Chicago Sun-Times endorses Carlos Rosa. Oops. I mean Rey Colon in my 35th Ward aldermanic race.

Here in Chicago’s Logan Square we have a real shot at expanding the Progressive Caucus in the city council with the election of Carlos Rosa, a young Gay Latino and community organizer.

Our family is hosting a meet-and-greet for Carlos this weekend.

I had to laugh this morning when I read the Chicago Sun-Times endorsement of incumbent Rey Colon.

Rey Colon won in 2011 with about 51 percent of the vote. Of 31 precincts in the old ward, only 13 were carried over in remapping, and even the boundaries of those 13 have changed. Colon — one of only three aldermen to oppose the infamous parking meter deal — has been unresponsive at times to residents, has been criticized for ties to developer Mark Fishman, and last summer was arrested for driving while intoxicated on the Eisenhower Expy. – without a valid driver’s license, to boot. Challenger Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, backed by SEIU and the Chicago Teachers Union, is running an energetic campaign, but his rigid opposition to restructuring pensions and raising property taxes makes him an unlikely partner in ending the city’s pension crisis. Ramirez-Rosa, on leave from a job as a community organizer for the Illinois Immigrant Rights, even opposes the new tax on cellphone users that was part of a negotiated deal to fix two of the city’s major pension funds.

I read this as the Sun-Times saying, sure, Rey Colon is unresponsive tool of developers and a serial drunk driver, but Carlos Rosa will defend our pensions and oppose the city adding additional tax burdens on the working people in our neighborhood. And he has a history of fighting for immigrant rights. So we endorse Colon.

Thanks, Chicago Sun-Times.