Seven of the 10 candidates endorsed by Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel won their campaigns for City Council on Tuesday.
CHICAGO (AP) — Seven of the 10 candidates endorsed by Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel won their campaigns for City Council on Tuesday.
It was too early to tell what the wins would mean for Emanuel, who has said he wanted City Council members who would work "in the spirit of reform and change."
Over the years, the Council earned a reputation as being a rubber stamp for Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who will retire in May after 22 years in office.
One of Tuesday’s most closely watched races was between 38-year council veteran Bernie Stone and Debra Silverstein, the wife of a Democratic state senator. Silverstein, who was endorsed by Emanuel, won handily with 62 percent of the vote.
"I am grateful to the mayor-elect," she said of Emanuel, who campaigned for her. "I look forward to working with him in the City Council, and to it becoming an independent Council."
Emanuel also endorsed South Side Alderman Willie Cochran, a former police officer who faced Grammy-winning rap artist Che "Rhymefest" Smith. With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Cochran had 54 percent, to Smith’s 45 percent.
However, Emanuel-backed incumbent Alderman Freddrenna Lyle lost to Roderick Sawyer, son of the late Mayor Eugene Sawyer, who had 51 percent of the vote with all precincts reporting. Also losing was Emanuel-backed incumbent Alderman John Rice, who was defeated by firefighter Nicholas Sposato, who picked up 56 percent of the vote. Another candidate Emanuel supported, incumbent Sharon Dixon, received only 39.5 percent of the vote in losing to her challenger, former Alderman Michael Chandler.
The former White House chief of staff poured $295,000 into the campaigns of some of the candidates he endorsed.
Officials with the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners said voter turnout was low, with afternoon estimates hovering around 20 percent.
There weren’t problems at the polls, but one aldermanic candidate was arrested at a polling place for allegedly harassing an election judge. Chicago election officials said community activist Hal Baskin was arrested and charged with obstruction of justice after he allegedly entered a school and started shouting at a judge while supporters chanted.
Baskin was challenging Alderman JoAnn Thompson, who Emanuel endorsed. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Thompson had 56 percent of the vote.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.