estate Transfer Tax on properties sold for more than $1 million to fund programs to help unhoused Chicagoans?

The homelessness problem in our city is an affordable housing scarcity problem, and the answer to this is housing abundance. We need to continue to expand the amount of market rate and affordable housing available in this city so that when Chicagoans find themselves struck with bad economic luck, this doesn’t lead to them becoming unhoused. We must also work to ensure that our unhoused population has access to mental health and drug treatment resources. We also need to make better use of the funds we already have, by ensuring that those dollars actually get to those we need to serve and do not get lost in an endless bureaucracy.

Should the city open and operate mental health clinics to provide free care to Chicagoans?

Yes, the mental health crisis is a root cause of both our violence and homelessness problem. We must ensure that all Chicagoans have access to mental health services.

How should Chicago build the 120,000 homes it needs for low- and moderate-income Chicagoans?

Chicago needs better housing policies that promote the city's economic growth and ensure that Chicagoans from across all of our 77 neighborhoods can find adequate and affordable housing. Housing near public transit stations is key to increasing housing affordability in Chicago and we need to approve more transit oriented housing projects. This will enable residents to bypass the cost of car ownership and reduce traffic on our streets.

We must also expand upon the Additional Dwelling Units (ADU) Ordinance that the City Council approved in December 2020. ADUs are a small but integral part of ensuring that there is a diversity of housing available to Chicago renters while also allowing Chicago homeowners to increase the value of their homes.

By making these long needed changes to city policies, we can begin to unlock the economic growth needed to lower our property taxes and invest in our city services. These changes will also put Chicago in great shape to reap some of the $6 billion in transportation funding that the Biden administration recently pledged to cities that enact inclusive housing policies.

What do you see as potential solutions to address the number of shootings in Chicago?

The most important thing we can do as a city to relieve our crime crisis is to empower our police department to solve more shooting crimes. In 2019, Chicago charged suspects in only 12.9% of homicide cases, and only cleared about 50% of homicide cases. Las Vegas, for instance, boasted an 87% homicide clearance rate last year.

With clearance rates like these, criminals are emboldened, and victims’ families are left without justice. Furthermore, distrust of police and poor investigation leads some to unfortunately take the law into their own hands. To thoroughly investigate each homicide case, we need to hire more detectives. More detectives will also help our police forces solve more non-fatal shootings.

Solving more non-violent shootings will not only keep dangerous criminals off our streets, but it will help to stop the out-of-control spiral of retaliation crimes.

Should the city do more to encourage residents to live close to where they work and shop by building dense multi-unit apartment complexes near transportation hubs?

Yes, transit oriented housing is great for the environment, the traffic situation in our city and the business community.

Should the city prioritize the construction of bicycle lanes and encourage people to use bicycles to commute to work?

I am very pro-bike as I am a frequent divvy rider (top 1%). Making sure that Chicagoans can safely get around the city via bikes and bike lanes is very important.

Should city employees continue to be required to live in Chicago?

Yes, in practice, but I am willing to make adjustments when necessary, like to rebuild the ranks of our police department.