« Stump Connolly Reporting: Willie Wilson at the House of Hope | Goethe, Floyd, Rahm & Me » |
Election 2015 Fri Jan 30 2015
Aldermanic Candidate Gets Industrial-Strength Endorsement
Industrial music pioneer Martin Atkins has lived in Chicago for 15 years. A drummer for everyone from Public Image Ltd. to Nine Inch Nails to his own Murder Inc. and Pigface, the Bridgeport resident is now drumming up support for Maureen Sullivan, a candidate for 11th Ward alderman to replace retiring Ald. James Balcer.
In the video, Atkins likens the Daleys to England's royal family, with "generations of people who just assume that they get the gig." Sullivan is running against Patrick Daley Thompson, commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and a member of the sprawling Daley clan whose ancestral home is Bridgeport. Another family member is the 11th Ward committeeman: John P. Daley, current Cook County Commissioner and former state senator and representative.
But much like the Daleys, Sullivan has deep roots in Bridgeport. She's lived there for most of her life, and co-wrote a book on the neighborhood's history. She co-founded a campaign to save the Ramova Theater, and helped launch the Bridgeport Alliance, Bridgeport Business Association and the Palmisano Park Advisory Council.
"I've seen Maureen work tirelessly for the neighborhood over the last six or seven-plus years -- well before Bridgeport was cool," Atkins said in an email. "She isn't the automatic person for the job, she didn't just decide to work hard for the neighborhood and the people in it. She didn't ask for my endorsement (for what it may be worth) -- over the last decade or so, she earned it."