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There aren't many nays heard in the chambers of the Chicago City Council.
That’s clear from looking at the analysis of council voting records put together by Dick Simpson (pictured) and his research team at UIC. The poli-sci professor (and former 44th Ward alderman) keeps an ongoing tally of so-called divided roll call votes—votes in which at least one alderman votes against the majority.
These instances are pretty rare. Since the current council term began in 2003, only 45 out of hundreds of votes have failed to be unanimous--on average there's less than one a council meeting. Just 13 of the divided votes had more than five dissenting aldermen. Toni Preckwinkle, alderman of the Fourth Ward, has shown the most independence, voting with Mayor Daley 55 percent of the time. She's followed by Third Ward alderman Dorothy Tillman and the 20th Ward’s Arenda Troutman, at 63 and 65 percent, respectively—though it should be noted that each took Daley’s side on the big-box minimum wage ordinance and, more significantly, skipped the vote on a resolution calling for the Daley administration to stop fighting the Shakman decree in court. With a 70 percent score, 28th Ward Alderman Ed Smith is the only other council member who sided with Daley less than three-fourths of the time.
On the other end of the list: 43rd Ward alderman Vi Daley, agreeing with the mayor 90 percent of the time; 14th Ward alderman Ed Burke and 29th Ward alderman Isaac Carothers, both at 93 percent; and James Balcer, alderman of the mayor’s old 11th Ward, who sided with Daley 95 percent of the time.
But in interpreting this particular presentation of the data it's crucial to remember:
> ... so-called divided roll call votes—
> votes in which at least one alderman votes against the majority.
> These instances are pretty rare.
The mental trap you can fall into is to parse this data more closely than it really deserves and draw misleading conclusions. For example,
> Toni Preckwinkle ...
> has shown the most independence,
> voting with Mayor Daley 55 percent of the time.
The first point to make here is that "voting with the Mayor" is ambiguous. Mayor Daley does not vote in City Council except to break ties which Daley has never done. Simpson's team INFERS Daley's position by tracking a loyal alderman. While this is a decent enough methodology, and I agree with the researcher's judgments, it is still inexact. Frustrating this type of methodology is Daley's recent penchant for appearing to sit out and "no comment" on Council issues, claiming it's up to them, the duly elected representatives of the people, I'm just a humble public servant.
Then, of course, you have to bear in mind that all of the percentages quoted are percentages of the DIVIDED ROLL CALL VOTES. To focus too closely on these votes is to loose sight of the fact that at every City Council meeting every month, our brave Aldermen mindlessly cast HUNDREDS of votes in rubber-stamp lock-step with the Daley machine. Fact is the most "independent" Alderman in our City Council votes with Daley 99.99% of the time. The inescapable conclusion when looking at the broader preponderance of the data is that there are NO independents on our City Council, and that the recent rumors of an awakening in Our Fair City's legislative branch are greatly exaggerated.
So when you try to make the case that, for example, Preckwinkle is somehow more independent that Tillman, you're really splitting thin blond ones here.
It seems like we Chicagoans are so desperate to see some meager signs of life in our moribund City Council that we are prone to read too much into this.
He is not lashing out - he is using hard data - votes. The aldermen either agree or disagree with the floor leader. If you can suggest a better methodology do so... In addition to Prof. Simpson - his title is Dr. Simpson. When you get a PhD in Political Science you will then be qualified to objectively evaluate his research and draw conclusions.