Carrie Austin
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Carrie Austin is a former alderman on the
Chicago City Council The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the Law and government of Chicago, government of the Chicago, City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 alderpersons elected from 50 Wards of the United States, wards to serve four-year t ...
who represented the 34th ward on Chicago's far south side from 1994 to 2023. The predominantly
African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
ward includes portions of Morgan Park, Roseland, Washington Heights and
West Pullman West Pullman is a neighborhood located on the far south side of the city of Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the 77 official community areas of Chicago. The neighborhood was initially inhabited by workers of the Pullman Train Company looking t ...
.


Chicago City Council

Austin was appointed by
Richard M. Daley Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is an American politician who served as the 54th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 to 2011. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was reelected five times until declining to run for a seventh ter ...
to the seat of her late husband Lemuel Austin. She officially took office on July 13, 1994. She has been reelected in 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011,
2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...
, and
2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...
. As a member of the
Chicago City Council The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the Law and government of Chicago, government of the Chicago, City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 alderpersons elected from 50 Wards of the United States, wards to serve four-year t ...
, she serves on six committees: Budget and Government operations; Energy, Environmental Protection and Public Utilities; Finance; Health; Housing and Real Estate; and Zoning. Austin served as a delegate to the
2012 Democratic National Convention The 2012 Democratic National Convention was a gathering, held from September 4–6, 2012, at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina, in which delegates of the Democratic Party nominated President Barack Obama and Vice Pr ...
. Austin was an ally of mayors Richard M. Daley and
Rahm Emanuel Rahm Israel Emanuel (; born November 29, 1959) is an American politician, advisor, diplomat, and former investment banker who most recently served as List of ambassadors of the United States to Japan, United States ambassador to Japan from 2022 ...
. In
2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...
, Austin was a
presidential elector In the United States, the Electoral College is the group of presidential electors that is formed every four years for the sole purpose of voting for the president and vice president in the presidential election. This process is described in ...
from
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
. In the runoff of the
2019 Chicago mayoral election The 2019 Chicago mayoral election was held on February 26, 2019, to determine the next Mayor of Chicago, Mayor of the Chicago, City of Chicago, Illinois. Since no candidate received a majority of votes, a runoff election was held on April 2, 2 ...
, Austin endorsed
Lori Lightfoot Lori Elaine Lightfoot (born August 4, 1962) is an American politician and attorney who was the mayor of Chicago#List of mayors, 56th mayor of Chicago from 2019 until 2023. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, she ...
. On May 17, 2019, Austin publicly admitted that she had hired family members as interns on her committee payroll, refusing to apologize for it. The same day, mayor-elect Lightfoot announced that she would be naming
Pat Dowell Pat Dowell is a member of the Chicago City Council representing the City of Chicago's 3rd ward in Cook County, Illinois. Dowell was elected in April 2007 in a runoff election against incumbent Dorothy Tillman. Dowell had lost to Tillman in 2003. ...
to supplant Austin as the City Council's budget chairman. Austin publicly took offense to this move by Lightfoot. On July 1, 2021, Austin was indicted for allegedly taking
bribe Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official duty, to act contrar ...
s from a private development firm. Austin previously served as the Democratic Committeewoman for the 34th ward. In late 2019, she withdrew from the race to remain the ward's committeewoman. Austin's tenure on the Chicago City Council ended when she resigned from office effective March 1, 2023.


References

1949 births 2004 United States presidential electors 2008 United States presidential electors 2016 United States presidential electors 20th-century Illinois politicians 20th-century American women politicians 21st-century Illinois politicians 21st-century American women politicians African-American city council members in Illinois Chicago City Council members appointed by Richard M. Daley Illinois Democrats Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Women city councillors in Illinois {{Chicago-stub