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Chicago does not have rent control. In 1997, the Illinois legislature passed - and Republican Governor Jim Edgar signed - SB 531 (the Rent Control Preemption Act), which prohibited local jurisdictions from passing it. At the time, no city in Illinois had rent control - but the real estate lobby had a national effort to quietly stop it in places before it starts. SB 531 passed with little fanfare: the State House voted for it 96-18, and the State Senate approved it 46-6. One of the six senators who voted "no" was Barack Obama - although many liberal Democrats voted with landlords and the Senate's Republican majority. Obama's vote - when one considers how few people stood up with him - is an example of his core progressive principles. While it's valid to say that he should have done more to defeat it, consider that Obama was a... [read full story]
