What it’s like to work for Rahm Emanuel

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  Emanuel's young staffers: Mike Simmons, from left, Ankur Thakkar, Caroline Weisser, Matt Fischler, Anna Valencia and Michael Faulman

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  Ankur Thakkar and Caroline Weisser talk in the press room at the mayor's office.

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  Ankur Thakkar and Caroline Weisser talk in the press room at the mayor's office.

   

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  Ankur Thakkar (from left), Anna Valencia and Caroline Weisser in the mayor's office

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  Staffers from the mayor's office exit through the front door.

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  Caroline Weisser (from left), Matt Fischler, Anna Valencia and Ankur Thakkar walk through Daley Plaza.

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  Matt Fischler (left) and Mike Simmons discuss city policies in Simmons's office in City Hall.

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  Michael Faulman (from left), Anna Valencia and Mike Simmons

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  Caroline Weisser (from left), Matt Fischler, Anna Valencia and Ankur Thakkar on a coffee break

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  Matt Fischler at an informal meeting with one of his colleagues at City Hall.

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  Mike Simmons (left) with Michael Faulman at City Hall

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  Mike Simmons (left) and Michael Faulman at City Hall

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  Mike Simmons (from left), Caroline Weisser, Matt Fischler and Michael Faulman 

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  A portrait of Mayor Rahm Emanuel hangs in a hallway at City Hall.

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  Ankur Thakkar (left) and Matt Fischler lend support while the mayor makes a major announcement about introducing Chicago's new Welcoming City Ordinance.

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  Ankur Thakkar checks the Twitter chatter as the mayor announces the upcoming introduction of the Welcoming City Ordinance.

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  Matt Fischler and Ankur Thakkar provide feedback to Chicago Office of New Americans Director Adolfo Hernandez post-event, where the mayor announced the new Welcoming Chicago Ordinance.

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  Anna Valencia waits while the mayor discusses an upcoming announcement on immigration with Chicago aldermen and U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez.

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  Caroline Weisser works behind the scenes during a press announcement aimed at investing in infrastructure and rennovating CTA facilities.

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  Newspaper clipping of Rahm Emanuel hang on the wall in Caroline Weisser's office at City Hall.

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Emanuel's young staffers: Mike Simmons, from left, Ankur Thakkar, Caroline Weisser, Matt Fischler, Anna Valencia and Michael Faulman

Photo: Elizabeth Jochum

NONE OF THE STAFFERS I TALK TO HAVE concrete plans to run for office one day. Simmons says it’s difficult to map out your life plan when your current job is already time-consuming and professionally challenging. But young staffers knew the new administration would be addressing questions around job creation, infrastructure, long-term economic development and Chicago’s role as a global city, and they wanted to play a part in coming up with the answers.

“[Emanuel is] revolutionizing what mayors do,” Faulman says. “To be a part of that and to see the changes, both good and bad… I think we’re pretty lucky. We’re witnessing history.”

Fischler left New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration to work for Emanuel. He says when he was in middle school, he watched The West Wing with his mother and imagined he’d one day work in the White House. But after several internships he realized “the federal government is so monstrous, you can barely get anything done.”

“City governments are the laboratory for policy innovation,” Fischler says. “It’s been really cool to see ideas from conception all the way to implementation.”

Simmons worked on policy for Cook County commissioner Bridget Gainer before joining the mayor’s team. To accomplish good ideas, he says, you need the foresight to predict which policies are doable and how they will be received across the city.

To do that, Simmons taps into his humble upbringing in Lincoln Square, back when the neighborhood was working-class and ethnically diverse. Simmons’s parents—who met at the Wild Hare, a popular reggae bar in Wrigleyville that Simmons’s father later purchased, ran for 30 years and closed before returning to his native Ethiopia last year—were constituents and supporters of Emanuel during his six-year stint in Congress.

“I don’t come from a well-connected family at all,” Simmons says. “I didn’t grow up with any money. These are all things that I think give you an out-of-the-box understanding of…policy.”