Emanuel faces ire from some unions, other groups

The leaders of some of Chicago's city employee unions were not impressed with one of mayoral hopeful Rahm Emanuel's latest TV ads.

They were offended, they said, when the former White House chief of staff proclaimed that delivering city services meant "making sure everybody that works for the city government knows that they're actually a public servant" and that city government was not an "employment agency."

A few days later, more than half a dozen unions endorsed one of Emanuel's rivals in the race to succeed the retiring Mayor Richard Daley in the nation's third-largest city. That put them in a club of anti-Emanuel forces who could play a key role in whether he gets the 50 percent plus one vote he needs to win on Feb. 22 and avoid a runoff.

While a recent poll suggested Emanuel might have enough votes for a first-round victory, the anti-Emanuel sentiment comes not only from some union members, who also are angry for his support of the NAFTA free trade agreement, but from some liberals who saw him as an overly pragmatic force in the Clinton and Obama administrations and also from some Latino groups that saw him as standing in the way of immigration reform.

Union head Jim Sweeney, whose group represents heavy equipment workers, said Emanuel's ad helped energize city workers against him, especially in the aftermath of the third-worst blizzard in Chicago history. His union was among those that endorsed former school board president Gery Chico.

"It's the arrogance in telling firemen and policemen and . . . garbagemen and my members who were out plowing for 90 hours straight that somehow they have to start remembering they're a public servant," said Sweeney, president of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150.

With less than two weeks before the election, Emanuel has been helped by the troubles encountered by some of his opponents, who also include former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun and City Clerk Miguel del Valle.

Emanuel has been able to raise far more money than his rivals. This week, the state's top elected black official, Secretary of State Jesse White, endorsed Emanuel over Braun, who had been picked by black leaders as the "unity" candidate. A few days earlier, Braun got some unwanted publicity when she had to apologize for saying in a public forum that one of the lesser-known candidates in the race had used crack cocaine.

A recent WLS-TV poll showed Emanuel with 54 percent support compared to 14 percent for Chico. Del Valle and Braun trailed with 8 percent and 6 percent respectively, according to the poll of 600 likely voters that has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Braun doesn't believe her support is as low as the poll suggested. "Not at all," she said after a Wednesday night debate, and she had earlier brushed off White's endorsement of Emanuel.

Emanuel's camp has defended the TV ad, saying that he honors the city workers who helped Chicago weather the blizzard. But there have been times when "some in Chicago city government have acted on behalf of their own personal gain, rather than in the interest of taxpayers," campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt has said in a statement "Rahm believes it's time for that to change in the interest of the taxpayers of the city of Chicago."

Emanuel isn't without union backing. His support includes a Teamsters group that represents more than 100,000 people in Indiana and Illinois, including 30,000 members who live and work in Chicago.

"We're ready to support his candidacy at all costs and ensure Chicago gets the mayor we urgently need," John Coli, president of the Teamsters Joint Council 25 said in a statement.

But other union leaders have seized on the TV ad to rally sentiment against Emanuel. The head of the city's Fraternal Order of Police, which along with the city's firefighters' union has supported Chico, called it "inappropriate."

"It's something that should offend just about every city worker that has dedicated their life working, and I emphasize working, for the city of Chicago," said FOP Lodge 7 president Mark Donahue.

Chico has earned points with the unions because he has said he's open to possibly lifting the city's residency requirement, an idea that would be widely popular with rank-and-file police and firefighters, according to published reports.

Emanuel also doesn't have fans among immigrant rights activists who feel he didn't do enough to make reform a priority in the Obama administration. While Obama promised to address reforms soon after taking office and consistently expressed support, Emanuel was said to have recommended against moving on the issue.

"He did everything possible to not even touch the issue, not even talk about the issues because he considered it to be too hot, too controversial," said Jorge Mujica, a spokesman for an immigrant rights group that has helped organize massive marches in Chicago.

He said Emanuel will still get some Latino votes because he has the high-profile backing of the leader of a Hispanic community organizing group. Mujica said the Latino vote also will be fractured because of the candidacies of two Latino candidates, del Valle and Chico.

While some among the city's "Lakefront Liberals" will vote for Emanuel, others may have a hard time. They too may be turned off by Emanuel's penchant for political expediency, which some call pragmatism, said longtime Chicago political consultant Don Rose.

"They don't like Rahm because they see Rahm in many ways as the moderating or conservative voice of the Obama administration," Rose said.

He said those voters are likely to back del Valle, a former independent state senator who has been endorsed by an Illinois good-government group.