Congrats to Maria Hadden on winning re-election in the 49th ward! Maria received 72.7% of the vote after reviewing the results on 3/4/2023. This is an increase of 9% over her initial win back in 2019 against Joe Moore.
Competing candidate Belia Rodriguez received only 17.3% of the vote, and Bill Morton received 10.17%.
It seems that Rogers Park missed unintentionally electing a potentially problematic Alderperson. Days before the election, Belia Rodriguez settled with the Illinois State Elections Board for failing to report an in-kind donation and properly notate political advertising with who paid for it. The in-kind donation was related to the People For Rogers Park PAC, a PAC run by her former colleague Dorothy Gregory of the Rogers Park Business Alliance. You can find these records here (begins on page 65 through 107) and here. Belia donated more to that PAC than her own campaign as of 12/31/22. Such suggests that she was more involved in the PAC than she led on social media posts and that she know of gaining benefit from it, especially after claiming the PAC didn’t help her when people asked. She also claimed that she was running a self-funded campaign, but financial reports on IllinoisSunshine.org say otherwise. Even without the questionable finances, Belia was known for being aggressive toward voters and refusing to answer questions about her platform in detail unless you attended one of her fundraisers. She also had several distinctive characters who don’t live in the ward attempt to influence voters through email mailings, social media, and even via a website they ran.
Bill Morton on the other hand, known for running multiple times and seemingly using the Rogers Park Chamber of Commerce for self-interests as President of the organization, was cited for hosting events without proper permits at the former site for Leona Steakhouse that has been for sale. (ref: Block Club Chicago) In a neighborhood debate, Bill also falsely claimed that Rep. Kelly Cassidy was assaulted on the Red line, which she immediately denied.
We look forward to seeing what Maria does over the next 4 years. We hope more constituents become actively engaged throughout the tenure of an Alderperson and not just during the election, where campaigns can easily mislead them.
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