Michael Sacks Would Like You to Know He's the Real Victim Here

Welcome to Chicago 312, a newsletter on Chicago municipal politics, institutional power, and how the city actually works. Subscribe here.

Spring break week means: masked ICE agents at O'Hare scrolling their phones, FEC receipts confirming what everyone already knew but was legal to keep a secret about re: primary spending, a State's Attorney who says accountability is illegal, and Joliet approving a data center the size of Central Park on top of a dying aquifer.

Here’s what happened in Chicago politics this week:

Michael Sacks Paraphrased MLKJ to Defend Dark Money

Tribune | Tribune FEC | WGN 

On Tuesday, Michael Sacks published a Tribune op-ed about why he supports AIPAC and how criticism of its spending is really "a thinly disguised effort to chase Jews and their allies out of the Democratic Party."

If you don't know who Michael Sacks is: Rahm Emanuel's top donor (over $2.8 million across two campaigns) and closest outside adviser. He’s on the board of the Obama Foundation.

FEC filings released Friday showed that AIPAC's super PAC, United Democracy Project, funneled over $5.3 million to bankroll "Elect Chicago Women" and "Affordable Chicago Now" — two PACs that ran $14M+ in ads across four congressional primaries without ever mentioning Israel. Sacks personally contributed $1.2 million. Altogether, AIPAC-affiliated groups spent over $19.7 million in the four races. The total outside spending hit $32.9 million — potentially the most expensive set of Illinois congressional primaries in history. These groups never disclosed their AIPAC connection during the campaign. Federal regulations didn't require contributor disclosure until after the March 17 primary (dodging reporters to do so)— a gap the groups used strategically.

So, Tuesday — three days after those filings went public — Sacks published a Tribune op-ed titled "Why I support AIPAC and a big tent Democratic Party." One of the best lines: "To paraphrase the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., we need more thermostats and fewer thermometers." Just what MLK always dreamed of — the most poll-tested, message-tested, focus-grouped dark money operation in Chicago primary history. Sacks' op-ed frames criticism of this spending as antisemitism, while asking:

Why It Matters: Sacks isn't talking to people who read Chicago 312 - he's talking to his donor base, telling them to hold the line as municipals approach and public sentiment against AIPAC grows. The double standard he's complaining about is that AIPAC spent millions to influence elections while hiding that it was AIPAC, and now wants to be treated as a normal participant in democratic politics. Considering they spent millions with impunity, I don't think AIPAC was silenced in this primary.

This guys has already given $373,000 to City Council campaigns — every alder who opposed the head tax had his money. Keep watching this as 2027 gets closer.

PS — I couldn’t let it go, so I made a quick video about Michael Sacks’ op ed here.

2. The Right Wing Media Machine is Going After Chicago Again.

Axios | Sun-Times | City Bureau | Block Club (ICE at O'Hare) | Illinois Signal Collective memo

Sheridan Gorman, 18, a Loyola freshman, was shot and killed Thursday near Tobey Prinz Beach and Jose Medina-Medina, 25, Venezuelan national was charged with first-degree murder for this crime.

Within 48 hours there was a DHS press release, a Trump statement, a Fox News op-ed from an angel parent, a Washington Examiner editorial, a Senate hearing scheduled — all blaming Chicago's sanctuary policy. And Alder Hadden is receiving death threats because of national right wing media misrepresenting the comments they made.

The Illinois Signal Collective, a new group working on narrative in Chicago I'm excited to be doing some work with, put out a memo this week on how to engage with this moment in a way that doesn’t let the right wing run with this story nationally to mess with sanctuary policy.

Why It Matters: The right didn't need to prove sanctuary policy caused this killing — they just needed the killing and the word "sanctuary" in the same sentence long enough to schedule a Senate hearing.

O'Neill Burke Says It's Illegal for Her to Do Her Job. Minnesota Disagrees.

Block Club | Capitol News Illinois | Star Tribune

O'Neill Burke filed a 24-page response Tuesday calling the petition for a special prosecutor to investigate ICE crimes during Operation Midway Blitz "baseless, frivolous, and contrary to law." Her argument: she can't investigate without a law enforcement request, and any charges would get thrown out on appeal anyway.

