Chicago must build bridges between people and policy to save our Democracy

Chicago has a deep history of an opaque political process, steeped in ‘the machine’, in an effort to have our resources and our legislation serve the few, rather than serving the people. Overtime, this has led to increasing wealth and opportunity disparity, decreasing trust in infrastructure, a feeling of disenfranchisement by the people of this city, and ultimately, a disinvestment in the political process — our Democracy. 

Over the last decade, we’ve started to see a shift – where our neighbors who have a deep belief in transparency, and participation in our democratic process, have come into our municipal, county, state, and federal seats. Even then, we’ve continued to see levels of disengagement from our elected officials to actually engage with our community on our needs, and the impact of legislation on our neighborhoods, our friends and family, and our city at large.

In order for Democracy to work, we need to have a clear, transparent, method for our people to understand the legislation that is being pushed (or in the case of Committeeperson, the roles that need appointment), with a real ability for our elected officials to hear our feedback, iterate on the legislation, and ensure that it is representative.

Without that element of co-governance, we continue to create divides within this city, rather than bridges between people and policy. Our 32nd ward community has always been deeply engaged in the electoral process – with some of the highest voter turnout in the city – there’s no reason legislation and appointment processes should be made in a backroom for our people to suffer the consequences.

I’m running to be able to fight for transparency, preserve the sanctity of our elections, engage in a participatory process, and ultimately, build a bridge between our levels of government, and our community.

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Whatever your personal policies may be, if you believe in driving a democratic, participatory process, join me in changing the way we’re represented in the 32nd ward. Everyone, whether you are in Roscoe Village or Bucktown, Lincoln Park or Lakeview, Wrightwood Neighbors or Wicker Park, you will have a bridge to the Democratic process with me as your committeeperson.