More Aldrecreatures to be Dumped?

Runoff elections are the 17th of April and we for one are hoping for a bunch upset victories from challengers. The papers are picking up on the closeness of certain races and spotlighting them more and more:

• Ald. Dorothy Tillman (3rd) has made national headlines as a champion for slave reparations and sponsor of a disclosure ordinance that requires city contractors to come clean about past ties to the slave trade.
• "Dorothy is a lot of talk and little action. She announces projects, but they never come to fruition, or take years to happen. The Harold Washington Cultural Center is an example. It took 10 years to build, with lots of public money. It should be a catalyst for the economic renaissance of 47th Street. But once you go east and west of that corner [47th and King], it looks like a Third World country."
• Tillman, whose daughter runs the Harold Washington Cultural Center, categorically denied that she has ignored meat-and-potatoes issues. She pointed with pride to the three hotels on the drawing board or under construction in her ward.

Well, golly. Imagine that. A huge public works project in Dorothy's ward run by (of all people) her daughter. How does that happen? And the rest of the ward feels slighted? If Dorothy loses along with Haithcock, we are seriously celebrating that night.

And Bernie Stone is having trouble, too:

• The closing of the only big supermarket in the 50th ward, Dominick's on North Damen, is now an issue in the aldermanic runoff race. Aldermanic candidate Naisy Dolar blames her opponent, city council veteran Bernie Stone, for not keeping a single major grocer in the ward.

  "When somebody has experience, they should be effective. Bernie stone has experience yet is ineffective," said Naisy Dolar, 50th Ward Candidate

All of these races are going to depend on turnout. If the challengers can muster enough outraged people, we could suddenly have an amusing little band of "independents" that will have almost zero political power.