FOP declares all-out war on Martwick
Thursday, Mar 17, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I told subscribers this morning about this and other FOP-involved races. Here’s Fran Spielman…
Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara is demanding that three of his union’s strongest City Council supporters choose between their loyalties to his group and their allegiance to the firefighters union.
At a stormy meeting last week, Catanzara insisted that the three council members, all former firefighters — Nick Sposato (38th), Anthony Napolitano (41st) and Jim Gardiner (45th) — pledge their support to Erin Jones, a Chicago Police Department detective challenging incumbent state Sen. Rob Martwick (D-Chicago).
Martwick is a favorite of the Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2, having championed a costly firefighter pension sweetener over Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s strenuous objections.
But Catanzara said his members want Martwick gone for having helped the Black Caucus push what Catanzara called a “ridiculously left-wing, radical Democrat” criminal justice reform bill through the General Assembly. […]
“Our members want Martwick’s head on a platter. … He has to go. And you either are for our member or you are for Bob Martwick, who helped champion that bill. There is no middle ground. And if you do support Bob Martwick, there will be retribution in the elections next year. You’re just going to have to answer for that support,” Catanzara said in a You-Tube message to his members posted Tuesday night.
* The full quote is weird, though. I isolated the audio…
It sounds to me like Catanzara said “I didn’t say that our members want Martwick’s head on a platter…” but that wouldn’t make much sense.
I still wonder how they think the FOP can win a Democratic primary with a Republican, but I suppose we’re about to find out.
- ChicagoBars - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 10:12 am:
Silly politics by FOP. Besides the CFD pension bill Sen Martwick also got the elected school board done which (even if I personally think it’s absurdly large board) should give him plenty of political chits to call on if this turns into a serious challenge.
- P. - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 10:13 am:
Sorry but isn’t Martwick pushing mightily to get FOP members billions in pension payment increases?
- Roadrager - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 10:14 am:
I look forward to more aggressive political moves from John Catanzara, a man with so much political savvy that he came decked out in orange to a Chicago St. Patrick’s parade. Maybe he can nominate a Blue Lives Matter flag to run for alderman in the 45th if Gardiner finally gets in too deep.
- Candy Dogood - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 10:14 am:
===Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara===
This guy is the poster child for why we need stronger legislation to improve police accountability and specific limits on qualified immunity. I’m not sure this is a very well thought out political move.
“How dare you try to make cops follow the law.” is not the best message.
The Chicago FOP would do well to replace their president before he maneuvers them politically into a place where the only allies they have are elected officials that do not live in Chicago and do nothing but bad mouth Chicago to their constituents.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 10:15 am:
===Sorry but isn’t Martwick pushing mightily===
And getting a ton of crud for it in the news media to boot. But methinks that bill is on indefinite hold.
- Obamas Puppy - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 10:16 am:
This Castaza and Dan Proft are perfect foes. Incompotent bomb throwers who enjoy seeing their own names in the papers more than the people they are supporting.
- allknowingmasterofraccoondom - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 10:19 am:
This FOP guy needs to go. I can’t believe all members support this guy, but as his president I assume they all do. Cops are here for very specific reasons, and politics is not one of them.
Cantanzara is the cops worst enemy these days.
- Teddy - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 10:24 am:
== I still wonder how they think the FOP can win a Democratic primary with a Republican ==
I guess if there ever was a year it might work, this would be it, given what we’ve seen from the polling of Dem voters in the city concerning crime.
Luckily for Martwick, Cantazara is being “on-brand” here — way overplaying his hand. Not only did he recruit a bad candidate (although Erin Jones is a pretty good ballot name) but he’s stoking a fire vs. police rivalry. A lot of firefighters in that district who might be inclined to turn on Martwick because of his vote on the crime bill will stick with him now.
- Gladhander - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 10:25 am:
Every cycle, Republicans on Chicago’s northwest side run a Republican in the Democratic Primary against Martwick (and, now, LaPointe). He’s handily defeated all of them and surely will do so again.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 10:27 am:
Defeating Martwick might be the only thing that will ever get Mayor Lightfoot and John Catanzara on the same page.
