Why do 44th ward dems keep pushing a pro-corporate agenda?
Hello, Hello, Neighbors! Welcome to the April 2026 44th Ward update.
So much has happened in the last few weeks since the March primaries. We went to not one, but two definitely not-town-halls. The first townhall was with our IL 11 House Rep Ann Williams, our IL Senate D6 Sen. Sara Feigenholtz and our two CPS school board members. We submitted our questions with the registration in both cases, but they weren’t addressed at all. We asked both our house rep and our state senator after the townhall about lack of democratic norms in the 44th Ward dem organization, namely the non-existence of actual open meetings. We also asked them about raising progressive revenue at the state level, to which we didn’t hear a clear answer either. It was a disappointing, yet predictable outcome. The second townhall was even more controlled, with security and a moderator who was so determined to control the narrative, she seemingly forgot that people can actually see and hear her. We witnessed a man being dragged out of Rep. Mike Quigley’s LGBTQIA ‘townhall’ on April 9th for daring to ask a question about the war in Iran, on the same day that POTUS threatened to wipe out an entire civilization. Quigley just sat there and watched as the man was dragged out while many in the audience at the Center on Halstead applauded. It was a surreal, disorienting experience. Just two days after said ’townhall’ an email was sent from that same Rep. Mike Quigley claiming that he actually cares about the unhinged actions of POTUS and the war in Iran, and in typical Quigley fashion, is expecting someone else to do something about it.
We watched the next chapter of the tipped wage saga unfold in City Hall earlier this week on April 15, when our Alderman Lawson joined the failed attempt to override Mayor Johnson’s veto, keeping the phaseout of tipped minimum wage in place. The fight to keep the sub-minimum wage is a deeply MAGA-coded activity. Watching 30 members of our city council who are technically Democrats, embarrass themselves like a bunch of DoorDash-Grandmas™ by engaging in such a blatant anti-worker, pro-corporate activity, makes us wonder if they know that we know that municipal elections are just around the corner.
Just to remind folks that just one day after the March 17th primaries, our Alderman Bennett Lawson voted with the corporate caucus to freeze the scheduled wage increase for tipped workers in Chicago. Former Ald. Tunney of Ann Sather Restaurants & Catering, overlooked the rotten fruits of his labor as the former chairman (2000) and a Lifetime Achievement Honoree(2023) of the Illinois Restaurant Association (the other IRA). This is old news of course, although every time we google Tunney, new hilarious articles pop-up. Just as our Alderman Lawson boasted in his weekly email about signing onto a letter by Fair Vote Illinois supporting ranked choice voting, and his support of "The Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr. Young Voter Empowerment Law" in the Illinois state legislature, which received unanimous council support, he completely omitted the subject of his vote and his part in the One Fair Wage saga. It was 39th Ward Ald. Samantha Nugent who introduced the ordinance this time, even though it was very much Lawson’s project in May of last year. We don’t want to take all the credit for making Ald. Lawson try to hide his hand, that we can only imagine, was (allegedly) guided by the firm grip of the “other IRA’. Girl I Guess covered this particularly telling part of his recent aldermanic record. There seems to be no consideration of the impact of freezing sub-minimum wages on the residents of our ward, particularly LGBTQ community members who work in service and hospitality.
Sam Toia, the CEO of the Illinois Restaurant Association and a Co-Chair of Citizens for Sara Feigenholtz, has called Johnson's veto "misguided" and urged state lawmakers to prevent Chicago from ending the tipped minimum wage by passing a new state law. His organization was already activating their members to push on their state reps and senators to block wage increases for tipped workers as part of a coordinated lobbying effort. Citizens for Sara Feigenholtz is also a major donor to the 44th Ward Democratic Organization listed at $40,000.00 under expenditures as of Feb 20, 2026. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to connect the dots on who is being directed to halt the increase of sub-minimum wage at the state level, now that Mayor Johnson blocked them in Chicago.
This follows a similar pattern with other pro-corporate efforts, such as blocking one of the few ways to raise progressive revenue at a municipal level for much needed public health community investments that we fought for last year, the much talked about “head tax”. Just like with the sub-minimum wage fight, after the conservative wing of the city council, including Alderman Lawson, dragged in their alternative budget, just to avoid re-instating the ‘head tax’, opting to shift the burden on the people of Chicago by selling $1B of city debt to private debt collectors, legalizing video gaming terminals (VGTs), which continues to be extremely unpopular, raise the liquor tax 1.5%, selling ad spaces, and increasing grocery bag tax to $0.15, altogether leaving us with a $163M gap in this year’s budget. There are already efforts underway in Springfield to prevent municipalities from raising any such revenues, even though there is absolutely no evidence that head tax impacts jobs. If you read the Tribune headlines, they make it sound like this fight is against Mayor Johnson’s progressive agenda, but the reality is that Chicago and the rest of Illinois needs to raise progressive revenue to pay for much needed services, especially against the backdrop of the federal cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, education and infrastructure funding. But instead of putting forward a serious effort to counteract these devastating cuts, the supposed “grown-ups in the room” as in corporate democrats that hold super-majority across the board in Illinois, are playing dumb games to punish the people of Chicago.
Another important city council vote that we should prepare for is the push to rid CPD of officers with ties to extremist groups, which was tabled this week by Alders Michael Rodriguez (22nd Ward) and Matt Martin (47th Ward) who moved to block a vote on the proposed substitute ordinance that would allow CPD to remove officers connected to far-right extremist groups, such as the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers, until the council’s next meeting in May. Martin said he’s looking forward to the full council’s consideration of the proposed ordinance at next month’s meeting. We have to engage in this effort as our Alderman Lawson is one of the Alders who got the FOP endorsement, making all efforts around police accountability a high priority for our ward.
Finally, the most obnoxious news this week came from the Tribune, describing our Alderman Lawson’s brilliant plan to blackmail his way into the Zoning Chair position that he was free to do, but didn’t want to do without the perks. In a SunTimes interview last November, Lawson acknowledged that Mayor Johnson may be reluctant to give him the permanent job because he’s a first-term City Council member who is “white and not part of the mayor’s coalition.” But, he said, “My goal was to do a really good job and have that be qualification enough.” Having previously said that zoning is his true passion, Alderman Lawson was holding zoning work across the entire city hostage, insisting “it’s not fair” that he chaired all of 10(!) meetings with staff that he didn’t get to choose, and refused to hold committee meetings because it’s too difficult to run it without the “perks and title”, including $468,000 committee budget. This strategy of his backfired spectacularly this week, when Ald. Gilbert Villegas got the Zoning Chair. In his weekly newsletter today, Alderman Lawson put on a good show praising this decision. Ultimately, we don’t care who the chair is so much as we care that the elected officials take these assignments seriously, and the actions of our Alderman show that his priorities are not aligned with the interests of the people in our ward.
As we learn more about the history and the current context of the establishment power here in Chicago, and how enmeshed they are with the corporate and billionaire interests, it’s becoming hard to ignore that we are being fed a steady diet of MAGA coded talking points and excuses from our elected representatives. Chicago, like other cities in Illinois cannot tax corporate and individual wealth directly. If our elected officials were as focused on bringing the much needed revenue to Chicago at the state level, none of these city council fights would be happening. The national mood and attitude of the democratic base has shifted towards progressive politics, no matter how much corporate dems pretend that this reality doesn’t apply to them in Chicago.
It seems daunting, yet hyper-local organizing is the most productive way forward. We stay focused, we keep organizing, and we build our progressive organizing base right here in the heart of the corporate dem’s seat of power - the 44th Ward.
If we don’t fight, we don’t get to win.
With LOVE,
44th Ward Action
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