For the last few weeks, Chicago mayoral candidates have been putting the "L" in "election."
With varying degrees of frequency, the five mayoral candidates are turning up at train stations to shake the hands of potential voters ahead of the Feb. 24 election, with one candidate saying it's a chance to give hurried commuters a leaflet they can digest on the train and another saying it offers a window into CTA issues.
The mayor of Chicago plays a major role in the operation of the CTA because he or she nominates the CTA president, which has to be approved by the CTA board, whose membership is split with mayoral and gubernatorial appointees.
And riders can expect to see these candidates, some of whom don't ride the CTA regularly, at CTA stations even more in the run-up to the election. Politicos canvassing for votes on the CTA is not new but the extent they have been using the CTA to appeal to voters appears to be following a strategy that Mayor Emanuel employed in his first mayoral campaign four years ago when he visited more than half of CTA's 140-plus stations.
Dick Simpson, a former Chicago alderman who teaches political science at the University of Illinois-Chicago, said candidates like politicking at CTA stations because it's much faster than going door to door to voter homes. The politicos also don't have to engage in long discussions about their platforms.
"It's a quick, visible way to contact [voters] at a quick and fairly superficial level," Simpson said. "At CTA stops, you don't get in long debates about policy. Voters might get a sentence or two in but it's not like a political debate."
The stations candidates choose to visit may also give clues to the constituencies they are trying to target. Millennials, in particular, appreciate face-to-face interaction, a University of Chicago political professor told RedEye. The mayoral candidates appear to favor stops along the Red Line, the busiest CTA rail line, particularly the 95th Street stop in Roseland, which sees about 20,000 bus and train commuters a day, according to CTA data.
Emanuel, now trying to win a second term, has visited more than 35 CTA stations since the summer, including a few news conferences he's held at Red Line stops to celebrate the start of station renovations, according to his official mayoral calendar. Still, it's a far cry from his 100-plus CTA station visits four years ago in his first mayoral campaign when he was dropping by CTA stations in the mornings and evenings.
Emanuel tends to visit CTA stations in the mornings and typically drives to the stations, his campaign spokesman Steve Mayberry said.
"The mayor has a very busy schedule and the campaign finds it easier to schedule him at 'L' stops in the morning--although he will make evening visits, on occasion," Mayberry said.
This campaign cycle, the mayor has been fond of visiting stations on the north and south ends of the Red Line, the north end of the Blue Line, the north side of the Brown Line and the south end of the Orange Line, the calendar shows. Some stations, such as the 79th Street Red Line station in Chatham, he has visited more than once since the fall.
The mayor, whose staff said he rides the Brown Line to work about once a week, does not appear to frequent stations served by the Green Line, which cuts through the South and West Sides of the city, and the Pink Line, which travels through Chicago's West and Southwest Sides, according to his official calendar.
The four mayoral candidates trying to unseat Emanuel appear to have visited fewer CTA stations than the mayor.
Ald. Bob Fioretti, whose Second Ward includes parts of the West and South Sides, has stopped by the Cottage Grove Green Line stop in Woodlawn, the Roosevelt stop on the Red, Orange and Green lines in the South Loop, North and South Side Red Line stations and Metra stops on the Southwest Side, Fioretti spokesman Tony Boylan said.
Boylan said many of the signatures used to get Fioretti on the ballot were garnered at CTA bus stops and "L" platforms, especially at the Merchandise Mart stop on the Brown and Purple lines. CTA rules don't allow anyone to hand out literature within the areas of stations where riders pay to enter but there's no explicit rule regarding asking for signatures.
Fioretti, an occasional CTA bus rider to the Red Line for baseball games and Blue Line rider to O'Hare International Airport, has learned about inequities in Chicago's transit system through campaigning on the CTA, Boylan said.
"It's made Ald. Fioretti even more aware of transportation deserts on the South and West Sides, a subject he will address as mayor," Boylan said.
A spokesperson for Cook County commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia did not return RedEye request for comment but a photo on social media shows Garcia visiting the Belmont stop on the Red and Brown Lines in Lakeview last month. Garcia was also at the Halsted Orange Line stop in Bridgeport last week.
Businessman Willie Wilson said in a statement he's visited the 95th Street Red Line stop and the Jefferson Park Blue Line stop on the Northwest Side because "I am a man of the people. I have callouses on my hands because I've been a hard-working man all my life. I wanted to go where the hardest working people are."
Community activist William "Dock" Walls, a West Side resident, said he has visited Green Line stops on the West Side, the 95th Street Red Line stop and the Howard stop on the Red, Yellow and Purple Lines in Rogers Park. Walls calls himself an occasional CTA rider.
"The typical morning rush hour rider is in an extreme hurry to catch their train to school or work. However, as they speed by, most will reach out to quickly grab the leaflets you may be handing out," Walls said in a statement to RedEye.