Chicago aldermen rejected Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s choice to serve as City Council education committee chair in an embarrassing rebuke to the reelection-seeking mayor, who immediately pledged to try advancing her pick again.
The drama began early Wednesday when Lightfoot’s floor leader, Ald. Michelle Harris, introduced a resolution to appoint retiring Ald. James Cappleman as education committee chairman, a post that’s been empty since Ald. Michael Scott resigned from the City Council earlier this year.
The move to appoint Cappleman took most aldermen by surprise and was a notable snub to Ald. Sophia King, the committee vice chair, who has said she wants the position and also is running for mayor against Lightfoot.
In theory, aldermen can select their own committee chairs, but they have historically deferred to the mayor’s choices. Aldermen voted 29-18 against Cappleman’s elevation to committee chair without debate.
After the vote, King rose to criticize the mayor’s decision and accuse Lightfoot of not running a transparent administration. King later told reporters she has been trying to organize hearings with Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez, which she said Lightfoot was trying to short-circuit by appointing Cappleman.
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“If you would spend more time attacking problems instead of people, we would be much better off,” King said after standing up to address Lightfoot.
At her customary post-City Council news conference, Lightfoot said she’s confident she can “get him approved” and plans to push for Cappleman again.
“It really is a reflection of the politics that we live in right now,” Lightfoot said. “Jim Cappleman is a good, good man. He is a former teacher himself.”
The mayor also attempted to push back on critics who said the move was hastily done, saying it had been voted on at the City Council rules committee earlier this week. When a reporter told her it had not appeared before Rules, Lightfoot said, “I believe that it was.”
The controversy comes as restless aldermen push for other vacant committee seats to be filled. Ald. Matt Martin, 47th, has also been trying to get appointed as ethics committee chairman after Ald. Michele Smith, 43rd, retired.
Although Lightfoot supported Cappleman’s opponent Marianne Lalonde in the 2019 election, they have developed a solid working relationship. She has referred to Cappleman, of the North Side 46th Ward, as her “conscience,” and he is generally seen as an alderman who can reliably be counted on to work with the mayor.
Cappleman, an alderman since 2011, announced over the summer he won’t seek reelection next year; his term ends in May.
For his part, Cappleman put on a chipper front despite the rejection, insisting that the leadership vacancy will be resolved soon. The alderman said Lightfoot asked him to serve as education committee chair Sunday, and he did not purposely attempt to curry favor with colleagues in the interim.
Cappleman also defended the decision to snub King as education chair and suggested her campaign to unseat Lightfoot in the upcoming mayoral election would have been a distraction if she were to assume the post.
“It’s awkward to have someone appointed chair who’s currently running against them,” Cappleman said. “Especially when there’s an election going on, we have to do back flips to not make it political. Yes, this is a political body and this is Chicago, which is extraordinarily political. But when we run committees, we really have to step back and focus on the job of that committee.”
Capplemen expressed openness to vying for the spot in a second vote, though he didn’t specify when.
“This is politics in Chicago,” Cappleman said. “It is what it is. I have no complaints about it. If I did, I wouldn’t be the alderman right now.”