Del Valle Confident He Can Win With Less Than $1M
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago City Clerk Miguel del Valle said Friday that he thinks he can win the race for mayor with less than $1 million, while other top candidates plan to spend several million dollars.
"I'm not in their league when it comes to fund-raising," del Valle told CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine.
CBS 2 has been conducting a series of interviews with the mayoral candidates and Del Valle, a former State Senator and the current City Clerk, was the only candidate so far to have ruled out tax increases for at least some Chicagoans.
Del Valle pledged not to raise taxes on people of incomes below a certain level.
"What we don't want to do is tax the lower income folks of middle income folks. They've been taxed enough," del Valle said.
That includes property taxes, he said, though he also said he doesn't want to cut city services.
"Middle management is one area we're gonna have to cut, we're going to have to consolidate," del Valle said. "We need to reduce the head count in the city of Chicago."
Del Valle told Levine he could see the city cutting as much as $100 million in middle management costs.
The city clerk also is a disciple of what you might call the "Obama School of deficit reduction."
"It has to be a combination of cuts and additional revenues. You cannot cut your way out of this," del Valle said.
He said he believes some of those revenues could come from exchanges on Chicago's world-famous trading floors.
"We ought to be taxing financial transactions in the city of Chicago," del Valle said. "All those folks that made the big money in the stock market, should be paying a little more."
Del Valle said he's pro business, but when reminded of a bill he once introduced in Springfield requiring all developers to set aside 25% of their projects for affordable housing, he said "you're asking me about old proposals; we're considering a lot of new proposals.
"I'm not gonna respond to old proposals, I'm looking at a whole new set of measures," he added.
When asked if he doesn't believe in those old proposals anymore he said he believes there should be a way of making sure the process of development is balanced.
He now prefers linked development, with support and financing of downtown projects linked to support and financing of neighborhood development.
Del Valle also called the debate over Rahm Emanuel's residency "a mere distraction."
You can see and hear why he feels that way in the video below.
Del Valle's campaign is clearly under-funded compared to some others, but appears very rich in ideas.
See Jay Levine's extended one-on-one interview with Miguel del Valle here.
