If you are keeping count, Tuesday marks exactly one week until the February 22 municipal election. Chicago residents have only seven more days to decide who will next lead Chicago. Over the past week, Eight Forty-Eight has been trying to make that choice a bit more legible through one-on-one conversations with the candidates. Host Alison Cuddy spoke with Miguel Del Valle, Carol Moseley Braun and Patricia Van Pelt Watkins. Tuesday was Rahm Emanuel’s day. Emanuel is a Chicago native and he started his political career with the state’s largest public interest group.

In 1984 he worked on the late Paul Simon’s run for U.S. Senate. Emanuel has proven a wildly successful fundraiser for the Democratic Party. He helped fill the coffers of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and raised funds for our current Mayor’s 1989 election bid.

His accomplishments in Washington are many. In the early ’90s he was a cabinet member and then senior advisor to President Bill Clinton. Emanuel was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2002, representing Illinois’ 5^th Congressional District.

Most recently Rahm Emanuel served as President Barack Obama’s chief of staff. Of course he has returned to Chicago to run for Mayor of the city.

Music Button: Orgone, “Cruel Intentions”, from the CD Killion Vaults, (Ubiquity)