Lori Lightfoot gets endorsement from Chicago’s Firefighters Union Local 2

March 08-- Mar. 8--Mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot won the backing of Chicago's firefighters union Thursday, which could give her a boost as she tries to make inroads with residents in vote-rich bungalow belt neighborhoods.

Lightfoot appeared with Firefighters Local 2 officials at a Bronzeville fire station to get the nod over Toni Preckwinkle in the April 2 runoff.

Flanked by Northwest Side aldermen Nick Sposato and Anthony Napolitano, Lightfoot accepted the firefighters' endorsement at the station, which keeps a photo of former Mayor Harold Washington on its wall.

"She comes from a union home and understands the importance of unions and their roles in lifting up the middle class," firefighters union President Jim Tracy said.

He said Lightfoot understands the union's staffing needs and its desire for more ambulances, while also balancing economic development downtown with taking care "of some of the blighted communities such as Englewood and the West Side."

"We need that economic development to make the city a more fair and balanced place," Tracy said.

Lightfoot praised first responders, saying, "We need this support and strength in our communities that the fire men and women and the EMS bring to our communities.

"They truly are part of the important fabric of uplifting the quality of life in every neighborhood," Lightfoot said. "They are here, they are responsive when we are at our most challenging times of need and we need to make sure we recognize that and support them."

There are nearly 5,000 firefighters and paramedics in the department, and many more retirees. Many of them live clustered on the Northwest and Southwest sides, in places such as Edison Park, Beverly, Garfield Ridge and Jefferson Park that consistently have some of the highest voter turnouts in the city.

Votes in those areas are seemingly up for grabs for Lightfoot and Preckwinkle, as mayoral candidate Jerry Joyce won four wards on the edge of the city with high concentrations of city workers in the first-round election, and he's no longer in the race.

The endorsement Thursday plays out against the backdrop of looming negotiations for new police and fire union contracts. The deals lapsed in 2017, and it will be up to the new mayor to broker agreements with both. Neither union endorsed in the first round, and the Fraternal Order of Police has not made an endorsement in the mayoral runoff either.

Preckwinkle allies pounced on Lightfoot for standing with Sposato and Napolitano, who are among the City Council's most conservative members.

When Lightfoot first announced her candidacy last year, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel was still seeking a third term, Sposato criticized her decision. At the time, he called it a betrayal for Lightfoot to accept appointments from Emanuel as head of the civilian Police Board and also a police reform panel, then quit to run against him.

"To take the platform (Emanuel) offered, use that platform to raise her own profile by criticizing him on police issues and then basically turn around and leverage it to launch her own political career is unconscionable," Sposato, a former firefighter, said at the time.

Emanuel came into office in 2011 talking about making cuts at firehouses. But he eventually agreed to a five-year deal with the union that included 11 percent in raises over five years, including back pay. The police union contract followed the same broad outlines.

Either Preckwinkle or Lightfoot could have to come up with tens of millions of dollars for the city to fund retroactive pay raises called for under whatever new deal is struck with the labor groups.

The new mayor also will need to find hundreds of millions of dollars to shore up underfunded police and fire pension systems.

gpratt@chicagotribune.com

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