By Adam Banicki

The Chicago City Council elections are weeks away and Reclaim Chicago volunteers are canvassing the streets seeking support for new progressive candidates.

Reclaim Chicago, a grassroots political organization, strives to elect new progressive candidates as the city’s officials. Its goal: to get corporate interests out of city politics.
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Abass Wane, originally from Senegal, Africa, is a volunteer with the organization.  He remembers Senegal for its dictators, but came to America to be free. Once here, he found that the corporations are the dictators. “Basically I am running from whatever that was, coming right back into the lion’s den,” Wane said.

Wane has been canvassing every weekend in the 35th Ward for Carlos Ramirez-Rosa. Ramirez-Rosa, a native Chicagoan, says he wants to improve the neighborhoods of the 35th Ward, which includes Albany Park, Irving Park, Hermosa and Logan Square.

Ramirez-Rosa is challenging incumbent Ald. Rey Colón and Ramirez-Rosa’s message to the voters is simple: “neighborhoods and families first, not big corporations.”