And when those two both want him out, it kind of tells me he’s doing something right.
- Miso - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 10:29 am:
If not for Senator Martwick, there is a real, true, apparent possibility that a sentence removing qualified immunity would have been in the Act. But for his insistence at its removal, police would not have the benefit of qualified immunity. Let that sink in. The Union is upset that their targeted Senator stood up for them on the “most objectionable” part of the initial filed bill. He took loads and loads of grief for that position too.
- Regular democrat - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 10:30 am:
Rich is on the money . Again coppers getting hurt by the behavior of their leader. Martwick going to put that bill in a drawer for a while. If Cantazara had any credibility he could have had input in the crafting of the crime bill but nobody wants anything to do with him. Instead of working with a guy to enhance benefits he wants him out. I could go on but i will violate the language restrictions.
- Original Rambler - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 10:30 am:
Guess it’s time to dust off the checkbook for Martwick. My Pavlovian response to any candidate pushed by the FOP or CTU is to write a check to the opponent.
- Roadrager - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 10:39 am:
==This FOP guy needs to go. I can’t believe all members support this guy, but as his president I assume they all do.==
Something I learned in the last FOP election is that retirees get to cast votes as well as active members. So the biggest voting bloc is Burge-era pensioners who now spend their days guzzling Fox News and Facebook. Catanzara’s rise makes perfect sense in that context.
- Amalia - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 10:45 am:
so one of your biggest supporters in the Senate who got tweaks to the bill is on the hot seat because the entire crime bill was not stopped? Catanzara is just stupid. so this one will be teachers union and firefighters union vs. police. ridiculous.
- NW Sider - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 10:47 am:
Catanzara barely got elected. He only won by activating lots of retired voters who don’t live anywhere near this District. There are thousands of police families who vote for Martwick year after year. You can always count on people to vote their pocketbook.
- Leslie K - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 10:52 am:
===The Union is upset that their targeted Senator stood up for them on the “most objectionable” part of the initial filed bill. He took loads and loads of grief for that position too.===
This is exactly it and what I continue to not understand. Rob takes hard votes and difficult positions to advocate for his constituents, which includes a lot of both police and fire. Yet FOP and other CPD keep targeting him. So misguided and unfair.
- vern - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 11:08 am:
The FOP is a bad union. This fact gets lost sometimes in both the Catanzara circus and the national defund movement, but it’s true. The FOP is demanding some of its strongest allies, all of whom have been past public safety union members, to break solidarity and oppose one of the firefighters’ strongest champions in the legislature.
When was the last time you heard of the FOP joining another union’s picket line? Where were they on the minimum wage bill, or any other major labor priority of the last few years? To the best of my memory, they were even silent during the Rauner administration on right-to-work and the Janus case.
Now that defund is obviously not going to happen, progressives should be working with more competent unions to poach police departments from the FOP. Plenty of other unions have experience representing police officers effectively without any of this nonsense. A real union would be better for police as workers and could help de-radicalize departments that have lost the plot.
- Big Dipper - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 11:15 am:
The funny thing is Cataranza makes those three goofballs look moderate.
- SaulGoodman - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 11:19 am:
** Guess it’s time to dust off the checkbook for Martwick. My Pavlovian response to any candidate pushed by the FOP or CTU is to write a check to the opponent.**
So, uh, who’s gonna tell him?
- Arsenal - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 11:25 am:
==Sorry but isn’t Martwick pushing mightily to get FOP members billions in pension payment increases? ==
Yes, and that’s really interesting to me. There’s long been a class of Dems who were able to get away with a fair amount of the kind of social liberalism that turned cops’ stomachs bc they defended the cops’ pensions. Not that they won the cop vote, but the cops didn’t target them. If that “system” is breaking down, it could be really interesting.
Like Rich, I’m a little dubious that Cantazara can really get enough Back The Blue folks to pull Democratic ballots (especially with a Republican primary that seems like it’s going to turn on “Should we deify cops, or is it enough to just canonize them?”). But at some point, if guys like Martwick get no credit for defending cops’ pensions, you have to wonder if they’ll keep doing it.
