Marty Quinn, the 13th Ward's vote counter, loses his last big fight with the Mayor by one vote

Ald. Marty Quinn (13th Ward) stood up at the City Council on Oct. 14 to close the debate on his own ordinance, O2026-0026270, the rule that would have required 30 votes instead of 26 to put the City in debt. Mayor Brandon Johnson had vetoed it on Oct. 9. Quinn needed 34 votes to override, and he had told the Sun-Times the week before that 34 was a reach. He moved to override anyway, and before the roll call he told his colleagues something he usually leaves to reporters.

"It's also a matter of fact that my time in this council is winding down."

Then came what he called unsolicited advice: the Council would never be independent until it changed its own rules. The override got 33 votes to 17, one short. One speech showed both halves of Quinn: a vote counter who knew the number and tried anyway, and a 15-year member who now talks about the Council in the past tense.

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He argues about rules, not about the Mayor

Quinn gave almost the same speech at the Committee on Finance on Sept. 14 and at the Council on Sept. 29, framing the rule as structure, not politics.

"This proposal does not apply to one mayor. This is a long-term plan that would apply to all Chicago mayors moving forward."

At Finance he put it more plainly: "It can't hurt to have more Alders taking a closer look at the city's financial health." On Oct. 14 he reduced the whole fight to arithmetic, saying the ordinance forces the mayor, whoever that mayor may be, to find four more votes on city debt issues.

"The facts are the rules have been used against this branch, this legislative branch, forever."

He is sharper in committee. On Sept. 9, questioning Bally's executives at the Committee on License and Consumer Protection about slot machines at Midway Airport, in his ward, he said he had learned of the plan from the newspaper.

"That's the problem with Bally's, right, is I learn about things in the newspaper."

He closed by calling the hearing a circus and congratulating Bally's for being part of it. The one personal shot he took on Oct. 14 was at Ald. Jason Ervin (28th Ward), the Mayor's floor leader, who he said once sat beside him fighting for Council independence: "So the hypocrisy in this room is a little thick today."

A reliable vote for the Council's bloc, but not a reflexive no

In our record of this term, Quinn has voted on 92 divided roll calls: 71 yeas and 21 nays. His nays cluster around money. He voted against the 2024 budget on Nov. 15, 2023 (41–8), against the 2025 revenue ordinance on Dec. 16, 2024 (27–23), and against the $830 million bond issue that squeaked through 26–23 on Feb. 26, 2025.

He has also voted yes when the Council's majority, not the Mayor, wrote the bill. He backed the curfew ordinance (27–22, June 18, 2025) and the 2026 revenue ordinance, labeled an alternative in the Clerk's record, which passed 29–19 on Dec. 19, 2025. The Sun-Times reported that Quinn was part of the bloc that rejected the Mayor's corporate head tax and passed its own budget. The same day, he voted for the 2026–2027 general obligation bonds, 39–11. The man who wants a higher bar for debt has voted for debt when the terms suited him.

His hemp ban passed 32–16 on Jan. 21. Johnson vetoed it, and the Sun-Times reported that Oct. 14 was Quinn's second failed override of a Johnson veto. In July, our notes from the Committee on Committees and Rules show him moving not to accept the Mayor's direct introduction of an income surcharge referendum, saying the administration was abusing the Council's rules.

Yea Nay Not voting

1Daniel La Spata: Not voting2Brian Hopkins: Yea3Pat Dowell: Yea4Lamont J. Robinson: Nay5Desmon C. Yancy: Yea6William E. Hall: Nay7Gregory I. Mitchell: Yea8Michelle A. Harris: Yea9Anthony Beale: Yea10Peter Chico: Yea11Nicole T. Lee: Yea12Julia M. Ramirez: Nay13Marty Quinn: Yea14Jeylú B. Gutiérrez: Yea15Raymond A. Lopez: Yea16Stephanie D. Coleman: Yea17David H. Moore: Nay18Derrick G. Curtis: Yea19Matthew J. O'Shea: Yea20Jeanette B. Taylor: Yea21Ronnie L. Mosley: Yea22Michael D. Rodriguez: Nay23Silvana Tabares: Yea24Monique L. Scott: Yea25Byron Sigcho-López: Nay26Jessica L. Fuentes: Nay27Walter R. Burnett: Nay28Jason C. Ervin: Nay29Chris Taliaferro: Not voting30Ruth Cruz: Yea31Felix Cardona Jr.: Yea32Scott Waguespack: Yea33Rossana Rodríguez Sánchez: Nay34William Conway: Yea35Anthony J. Quezada: Nay36Gilbert Villegas: Yea37Emma Mitts: Yea38Nicholas Sposato: Yea39Samantha Nugent: Yea40Andre Vasquez Jr.: Not voting41Anthony V. Napolitano: Yea42Brendan Reilly: Yea43Timothy R. Knudsen: Yea44Bennett R. Lawson: Yea45James M. Gardiner: Yea46Angela Clay: Nay47Matthew J. Martin: Nay48Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth: Nay49Maria E. Hadden: Nay50Debra L. Silverstein: Yea

O2026-0026270: the roll call, the timeline and the documents

Source: City Clerk · as of Oct 21, 2026

Source: City Clerk · as of Oct 21, 2026

Non-routine matters introduced this term, by the Clerk's category. Source: City Clerk.

The organization behind him

Quinn's power did not start at City Hall. He has represented the 13th Ward since 2011, and ABC7 reported in July that he began his career with the backing of former House Speaker Michael Madigan, now in prison for corruption, and that he said he would not be there without him. The Sun-Times reported in February 2023 that Madigan had been the 13th Ward Democratic Organization's committeeperson since 1969, that the two shared an office at 65th and Pulaski, and that Quinn said he was running his own campaign without ward money. He won that race with 87.8 percent, according to the Sun-Times.

The organization's methods became the ward's biggest controversy in 2018. ABC7 reported that challenger David Krupa, a 19-year-old DePaul student, collected 1,703 petition signatures and that Quinn supporters then filed 2,796 affidavits from residents seeking to revoke their signatures, of which only 187 matched his sheets. CBS 2 found residents who said they were told the affidavits were signature verifications; one said she had been deceived. Quinn withdrew the challenge in December 2018, the Sun-Times reported, saying he did not want it to tarnish his reputation, and called Krupa's federal lawsuit a distraction. WBEZ reported that a Cook County grand jury subpoenaed the election board's records on the challenge. Quinn won with about 85 percent, per NBC5. We found no reporting from those outlets on how the lawsuit or the grand jury matter ended.

A second allegation touched his family. In 2018, political consultant Alaina Hampton said she had told Quinn that his brother Kevin, a Madigan aide, was harassing her, and asked the City's inspector general to investigate Quinn for failing to act, ABC7 reported. Quinn said in a statement, per the Sun-Times, that he had ordered his brother to stop all contact and kept it quiet to honor Hampton's wishes. Neither outlet reported an outcome of the complaint. This July he told the Sun-Times he had no regrets.

What to watch

Quinn told the Sun-Times and ABC7 in July that he will not run in 2027 and will serve through May. He ruled out a run for mayor and has not endorsed a successor, though ABC7 reported he said his ward superintendent would be a good choice. In our record he still has R2026-0027168 pending, a resolution calling on the Mayor and the Illinois International Port District to end leases with QSL America, in the Committee on Workforce Development since July 15. On Oct. 14 he introduced a renewal of the shared-housing ban in the ward's 1st and 40th precincts. The Clerk had not posted the override roll call by publication; the ordinance's page will show each vote when it does. Quinn's page is at /ward/13.