Colleagues praise Ald. Edward Burke as longest-serving City Council member ever leaves under cloud of indictment
Burke, among 12 council members who won't return for the next term, joined the council in 1969.
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Burke, among 12 council members who won't return for the next term, joined the council in 1969.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot declined to address the City Council at her last meeting as mayor, passing up the chance to begin shaping her legacy as the city’s leader during four of the most tumultuous years in Chicago history.
Last year will be remembered by many City Hall observers for the wave of incumbents who announced they’d give up their City Council seats — but this year has proven a record-breaking one for members being able to hold onto theirs.
The solitary defeat of appointed Ald. Anabel Abarca (12th) marks the fewest defeated incumbents since Chicago instituted the 50-member City Council system in 1923. Seven sitting members were knocked out in each of the previous two election cycles.
Tears were shed, good-natured barbs traded, hatchets buried. One would never have known Ald. Edward Burke is leaving under the cloud of a federal indictment or that the mayor’s relationship with the Council was so contentious,