CHICAGO, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Minority aldermen are defending Chicago Mayor Richard Daley from criticism by a black congressman about the city's affirmative action contracting program.
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., this week demanded the city council "clean up the stench" after white-owned companies were accused of fraudulently taking contract set-asides for minority and female-owned businesses.
Instead of rallying around Jackson, who many believe may challenge Daley in 2007, African-American and Hispanic aldermen angrily said they were not rubber stamps for fraud in the city's affirmative action set-aside contracting program.
"He doesn't want to be mayor," Alderman Isaac Carothers told the Chicago Sun-Times. "He wants to be king."
Jackson called for hearings. The city council rewrote the ordinance last year and an aldermanic task force has been working to decertify companies fraudulently claiming to be run by minorities and women.
