Tracking the Aldermanic races.

Has gotten a little easier with this new link that has come to my attention, AlderTrack. There's more information about who's challenging who or who's not being challenged right here at your finger tips. And I already found an interesting article about next year's elections in Chicago.

From Chicagoist about what's going on in the 7th and 8th Wards now that Todd Stroger is Cook County Board President and William Beavers is sitting on the Cook County Board as a commissioner.

Chicagoist won't be able to kick Daley around too hard, what with Bill "Dock" Walls running a noble and passionate — but ultimately losing — race against Hizzoner, and Dorothy Brown doing Daley's dirty work for him. But we are convinced that this is the election cycle where machine politics turns its full attention to the South Side, and into the black community. With William Beavers taking power on the Cook County Board of Commissioners, having assumed John Stroger's 4th District seat and controlling the Board Presidency through his puppet Todd Stroger, Daley only stands to gain this cycle. With Beavers firmly in control, heading his own mini-machine in the 7th and 8th Wards, what better opportunity to dig in even deeper and further entrench his interests than with two Aldermanic seats.

Although Jr. won't be running against Daley this time around, his wife, Sandi Jackson, will be vying for the 7th Ward seat being vacated by current Alderman Beavers. She'll be running against William Beavers' daughter, Darcel Beavers.

While Sandi Jackson and Darcel Beavers are throwing down in the 7th Ward, re-enacting much of the drama of the 1995 congressional primary when Jesse Jackson Jr. beat Emil Jones for an open House seat, the 8th Ward looks to be a cakewalk for Michelle Harris. The long-time secretary to the Cook County Board of Commissioners, niece of former Ald. Lorraine Dixon and former 8th Ward superintendent will replace Todd Stroger on the City Council when he takes office this winter. Being as deeply connected to the Ward as she is and with the field so crowded with four other candidates, Harris has the upper hand. If Beavers can hold the seat her father is leaving and Harris retains the 8th for the Stroger clan, the consolidation of power under William Beavers will be complete on the South Side, and the stage will be set for the rise of the new black machine. Even if Beavers loses in the 7th Ward, Jackson will be in a position to be appear as a reformer in future city and county races.

I'm intrigued that Beavers has a mini-machine going on here. Not that this isn't without precedent, you can perhaps count John Stroger but definitely look at the clout of William Dawson who I'm not sure anyone can ever match.

Of course in this post from last month this action is mixed in with other races around the city. So things might be exciting next year. Or at least I'd hope so!