When Lyndon Johnson first stepped onto the Senate floor in 1949, he declared the 96-member body was “the right size.” Unlike the House of Representatives he had just left, it was small enough for one man to dominate. And he did. Within six years, he was the most powerful Majority Leader in history.
Political scientist Larry Sabato once called Rahm Emanuel the “Jewish LBJ” for his ambition and his reputation as an amoral political animal focused only on power. Emanuel has taken a look at the Chicago City Council and decided that 25 members is “the right size” for him to dominate.
By telling the aldermen “the people” have demanded he cut their number in half, Emanuel is throwing water on the City Council’s dream of independence under a new mayor. The threat of downsizing is a powerful tool for employee motivation. If the aldermen don’t behave, Rahm and The People will hold a referendum and have half of them fired.
Which half? Well, the first election for a smaller city council would feature 25 pairs of incumbents scratching at each other in political death matches. They’d all want help from the richest, most popular politician in town. Emanuel could pick and choose the survivors, who would then owe their careers to him.
Also, more than residents of most big cities, Chicagoans define themselves by their neighborhoods. With a few weird exceptions, the wards do a good job of following neighborhood boundaries. That would be impossible with 25 aldermen. I live in East Rogers Park. Under the system Emanuel is proposing, I might be represented by West Rogers Park's Ald. Berny Stone, whose ravings are now confined to the other side of Western Avenue. That’s reason enough to say no.
As John Kass pointed out in the Tribune, firing politicians always sounds like a good idea. But fewer representatives means less democracy. When Pat Quinn’s “Cutback Amendment” rightsized the Illinois House of Representatives, it turned out the be “the right size” for a young Chicago Democrat named Michael Madigan.
Back in 1980, riding a populist wave with a group called "The Coalition for Political Honesty," Quinn pushed something called the Cutback Amendment. The idea was to cut the Legislature by one-third, from 177 to 118 members. It passed with 69 percent of the vote. The cuts were made. Quinn was a hero.
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More importantly, there were changes in how members were elected. Cumulative voting that had allowed for political minorities in each district — Democrats elected in Republican districts and vice versa — became a thing of the past.
It was the time of the bosses, with the voice of the minority muted.
If cutting the City Council in half is really about reducing the size of government to save money, why hasn’t Emanuel also proposed cutting the mayor’s staff in half? He’ll be overseeing a less important branch of government, according to the City Charter, at least.
Because it’s not about money. It’s about REFORM. And in today’s Chicago, that stands for Responding Enthusiastically to Fiats Out of Rahm’s Mouth. Got that, aldermen?
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