Loevy & Loevy, the firm behind the petition — signed by nearly 250 elected officials, faith leaders, and organizations — pointed out that in Hennepin County, Minnesota, the local prosecutor is actively investigating 17 potential crimes by federal agents. County Attorney Mary Moriarty created a public evidence portal, received over 1,000 submissions, and said she's "confident" she can pursue charges in the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti — both U.S. citizens shot dead by federal agents during Operation Metro Surge. On the same day O'Neill Burke filed her brief, Minnesota sued the Trump administration in federal court to force DOJ and DHS to turn over evidence they've been withholding: the guns, the shell casings, the agents' names, Pretti's cellphone.

As lead attorney Steve Art put it: among every jurisdiction in the country where ICE has been accused of crimes, Cook County is the only one where the local prosecutor says it's illegal for her to investigate.

(Meanwhile, Mayor Johnson quietly admitted Tuesday that CPD doesn't actually need a new policy to investigate federal agents — two months after he signed an executive order telling them to write one. So: great team effort.)

Why It Matters: O'Neill Burke says she's "horrified" by ICE's conduct. She also says there's nothing she can do. But Minnesota has the same legal tools — the same Supremacy Clause constraints, the same hostile federal government — and they’re building cases anyway.

O'Neill Burke's office took no action after federal agents killed Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez in Franklin Park in September — where body cam footage showed the agent who shot him walking around afterward calling his own injuries "nothing major." Her office took no action after federal agents shot Marimar Martinez five times in Brighton Park in October — where charges against Martinez were later dismissed after video showed an agent steering his vehicle into her truck. Neither CPD nor Franklin Park police investigated either shooting. No one has been held accountable for any of it. Why not?

1 Big Question:

What does the progressive left in Chicago actually need to build before 2027?

AIPAC’s $19.7 million, even where the money was beaten back, was not a good thing for progressives in Chicago. The right's almost instantaneous 48-hour Gorman news cycle response isn’t either. But they both show the other side has systems.

What kind of systems does Chicago’s left actually need between now and the municipals?

At least three things:

1. Rapid-response infrastructure that moves at the speed of a news cycle.

2. A counter to the kind of spending Sacks deployed — or an answer to what beats money when you don't have it.

3. Shared narrative architecture that connects the dozens of good organizations doing good work into something a normal person would ever encounter.

2027 is 18 months out.

What do you think? Tell me in the replies.

2 Red Flags:

🚨 Joliet Built Central Park, But for Servers, on a Dying Aquifer WGN | Tribune

Joliet voted 8-1 to approve a 795-acre, $20 billion AI data center that will use 150,000 gallons of water daily on a drying aquifer, with a Lake Michigan pipeline that won't be ready until 2030. Even after seven hours of public opposition on Monday, it was approved in 15 minutes on Thursday by Joliet’s city' council.

As Councilwoman Suzanna Ibarra, the lone no, said: her district is "the dumping ground for what other districts don't want." (Naperville and Lisle already said they don’t want this project).

🚨 Project 2025 Funders Doing "Trans Research" at Northwestern Erin in the Morning

Trans journalist Erin Reed traced dark money through DonorsTrust — the same network behind Project 2025, which explicitly calls for funding studies to undermine gender-affirming care — into the Gender Dysphoria Institute, a research group with ties to SPLC-designated hate groups that is currently recruiting trans youth for a study "in collaboration with Northwestern."

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We didn’t even talk about the biggest news story this week: masked ICE agents deployed to O'Hare and around the country, scrolling their phones at exit lanes while TSA agents work without pay. Over 450 TSA officers have quit since the shutdown started, though ICE is still getting paychecks. Steve Bannon made it clear this is a ‘test run’ for 2026.

Also: Johnson vetoed the tipped wage freeze Wednesday — his third veto ever— and the opposition bloc is four votes short of an override.

That’s it this week.

If you’re depressed this week, check out Pansy Craze Pop-Up Art Exhibition — Friday, March 27, 6-9pm at Fulton Street Collective (1821 W Hubbard).

Otherwise — tell me what I missed and answer the Big Question — I'll share responses next week.