April 01--Mayor Rahm Emanuel is going up Wednesday night with what could be his closing TV ad of the campaign, another spot in which he says he gets the message that he needs to do a better job.
The ad, titled "Better," features the mayor speaking directly to the camera, enumerating what he says are improvements on his watch to the city's education system, the fight against violent crime and efforts to attract jobs, but also acknowledging that more needs to be done.
"Chicago's a great city, but we can be even better. And yeah, I hear ya, so can I," Emanuel concludes, pointing to himself. "I ask for your vote on April 7th."
It's the second ad since Emanuel was forced into a surprising runoff election in which the sometimes abrasive mayor offers a mea culpa. Emanuel donned a sweater shortly after the Feb. 24 first round of balloting to tell voters he knows he "can rub people the wrong way or talk when I should listen. I own that."
The new ad comes as both campaigns ramp up their pre-election push to galvanize supporters with less than a week until Election Day.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, whose organization has thrown its support behind Garcia's bid to unseat Emanuel, will speak Wednesday at the City Club.
Weingarten has been an Emanuel antagonist since 2012, when she joined striking members of the Chicago Teachers Union on the picket lines and called the strike by Chicago public school teachers "a struggle for the heart and the soul of public education for the kids of Chicago."
The AFT has contributed to Garcia, including $350,000 last month, as he tries to raise enough money to compete with Emanuel's well-financed campaign.
Weingarten's noon appearance at the City Club comes as Emanuel and Garcia try to push through the Tuesday runoff election. Garcia held a morning roundtable discussion at the home of supporters on the Far Northwest Side.
He also has set an evening rally with city workers in the Portage Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side. Garcia has made several trips to the Northwest Side in the past week, highlighting what he says would be his empathy for the plight of residents upset about airplane noise caused by new flight patterns at nearby O'Hare International Airport. He has been unclear about what he could do to improve the situation but says he would do a better job of listening to people's concerns than Emanuel has.
On Wednesday, the mayor again criticized Garcia for not revealing more details about his proposed postelection committee to look at the city's finances.
"Last night, when Chuy was asked, 'Who's going to be on this committee?' he said I can tell you two names, but I'm not at liberty to tell you the others," said Emanuel, who added that Garcia was playing a "guessing game" with voters.
Emanuel spoke to reporters Wednesday at a South Loop campaign event where he formally received the endorsement of several members of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, including state Rep. Ken Dunkin, who has been publicly critical of Emanuel and police Superintendent Garry McCarthy.
Asked what had changed his mind about Emanuel, given that recent crime statistics have shown an increase in shootings and homicides, Dunkin pointed to Garcia's vagueness and what he described as the mayor's growth during the campaign.
"Quite frankly, I don't know what Chuy's plan is," Dunkin said. "We need someone who is battle-tested. ... We don't need sort of this cloak in the dark, let's wait until after the election construct."
Dunkin said that he thought the campaign "has really matured a lot of us, and particularly the mayor."
"You see him engage a little differently, better. He's out in the communities," said Dunkin, adding he believes Emanuel is listening better.
"I see him having two ears, instead of," said Dunkin, prompting Emanuel to smile and cut in.
"Where are you going with this?" Emanuel said.
"Just one mouthpiece," Dunkin concluded.
Then Emanuel headed to the Hilton on South Michigan Avenue to attend a luncheon with African-American women who support the mayor's re-election. Roughly 1,000 people ate salad, chicken and a strawberry dessert, with the campaign picking up the tab. Emanuel's wife, Amy Rule, attended with the mayor as a choir sang "I will vote, I shall vote."
Wednesday's events follow a debate between the two mayoral candidates Tuesday night, their final scheduled head-to-head event before the runoff. Emanuel and Garcia pounded away at each other at the WTTW-Ch. 11 debate, focusing on the familiar themes that have come to define their back-and-forth since the first-round election in February when nobody got a majority of the votes cast.
Emanuel argued that a Little Village nonprofit that the challenger helped found and run had a deficit when Garcia left it and contended that means Garcia is unfit to handle the city's financial problems. And Garcia hit Emanuel for his role as a director of mortgage giant Freddie Mac before the Great Recession, while also reiterating his charge that Emanuel is more worried about wealthy corporate donors than regular Chicagoans.
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