United Neighbors of the 35th Ward is excited to announce our full slate of endorsed aldermanic candidates for the 2019 municipal elections! Each of these candidates responded to a thorough questionnaire describing all of the values that have been developed and discussed by UN35 members over the years. Each candidate was present for a public presentation after which all active members of UN35 (had attended at least one meeting or event in the previous two months) were able to vote to endorse, not endorse, or abstain.
– for 35th ward alderman –
incumbent
As a community organizer, former congressional caseworker, and now Alderman, I’ve worked to put working families and neighborhoods first. As a community organizer with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), I worked to keep families safe from deportation and win President Obama’s historic executive action to fix immigration. Prior to ICIRR, I served as a congressional caseworker in the office of Congressman Luis Gutierrez. There, I spearheaded successful constituent service efforts that helped families, seniors, and veterans cut through government red tape and solve their government problems. At the University of Illinois, I worked to secure unprecedented funding for women and LGBT programs. I’m proud to have been elected the first openly gay Latino member of the Chicago City Council, and in my new role I’m working to put the interests of Chicago’s working families before the interests of big and powerful corporations.
Rossana Rodriguez
– for 33rd ward alderman –
I am a mother, youth educator, and community activist seeking to become an independent, progressive alderman in Chicago’s 33rd Ward. I have spent the last decade working with youth and families in Albany Park. Originally from Puerto Rico, I attended my first demonstration at the age of six, when my neighborhood of Mariana waged a successful battle for public access to drinking water. Since then I have become a fierce advocate for public education, fighting against privatization and school closings in Puerto Rico and in Chicago. As a resident of Albany Park and founding member of 33rd Ward Working Families, I have also been a leader in the fights for rent control and immigrant rights in the ward. My career as an educator includes eight years as a director and mentor in a nationally acclaimed youth theater company in Albany Park, where I guided high school students to fulfill their artistic and academic potential. I hold a BA in Theater Education and an MA in Applied Theater, and live in the Albany Park neighborhood with my partner Bob, son Marcel, and terrier Louie.
Colin Bird-Martinez
– for 31st ward alderman –
My name is Colin Bird-Martinez. I am a husband, a community organizer, and a progressive leader in Hermosa. I grew up in Oak Park and attended University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, and have lived in Chicago for over 13 years. I currently live in Hermosa with my husband Joshua, our dog Frankie, and two cats, and work as an automotive analyst. Hermosa is my home, and I and am deeply committed to building progressive power with my neighbors, and have spent well over 4,000 hours volunteering for local community organizations, events, and projects. I co-founded the Hermosa Neighborhood Association in 2014 and have served as an active member of the Local School Council (LSC) for William P. Nixon Elementary since 2015.
Daniel La Spata
– for 1st ward alderman –
Daniel La Spata is a long-time community activist in the 1st Ward. He moved to Chicago almost twenty years ago to attend North Park University. After college, he moved to Logan Square in 2005 and soon got involved in the Logan Square Neighborhood Association to help develop his community, serving as a board officer for five years. In that role, La Spata helped lead the fight for the Zapata Apartments affordable housing development, advocated for better municipal inclusionary housing policies, and helped pass legislation to protect renters in properties facing foreclosure. His interest in electoral politics developed out of the campaigns of State Rep. Will Guzzardi and Ald. Carlos Rosa, seeing how the right candidate and campaign can advance a movement and spark the community’s imagination for what a more progressive society could look like. In the last three years, he experienced this firsthand through Reclaim Chicago and UN35, where he advanced his leadership through both issue and electoral campaigns. He recently graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a Masters in Urban Planning and Public Policy. He currently lives in Logan Square with his wife Alicia.