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Approval of Chicago mayor hits record low

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel participates in a panel discussion Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016, during the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Washington. (Cliff Owen / Associated Press)

CHICAGO – A vast majority of Chicagoans don’t consider Mayor Rahm Emanuel to be honest and trustworthy, don’t think he was justified in withholding the Laquan McDonald video and don’t believe his statements about the controversial police shooting, all fueling a record-low job approval, a new Chicago Tribune poll has found.

The survey results confirm a public crisis in confidence for the second-term mayor, who has faced weeks of street protests, accusations of a cover-up and a federal civil rights probe of his Police Department after fighting the public release of police dash-cam video that showed the shooting of the African-American teen by a white police officer.

Some protesters have called for Emanuel to resign, but the poll revealed that a bare majority of Chicago voters don’t think the mayor’s missteps have been so grave that he should quit. Still, 4 in 10 surveyed do want the mayor to resign, including half of black and Latino voters.

The poll reveals the deep public distrust of Emanuel that has developed since the McDonald shooting video was released in late November. Nearly 75 percent of Chicago voters do not believe the mayor’s explanation of how he learned of the details of McDonald’s shooting death, and more than two-thirds say the mayor was not justified in withholding the shooting video.

But the negative voter attitudes toward Emanuel extend beyond his handling of the McDonald case, accentuated by public concern over crime in general, policing, the fate of the city’s public school system and the mayor’s inability to relate to Chicagoans, the poll found.

All of it has led to an all-time low job approval for Emanuel as mayor: Only 27 percent of Chicagoans approve of his job performance, while a record 63 percent disapprove. The poll was conducted by Research America Inc.

The mayor’s job approval is down by nearly half from a poll conducted in March 2015, when Emanuel was locked in a runoff election with Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.

A year ago, Emanuel was able to boost his approval rating after spending millions of dollars airing a steady stream of TV ads designed to rehabilitate his political image.

Tribune News Service