Why? Is it because he think's he can't win?

One of Mayor Brandon Johnson's most ardent City Council adversaries won't seek reelection in 2027

The decision by Ald. Marty Quinn (13th) not to seek reelection in 2027 will deny the renegade group of City Council members who seized control over the budget process one of its most reliable votes and best political tacticians.



Ald. Marty Quinn speaks to reporters after the Chicago City Council meeting was recessed at City Hall, Friday, Dec. 13, 2024.


Ald. Marty Quinn (13th), who learned the game of Chicago politics at the feet of now-convicted former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), is calling it a career after 15 years in the City

Council.

Quinn, 51, told the Sun-Times that he has decided not to seek reelection in 2027.

After 4,100 conversations in the last four years alone in the living rooms and at the front doors of his Southwest Side constituents, Quinn said he “left it all on the field” and no longer has the energy required to “manage from the front lines.” He said he cannot risk giving the demanding job less than it demands.

“It’s not easy, and it’s not predictable. A couple of weeks ago, we had a tornado reported through Clearing. I was out with the ward superintendent until 2 a.m. ‘cause you can’t manage what you don’t know. A year ago this time, we dealt with over 1,200 basement floodings,” he said.

“You stop everything, including your personal life… I’m glued to every forecast in the winter looking for the snowflakes to come because I’m on the job,” Quinn said. “At this point in my life, it’s time for me to move along… It’s just my time. I’m just ready.”

Four years ago, a record dozen members of the City Council chose political retirement over the battle for reelection.

This time around, Quinn is the first veteran alderperson to make that life-changing decision.

Quinn was part of a renegade bloc of moderate Democrats who rejected Mayor Brandon Johnson’s corporate head tax and passed an alternative city budget with major elements Johnson opposes.

Quinn’s departure will deny that rebel group one of its most reliable votes and best political tacticians.

Their loss is Mayor Brandon Johnson’s gain.

Quinn has gone toe-to-toe with the mayor on everything from the now-vetoed Chicago ban on hemp-derived products to the failed quest for a new Southwest Side police station and the successful effort to force Johnson to settle for a weaker version of the long-stalled granny flat ordinance.

Although he has clashed repeatedly with Johnson, Quinn is also a political pragmatist.

He predicted that Johnson would be a shoo-in to make the mayoral runoff and could overcome his low-30s public approval rating to win a second term on the strength of “five basic supporter groups.”

They are the Chicago Teachers Union, Democratic Socialists of America, African-American voters over 50, voters 18 to 25 years old who “never show up on polls” but showed up to blindside Paul Vallas in 2023, and the 622,000 renters whom Johnson is “trying to get his arms around” with his protecting renters ordinance.

“You put those folks together, there’s room for him to grow,” Quinn said. “I wouldn’t rule the CTU out. I wouldn’t rule the Democratic Socialists of America out. I wouldn’t do that. We saw what happened in New York a couple weeks ago.”

For years, Quinn served as one of the most trusted political lieutenants in Madigan’s vaunted and once-impenetrable 13th Ward Regular Democratic Organization.

Madigan’s political downfall began with a “Me Too” scandal involving Quinn’s brother Kevin.

Kevin Quinn’s firing for sexual harassment in 2018 triggered a trail of hidden payments that federal prosecutors used to expose a culture of corruption in Madigan’s inner circle.

Marty Quinn was accused of playing a pivotal go-between role between his own brother and political consultant Alaina Hampton, who accused Kevin Quinn of stalking her with a series of harassing text messages.

Marty Quinn has no regrets about his own conduct.

“I did everything Alaina asked me to do. The minute I found out about the interaction, I called Kevin into the office and said, ‘You make one more text message to her, you will be fired on the spot,’” the retiring alderperson said.

“It was a very difficult time professionally and personally in my life… A very public situation that wasn’t an easy time for our family. Not an easy thing to go through.”

Madigan was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison after choosing to take the stand in his own defense and lying during that testimony, according to the judge.

Quinn said he has talked to his 83-year-old mentor three times while in prison.

“I would just ask him how he’s doing and he’d say, ‘I’m doing okay.’ And then, it’s on to whatever is that is the issue at hand,” the alderperson said.

“The last conversation was about affordable housing. That warmed my heart because those are the conversations we would have [before]. Those are the kinds of interactions that I love having with Speaker Madigan because he’s so well-read.”

Burn out? No fire in his belly? Read the tea leaves? Thankless job? Something else? Hoping for something better? Moving to Florida?