Girl, I Guess Progressive Voter Guide
Dirigido por Stephanie Skora · 285 votantes · 154 recomendaciones
The Dish: My home Subdistrict, 2A, comprising the northwestern half of the former District 2 and with a 4-year term up for grabs, has a very different electorate than the one through which independent progressive and 2024 Golden Shrugee Ebony DeBerry romped to victory in 2024. 2A is made up of the 50th, 49th, and bits of the 40th and 39th Wards, and is missing much of the progressive base that Ebony won in her first race. Progressives are strong in Rogers Park and have a growing presence West of Ridge as well, so she’s got a strong chance to win a second term. However, she’ll have to contend with two foes in order to get there.
Back after an aborted Congressional run in the 9th District Primary earlier this year, The Bruce is Loose again on the Far North Side! Bruce Leon, the man who longtime readers will remember that this Guide exposed as funding projects in Occupied Palestine inside the green line through his family foundation in the 2024 General Guide, and whom I dubbed the “Jewish Willie Wilson” in March, is back on the ballot. You can read extensively about his seedy ties to charter schools, and unsavory links to Republicans in our 2024 coverage, but suffice it to say that Bruce Leon is not someone that we want to see on the School Board. Thankfully, he’s quit on his own campaign before the voters even had a chance to reject him. Not only is his campaign website still focused on his prior Congressional run, his School Board candidate committee hasn’t recorded a new donation since 2024, and his campaign Facebook is similarly out of date. Most hilarious of all is the late-August revelation that, rather than invest in his current campaign, Brucey Boy has already started his next one and is circulating petitions for a City Treasurer run. Truly an innovator in the field of Pulling a Mendoza, Bruce is now running for two offices simultaneously, and is an incumbent in neither race. The gall! The hubris! The Bruce Leon of it all!
Hector Morales, also running, appears to be a ballot ghost supported by Michael Sacks’s Common Ground Collective and who cares so little about trying in this race that his campaign committee wasn’t even formed until August.
Which brings us to incumbent Ebony DeBerry, a strong progressive incumbent who was able to score a dual endorsement from the feuding SEIU and CTU. Longtime readers will remember from 2024 why we love Ebony so much; she’s a lifelong Rogers Parker and community organizer with deep ties to CPS, attending and teaching in neighborhood schools before beginning a career as a community organizer and I’m absolutely thrilled that she’s running for a full term on the CPS Board.
Building on her stances from 2024, and touting her successes on the Board, including a pivotal push to ensure that the CPS CEO must hold a Superintendent's license and have classroom experience, Ebony is newly committing to fight for even more progressive policies. Things like universal pre-K starting at age 3, fully-funded schools through new progressive revenue sources, sustainable staffing levels and IEP adherence, more complete access to extracurriculars and wraparound support programs for students, and continuing to fully commit to the elected role, the schools, and the neighborhoods that got her into office. With a record and a platform like that, it’s no wonder that Ebony is the consensus progressive union candidate, and sports further backing from State Senator Mike Simmons (GS22), AlderFave Maria Hadden, Our Schools Chicago, United Working Families 50th Ward, Sunrise Chicago, One People’s Campaign, and more.
Dear reader, when given a choice between a ballot ghost, a man who’s not really running, and a bonafide badass independent incumbent, the answer could not be more clear. Subdistrict 2A residents should confidently vote in Ebony DeBerry for a full 4-year term on the School Board.
UPDATE: 10/1
Apparently Bruce Leon isn’t even on the ballot anymore, despite significantly missing the deadline to drop out? Strange. This is the second election in which that’s the case, and at this point I’m just dying to see if he goes for the Quitter’s Turkey in his City Treasurer run. Not to be outdone, Hector Morales finally has a website! It’s total garbage and riddled with grammatical mistakes, multiple claims that being an attorney who represents small businesses will translate into meaningful advocacy for students, leftover Wordpress tooltips, broken or misdirected links, a fake campaign phone number, and a claim that “there’s no corporate money here,” which is somehow both demonstrably false (he’s endorsed by Common Ground Collective and Urban Center Action) and technically true (his campaign is completely broke). Not only is Ebony DeBerry the best candidate running, she’s also the only one who respects her constituents enough to actually try.
