South Side Ald. Roderick Sawyer, whose father served as mayor in the 1980s, will run for City Hall’s top job, he said Thursday.
Who's in, who's out and who's undecided in the Chicago mayor's raceAlthough Sawyer is a member of the City Council progressive caucus, he developed a reputation as a pragmatist rather than an ideologue and worked closely with Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration. On his way out the door, Emanuel wrote $20,000 campaign checks to aldermen who had been supportive of his agenda, including Sawyer, who gave the money away to local community groups.
Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, speaks before the City Council votes on the controversial civilian oversight panel at City Hall in Chicago on Wednesday, July 21, 2021. Civilian oversight for Chicago police passes in the City Council. For one, the oversight board would only have the ability to pass a nonbinding no-confidence vote on the police superintendent. The final body has some authority to set Chicago police policies, but Lightfoot has the ability to veto policies she doesn’t like, which would then need to be voted on by the City Council.
Sawyer has had some political struggles of his own that have raised questions about his potential candidacy. In 2019, a little-known candidate forced Sawyer into a runoff, which drew raised eyebrows from aldermen who didn’t understand how an incumbent with his family legacy in the ward could be in such a close race against someone without significant campaign resources.