http://www.chicagoreader.com/TheBlog/archives/2006/12/29/anatomy-rubber-stamp Comments On: Anatomy of a rubber stamp by Mick Dumke en-us Copyright 2009 Chicago Reader. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Chicago Reader readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Chicago Reader. wil@desert.net (Chicago Reader Webmaster) Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:01 -0600 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:00:00 -0600 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by Riley]]> Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:44:34 -0500 Chicago Reader Posted by PSmith]]> Sun, 25 Feb 2007 03:54:15 -0600 Chicago Reader Posted by dm]]> Sun, 07 Jan 2007 06:47:51 -0600 Chicago Reader Posted by Frank Coconate]]> Fri, 05 Jan 2007 21:32:53 -0600 Chicago Reader ... so-called divided roll call votes— > votes in which at least one alderman votes against the majority. > These instances are pretty rare. The mental trap you can fall into is to parse this data more closely than it really deserves and draw misleading conclusions. For example, > Toni Preckwinkle ... > has shown the most independence, > voting with Mayor Daley 55 percent of the time. The first point to make here is that "voting with the Mayor" is ambiguous. Mayor Daley does not vote in City Council except to break ties which Daley has never done. Simpson's team INFERS Daley's position by tracking a loyal alderman. While this is a decent enough methodology, and I agree with the researcher's judgments, it is still inexact. Frustrating this type of methodology is Daley's recent penchant for appearing to sit out and "no comment" on Council issues, claiming it's up to them, the duly elected representatives of the people, I'm just a humble public servant. Then, of course, you have to bear in mind that all of the percentages quoted are percentages of the DIVIDED ROLL CALL VOTES. To focus too closely on these votes is to loose sight of the fact that at every City Council meeting every month, our brave Aldermen mindlessly cast HUNDREDS of votes in rubber-stamp lock-step with the Daley machine. Fact is the most "independent" Alderman in our City Council votes with Daley 99.99% of the time. The inescapable conclusion when looking at the broader preponderance of the data is that there are NO independents on our City Council, and that the recent rumors of an awakening in Our Fair City's legislative branch are greatly exaggerated. So when you try to make the case that, for example, Preckwinkle is somehow more independent that Tillman, you're really splitting thin blond ones here. It seems like we Chicagoans are so desperate to see some meager signs of life in our moribund City Council that we are prone to read too much into this.
Posted by Hugh]]> Tue, 02 Jan 2007 13:02:17 -0600 Chicago Reader