Just a week after the Chicago Sun-Times endorsed one challenger, Bob Galhotra, to incumbent 29th Ward alderman Deborah Graham, the Chicago Tribune has endorsed another challenger, Lawrence Andolino.
Here’s the Tribune’s endorsement explanation:
The Tribune has reported in recent years on questionable development decisions by Ald. Deborah Graham. It sure doesn’t seem like she has been looking out for her West Side constituents. She approved new liquor licenses along a business corridor that had been voted dry, then reversed course when the community rebelled. Most questionable: She helped a liquor store linked to a drug dealer get $105,000 in city development funds, though liquor stores aren’t supposed to qualify. She got the City Council to lift a moratorium on liquor licenses in the area, six months after the store donated $1,950 to her ward organization. Austin residents had protested the opening of the store because it was a block from two other liquor outlets. A better choice is longtime resident Lawrence Andolino, an attorney who has recruited developers to the ward through his neighborhood organization. It wasn’t the alderman who brought Starbucks here — it was Andolino and a group of volunteers who put consumer data together and lobbied the company. Also impressive are attorney Bob Galhotra and police sergeant and attorney Chris Taliaferro. Andolino is endorsed.
