November 04, 2010

Emanuel collects Hollywood checks, Chicago barbs

While Chicago mayoral contender Rahm Emanuel is in Hollywood today to collect checks at a fundraiser hosted by media industry titans, rival candidate Gery Chico plans to hold a party at Hollywood Grill to announce that Ald. Joe Moreno is backing his candidacy for mayor.

Moreno has served on City Council since March, when Mayor Richard Daley picked him to replace Manny Flores who gave up his seat to lead the Illinois Commerce Commission. Flores announced last month that he was endorsing Chico.

Emanuel’s campaign said the Hollywood fundraiser is hosted by his brother Ari Emanuel, co-CEO of William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, one of Hollywood's largest talent agencies; Bob Iger, CEO of the Walt Disney Co.; David Geffen, former DreamWorks SKG partner; and Peter Chernin, former head of Fox.

Other prospective mayoral candidates used Emanuel’s departure to pile on. Former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun suggested the former White House chief of staff fits in better on the West Coast than the Midwest.

“On this day when President Obama and Illinois Democrats are still recovering from painful political losses . . . Rahm Emanuel is off in Hollywood hanging out with bankers and billionaires,” Moseley Braun said in a statement.

Moseley Braun, who enjoyed her own Hollywood stardom as the nation's first black woman senator, also suggested in her statement that Emanuel was partly to blame for Democratic losses in Congress. Now that the Nov. 2 election is over, the gloves appear to be off in the Feb. 22 mayor’s race.

All 50 aldermen on the Chicago City Council had to file paperwork earlier this year detailing their outside income and gifts. The Tribune took that ethics paperwork and posted the information here for you to see. You can search by ward number or alderman's last name.

The Cook County Assessor's office has put together lists of projected median property tax bills for all suburban towns and city neighborhoods. We've posted them for you to get a look at who's paying more and who's paying less.

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