- Arsenal - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 11:27 am:
==Maybe he can nominate a Blue Lives Matter flag to run for alderman in the 45th if Gardiner finally gets in too deep. ==
I mean, Gardiner is already basically a Blue Lives Matter guy. 45 is one of, like, 3 wards where that isn’t really an albatross.
- say when - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 11:35 am:
Martwick voted for the SAFE-T Act, but like other moderate members, likely would NOT have voted for it if qualified immunity was included. In fact, most of those votes were directly *contingent upon QI not being included. So, Martwick held the line on the most important issue for the cops. The remainder of the provisions in the SAFE-T Act that pertain to police conduct are, frankly, codifying practices that scrupulous cops utilize anyway. Couple that with Martwick’s pension help, and solid voting record with unions in general (and the FOP specifically) it’s hard to imagine why the FOP would oppose him.
Catanzara is the same person that fought to the end against vaccine mandates for his members, and watched them call out sick (and some die) all the while. Now he’s trying to take out one of his strongest supporters in the GA (and threatening local elected friends), even though they help the FOP at every turn. It seems that Catanzara’s singular interest is self, and that he will bully and threaten anyone–even at the expense of his members interests. How pathetic. The FOP would be better served by a leader that has integrity, and one that makes decisions with the best interests of his/her members at heart.
- Cheryl44 - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 11:45 am:
My friends and I who are generally white and 50+ hate this guy. I have had this discussion with lots of them. In general we would think long and hard about dialing 911 if we needed the police.
- Lester Holt’s Mustache - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 11:46 am:
== This guy is the poster child for why we need stronger legislation to improve police accountability and specific limits on qualified immunity. ==
If the world operated logically, Cataranza would be the poster child for Ken Griffin’s quixotic dream of eliminating public employee unions.
- CLR - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 12:08 pm:
I thought Martwick was really going to be in trouble this year. He underperformed in the last general, has a knack for making enemies, and no matter how you slice it, his vote on the police reform bill is a challenge in that district.
But Cantazara’s ham-handedness is a real gift. He wants to make an example of Martwick and scare aldermen heading into the city election next year. But if Martwick survives, Cantazara is gonna be in trouble. Nothing damages the reputation of a bully more than talking big and losing. Ask Putin.
- Dotnonymous - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 12:24 pm:
“The FOP is a bad union.”
FOP is just a fraternal organization.
- Drake Mallard - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 12:27 pm:
===Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara===
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin without an army, intelligence, class, or common sense.
- low level - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 2:27 pm:
Yet Conservatives accuse other public employee unions of being too involved in politics. Spare me.
- low level - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 2:28 pm:
== FOP is just a fraternal organization.==
Please tell me you’re kidding
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 2:37 pm:
Catanzara is a dangerous caricature of leadership because looking before leaping or strategy before action aren’t his strong points, and being angry and wanting revenge is psychotic and not helping long term without seeing things outside of hate.
Winning elections *can* be about motivation ad motivating others, but it’s rare that the anger of one maybe thru a proxy leads to election success.
- Original Rambler - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 3:44 pm:
FOP is just a fraternal organization.
Maybe that is the explanation why retirees get to vote for president. That has always been a head scratcher for me.
- Big Dipper - Thursday, Mar 17, 22 @ 7:11 pm:
You’d think with the presence of female cops they would have retired the Fraternal part decades ago.
- anon2 - Friday, Mar 18, 22 @ 9:53 am:
If I had to choose, I’d go with the firefighters union. Firefighters are used to working together.
- Chris - Friday, Mar 18, 22 @ 12:27 pm:
“FOP is just a fraternal organization“
If you negotiate on behalf of your members like a union does, you’re a union.
Or would Starbucks and Amazon support their employees joining a “fraternal organization” and then negotiate pay, benefits and terms of employment for all employees with the frat president with no issue bc it’s “not a union”??