Conyears-Ervin trounces Ald. Pawar in city treasurer’s race

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State Rep. Melissa Conyears-Ervin will become Chicago’s next city treasurer after trouncing outgoing Ald. Ameya Pawar in Tuesday’s runoff election.

The election was the first contested treasurer race since 1999, and pitted Pawar against Conyears-Ervin for the job of the city’s banker.

With 70 percent of 2,069 precincts reporting Tuesday, Conyears-Ervin held 59 percent of the vote to Pawar’s 41 percent.

Pawar called Conyears-Ervin around 8 p.m. to concede the race.
“You win some, you lose some,” Pawar said. “Life goes on.”
Pawar said he felt he moved the needle on important issues and vowed to support Conyears-Ervin, saying he wants her to succeed.
Conyears-Ervin and her supporters gathered at the National Association of Letter Carriers on the South Side.
Peter Gariepy, a former candidate in the race before he was knocked out in the first round of voting, said he was “incredibly happy” that Conyears-Ervin, who he endorsed, was leading.
“It was a hard fought race,” Gariepy said.
Conyears-Ervin, who is married to Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), said she would bring a watchdog mentality into the treasurer’s office. She proposed auditing city departments and becoming a one-stop shop for the city’s financial analysis. That would include moving the City Council Office of Financial Analysis under the treasurer’s control, she said.

RELATED: Follow live election results here

“Taxpayers’ dollars have to be more protected,” Conyears-Ervin said recently. “Right now, we have the fox watching the hen house. All of the financial analysis is being done through the office of the mayor or the City Council, which we know is ineffective.”

Conyears-Ervin, an Englewood native, said she knew best how to help low-income residents who need new investment in their neighborhoods because she’s been in their shoes.

Pawar spent election night at home with his wife and daughter.

Pawar served as alderman of the 47th Ward for the past eight years before he ran for treasurer on a progressive platform. Pawar decided not to run for re-election as alderman because of a self-imposed two-term limit.

As a candidate for treasurer, Pawar focused on several social and economic justice policies that, in his view, would reform decades of mismanagement in the treasurer’s office.

The most central of Pawar’s bold proposals was the opening of a public-owned bank as a way to offer low interest rates on student loan refinancing, invest in neighborhood small businesses and prioritize affordable housing. State legislation would need to be passed to give municipalities permission to create public banks in Illinois.

Pawar also suggested implementing a universal income pilot plan and using city employee pension funds and investments to help solve the student loan crisis.

Conyears-Ervin, who also said she was a progressive candidate, had said she wasn’t opposed to Pawar’s ideas for a public bank and universal income, yet she emphasized her priority to focus on policies that would have immediate effects, not long-term ideas.

“Residents need help as of yesterday,” Conyears-Ervin said before the election. “We have to be mindful to not just talk about concepts and talk about real action plans that we can do on day one.”

Conyears-Ervin voted on Monday, with her 2-year-old daughter making her first appearance at a polling place.

“When I think about my daughter it’s really her and all the children of Chicago that makes me do what I do,” Conyears-Ervin said. “I’m feeling really good.”

She spent election day visiting voters at several stops across the city, from close to O’Hare, to the west side and will spend her evening watching results from the National Association of Letter Carriers on the South Side.

Before polls closed Tuesday night, Pawar and his wife Charna Epstein were vote 50 and 51 at their polling location at Queen of Angels in Ravenswood.

“It was a little bittersweet,” the outgoing alderman said. “No matter what happens today, I’m not going to be alderman. This community gave me a shot eight years ago.”

“Win or lose, I feel good about what we’ve done,” Pawar said.

 

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April 2, 2019 at 08:14PM

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