2023 Chicago mayoral candidate Jesús “Chuy” García endorsed Samie Martinez, a challenger to incumbent Ald. Rossana Rodriguez (33rd Ward), a spokesperson for the campaign confirmed on Feb. 18. The endorsement puts García in bed with allies of former Mayor Harold Washington’s fiercest enemies, including former 33rd Ward Ald. Dick Mell. García was once an ally in the City Council to Washington and frequently refers to that legacy as proof of his own progressive bona fides.
Rodriguez is a member of the Socialist, Progressive Reform and Latino Caucuses. She was among a wave of progressives who were elected to City Council in 2019. She won the seat after defeating Deb Mell, who had been appointed to replace her father Dick Mell, who was the 33rd Ward alder from 1975 to 2013. Laith Shaban, an investment advisor and housing developer, is also challenging Rodriguez.
Along with progressive incumbent alders such as Daniel La Spata (1st Ward), Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th Ward), Jeanette Taylor (20th Ward) and Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th Ward), Rodriguez has endorsed Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson for mayor. Johnson’s progressive campaign has been the target of attacks from mayoral opponents García, community activist Ja’Mal Green, State representative Kam Buckner and Mayor Lori Lightfoot in recent weeks as the commissioner has surged in polls.
Samie Martinez, who is running on a law-and-order platform, is backed by the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), former 12th Ward Ald. George Cardenas and Cook County Court clerk Iris Martinez (no relation to Samie). Samie Martinez was previously Cardenas’s chief of staff.
Iris Martinez is also the 33rd Ward Democratic committeeperson, a chair formerly controlled by Dick Mell. Rodriguez has described her as an ally of Dick Mell.
In the early 1980s, Dick Mell, along with Ald. Ed Burke and then-Ald. Ed Vrdolyak, led a bloc of white, machine alders who prevented then-Mayor Washington from advancing his legislative agenda during his first term. In an interview in the 2022 documentary Punch 9 For Harold Washington, Mell says, “Everything Mayor Washington wanted to do, we blocked.”
In addition to Samie Martinez, the FOP has endorsed a number of challengers to progressive alders and spent money heavily in aldermanic and Police District Council (PDC) races. Martinez and the police union hired the same election attorney, Perry Abbasi, who is himself an FOP-endorsed candidate for PDC in the 25th District, which lies just southwest of the 33rd Ward.
The police union has endorsed incumbent alders Raymond Lopez (15th Ward), Derrick Curtis (18th Ward), Silvana Tabares (23rd Ward), Nicholas Sposato (38th Ward), Anthony Napolitano (41st Ward), and James Gardiner (45th Ward), none of whom are members of the Progressive Reform Caucus.