* Alex Nitkin at the Daily Line has a great piece on the scheduled vote tonight to replace disgraced former Rep. Luis Arroy (D-Chicago). A small excerpt…

Nearly a dozen Northwest Side Democratic Committeepeople are due to meet on Friday to pick a replacement for arrested State Rep. Luis Arroyo (D-Chicago) following his resignation from the General Assembly earlier this month. […]

Arroyo has not told [30th Ward Ald. and Democratic Committeeman Ariel Reboyras] whom he plans to enlist as a proxy to cast the plurality of the votes — but Reboyras “hope[s]” that the former representative gives him that power, making the 30th ward alderman the sole decider for who gets to fill the seat, he said. […]

Other party leaders said they believe Arroyo and Reboyras have agreed to appoint Eva-Dina Delgado, who is chief of staff to the president of Peoples Gas and a former CTA lobbyist.

But Reboyras said on Wednesday that he does not know if Delgado still wants the job.

“I called Eva-Dina, and she did not respond,” Reboyras said. “I don’t know if she’s going to present her credentials.”

I told subscribers about Delgado earlier this week and suggested it would be wise of her to stay away from this whole thing. House Speaker Michael Madigan has decreed that if a replacement is selected with proxy votes from Arroyo’s 36th Ward then that person will face a qualifications challenge. The resulting uproar could easily splash onto her utility company employer. Not a good thing in these trying times. To be clear, though, she’d probably be a solid candidate if it wasn’t for all of this mess.

* Mayor Lori Lightfoot is allied with Ald. Reboyras, so I asked the mayor when she was in Springfield this week what she made of his threats to file a federal lawsuit if his and Arroyo’s decision was not honored by the Illinois House…

I was a little surprised to see Ariel Reboyras’ comments. I know him quite well and they seemed a little out of character. But in my conversations with him is he’s concerned that there’s a movement by some to try to take this out of the majority Latinx community’s hands. And that’s I think where he was coming from. But I think the speaker has said what he said and I think that it’s the right approach.

The progressives in that district have their own candidate, a Latina, so we’ll have to see how this plays out in the primary.

*** UPDATE *** This development takes a huge argument away from Ald. Reboyras and hands the progressives a late win…