Nine Reasons Why Bob Fioretti Is A Badass

Bob Fioretti is challenging Rahm Emanuel in the Feb. 24 election to be Mayor of Chicago. Emanuel is well known for doing things such as mailing dead fish and treating voter input like the plague , but a real badass doesn't need to be a bully to get things done. This is why Bob has what it takes to take down Rahm and build a better city for ALL Chicagoans.

He's from the South Side of Chicago

The South Side of Chicago has given the world all different kinds of badasses. Michelle Obama, Nelson Algren, Bernie Mac, George Wendt, Derrick Rose... and that's just the famous ones.

Papa Fioretti was an Italian immigrant who came through Ellis Island, and settled down and had a family in Chicago. He worked for the Pullman Palace Car Company, where he joined the union. His mom was Chicago-born Polish. Growing up, Bob bussed tables and delivered newspapers. And while Bob learned the importance of hard work by contributing to the household while he went to school, his dad taught him the importance of sticking together with your friends, neighbors and coworkers.

He isn't afraid of Chicago's winters.

Via Facebook: alderman.fioretti

Like any good Chicagoan, Bob Fioretti shovels his sidewalk. And when he's done, he helps his neighbors clear theirs. If you've ever had to spend a day in damp socks because someone didn't clear their walk, you know just how badass that move is.

He Likes Corner Bars

Via chicagotribune.com

Unlike a certain investment banker-cum-mayor, Bob Fioretti likes to drink beer. At bars. In Chicago. With Chicagoans. No six-figure wine clubs for him.

Bob Doesn't Need to Push Around Poor Kids to Impress his Banker Friends on Wall Street

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When Rahm Emanuel's appointed school board announced they were looking at closing nearly 300 neighborhood schools in mainly poor and minority neighborhoods, Bob Fioretti was one of the only alderman to oppose the mayor. Bob was so against closing those schools, he went to many of the public hearings across the city to speak against the plan -- and not just in his West Loop ward. Bob spoke at hearings on the West side and all over the South side. If you ask the parents and teachers that were at those hearings, many of them will tell you that Bob Fioretti was one of the only elected officials in Chicago that stood with them to protect our schools.

He kicked cancer's ass.

Via abc7chicago.com

Bob was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2010 when he went to the doctor to have his tonsils removed. Never a darling of the Machine, he started treatment - including having to use a feeding tube for seven months - and still ran and won reelection as Alderman of Chicago's 2nd Ward.

...maybe that's why Rahm Emanuel can't look him in the eye

Via dnainfo.com

There aren't many aldermen who stand up to the mayor. The Chicago City Council is quite used to rubberstamping mayoral agendas

So perhaps Rahm was ill-equipped to handle it when Bob spoke out against the mayor's proposed 2015 budget. That's not a staged photo up there. Emanuel really did turn his back while the alderman spoke.

Bob Stands Up for His Friends

When Bob was a Senior at Mendel High School, another kid used a racial slur to refer to one of Bob's friends. Even though he grew up in a white neighborhood on the South side of Chicago, Fioretti cared a lot about the civil rights movement, and took it personally when his black friends were denied the rights and freedoms he was born with. Bob was so angry to hear that racist slur, he knocked the kid out.

...That's why he's not afraid to speak truth to power

Via articles.chicagotribune.com

Bob graduated from Northern Illinois University College of Law and went on to found a civil rights law firm in Chicago. He knew he was lucky to have grown up with so much opportunity, and it made him mad that other people in his city didn't have those options.

Bob represented the family of Baby Tamia in the high-profile adoption case that helped an emotionally distraught mom get her baby back from an unscrupulous adoption agency in Utah. The case was so significant that Illinois wound up changing it's adoption laws so that something like that would never happen again.

Since Bob became an alderman he's drastically improved Chicago's 2nd Ward, ridding it of corruption and patronage. He's made it easier for people to open and maintain businesses in the now-thriving West Loop. All across the city, Bob's fought for Chicagoans who wouldn't otherwise have a voice, co-sponsoring ordinances to raise the minimum wage to $15-an-hour, to give low-wage workers paid sick-leave, and to give us an elected school board. He's also supported TIF reform and financial transparency and has pushed hard to get the mayor to put our tax dollars back into our schools, and not into the accounts of major corporations.

And last but not least...

That hair (it's real!)