HUMBOLDT PARK — Ald. Roberto Maldonado (twenty sixth) has dropped out of the February election and won’t search one other time period in Metropolis Council.
The alderman submitted paperwork Friday to withdraw from the race, stated Max Bever, spokesman for the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. Maldonado couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
Maldonado has held the seat since 2009, when he was appointed by then-Mayor Richard M. Daley and was reelected 3 times.
His withdrawal leaves as many as 5 candidates vying for the seat representing elements of Humboldt Park, Logan Sq., West City and Hermosa.
The candidates remaining within the subject embody Jessie Fuentes, director of coverage and youth advocacy for the Humboldt Park-based Puerto Rican Cultural Heart, twenty sixth Ward Democratic Committeeperson Angee Gonzalez Rodriguez, Chicago DJ and producer Julian “Jumpin” Perez, Kirk J. Ortiz and Anthony N. Rivera.
Fuentes, Ortiz and Rivera are going through pending challenges to their candidacies.
Credit score: Colin Boyle/Block Membership ChicagoMaldonado served as Prepare dinner County Commissioner of the eighth District for 15 years earlier than he joined Metropolis Council.
Previous to working in authorities, he ran a mortgage banking agency and labored as a Chicago Public Faculties psychologist.
He narrowly avoided runoffs in the 2019 and 2015 races, garnering simply over the required 50 % of the vote every time.
Rumors have swirled for months that Maldonado deliberate to depart Metropolis Council. That hypothesis intensified in early 2022 when he put his house close to the The 606’s Bloomingdale Path available on the market for $2.4 million.
He denied he was not going to hunt reelection, saying he was promoting his home to downsize and assist fund his kids’s training.
The veteran alderman has lengthy championed insurance policies to gradual gentrification alongside The 606’s Bloomingdale Path. Maldonado was amongst a gaggle of Northwest Aspect alderman who pushed an anti-gentrification ordinance that imposes charges on builders who demolish naturally occurring reasonably priced housing alongside the path.
However he’s additionally been criticized for profiting off the favored strolling and biking path. The alderman flipped four properties along the trail in 2015, pocketing $300,000.
Maldonado introduced his reelection marketing campaign in September with a Fb put up and video, saying gentrification — not crime — was probably the most urgent challenge in Humboldt Park.
Maldonado stated violent crime has dropped within the twenty sixth Ward since he took workplace. A 2021 Block Club analysis of police data present shootings and murders in Humboldt Park have remained largely regular over the previous decade.
He additionally touted his work bringing greater than 400 reasonably priced housing models to the ward and his dedication to construct lots of extra to assist the world’s working households.
Maldonado joins a number of Metropolis Council colleagues who won’t proceed on in 2023.
Alds. Leslie Hairston (fifth), Susan Sadlowski Garza (tenth), George Cardenas (twelfth), Ed. Burke (14th), Howard Brookins Jr. (twenty first), Ariel Reboyras (thirtieth), Carrie Austin (thirty fourth), Michele Smith (forty third), Tom Tunney (forty fourth), James Cappleman (forty sixth) and Harry Osterman (forty eighth) all plan to step down or have already got executed so.
Ald. Anabel Abarca was appointed final month to take over Cardenas’ twelfth Ward seat and Ald. Timmy Knudsen was appointed in September to exchange Smith.
Two extra seats flipped in 2021. Ald. Nicole Lee (eleventh) was appointed to exchange Patrick Daley Thompson when he stepped down due to his conviction for earnings tax fraud. Ald. Monique Scott (twenty fourth) was appointed to take over the West Aspect council seat vacated by her brother, Michael Scott Jr.
Two different aldermen, Sophia King (4th) and Roderick Sawyer (sixth), are working for mayor.
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