The worst Chicago alder of the week: My ward's Carlos Rosa.
Irony on the week the trial of former alder Eddie Burke begins.
After four years of waiting, the trial of former Chicago alder Eddie Burke will begin this week on federal charges of corruption.
Over 30 Chicago alders have been convicted of corruption since I first moved here in 1973.
Burke was first elected to the city council in 1969, and along with alder Eddie Vrdolyak, led the council opposition to our first Black mayor, Harold Washington.
Burke, as an indicted felon who is no longer a sitting alder, he is disqualified from consideration as this week’s worst Chicago alder.
But we have 50 so I can go nearly a year without having to repeat any of them.
This week’s winner is a clear, unambiguous choice: My own alder of the 35th Ward, Carlos Ramirez Rosa.
Rosa had been picked by Mayor Brandon Johnson to be his floor leader and head of the powerful zoning committee.
He must of known that this might eventually bite him in the butt.
Rosa has a reputation as a bully and a loose canon.
When Carlos first ran for council in 2015 I supported him. I even had a fund raiser in my home, raising several thousand dollars for his campaign. That’s not Ken Griffin money, but not bad for hosting a dozen folks in our living room.
But things got hinky when Rosa and I supported different candidates for mayor. Carlos and his United Neighbors of the 35th Ward backed the Cook County Democratic Party Chair, Tony Preckwinkle. I supported Lori Lightfoot, as many progressives (and voters in almost every Chicago ward also did).
Because of this difference, Rosa went to social media to declare that those of us who supported a different candidate than he did were no longer progressives or part of the progressive movement.
According to Rosa, we were expelled.
This kind of divisive behavior became part of his reputation, even as many of his supporters found excuses for it.
But the Mayor should have known better than to choose him as council floor leader and zoning committee chair.
And so it was inevitable that Rosa would crash and burn.
Last week he physically accosted the senior Black woman council member during a chaotic moment in the council chamber.
Within hours he united both the council’s Black Caucus and Latino Caucus when both caucuses demanded the Mayor remove him as floor leader and zoning committee chair.
The Latino Caucus went so far as to suggest Rosa be expelled from the council.
Amazingly it took until today for Rosa to resign his posts and apologize, something he should have and could have done immediately.