Either the residents of the 13th Ward are inordinately passionate about their current alderman, or they don’t much care if he sticks his signs in their yards. Last week I drove through the far southwest-side ward that covers much of Clearing and some of Garfield Ridge, hugs the south end of Midway Airport, and flares into West Lawn and West Elsdon like a jagged spur. As I crisscrossed its bungalow-lined streets, neat rows of signs sprang from tiny front yards, aligned with military precision as far as the eye could see. Every last one happily proclaimed, “Marty Quinn!”
Krupa had interned in Quinn’s ward office in the summer of 2015. With a note of indignation, he said that he “learned a lot of legal loopholes” there, like the age-old machine tactic of emblazoning informational flyers and signs about ward services with incumbents’ names to campaign in the off-season.
Yet besides one from ultra-right-wing state rep and former gubernatorial candidate Jeanne Ives, Krupa hasn’t attracted any high-profile endorsements. He’s only got about $5,500 to campaign, state election board records show. Quinn, meanwhile, has long worked for Madigan’s political organizations in addition to being alderman. He was first elected in 2011 after his predecessor, Madigan ally Frank Olivo, abruptly retired, leaving Quinn alone on the ballot. Currently his war chest holds $100,000, but he’s got access to a constellation of Madigan campaign funds that total more than $14 million. Perhaps Jim was right to be surprised that a guy described as “Madigan’s muscle” and “the General,” who’s worked some of the most successful political campaigns in recent Illinois history (from Lisa Madigan’s 1998 run for state senate to Juliana Stratton’s 2016 run for state rep), would spend so much time and energy fighting a challenge from a neophyte.
As she unloaded large packages of snack-size chips and cases of sports drinks from her minivan, grousing at her kids to do their homework, Smith described herself as an involved citizen of the ward. She said she’d never seen or met Quinn but has the impression that he doesn’t care even about basic problems, like street maintenance.
He isn’t afraid of the kid, he said. In fact, he doesn’t have “a lot of opinions about him.” He’s focused on his constituents “and where my vision is,” he asserted. Where might that be? To improve local schools and bring new businesses to the ward.
Quinn was careful to underscore that he views his life’s work primarily as being a servant of the 13th Ward residents. When asked to describe the community, which is heavily populated by city workers and has shifted from predominantly white to increasingly Latinx in recent years, he used the word “close-knit,” adding that “it’s a community that looks out for each other. It’s a community that works with the police and prides itself on the relationship we have with the police. Yeah—” he stopped abruptly. I asked if there was anything else. “No, I think I covered it.”
