The congressman from the 4th District is Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat and the first Hispanic member of Congress from Illinois. He has represented the district since it was created in 1992. Gutierrez (goo-tee-AIR-ez) is of Puerto Rican descent and grew up in Chicago. As a student at Northeastern Illinois University in the 1970s, he joined a protest of the lack of basic English classes for students from other countries, which ended up with the protesters taking over an administration building. Gutierrez worked as a teacher for two years in Puerto Rico after college. When he returned to Chicago, he worked as a cab driver and social worker. In 1983, he ran for 32nd Ward committeeman against Democratic U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski and lost decisively. Then he became a staffer for Mayor Harold Washington, the city’s first black mayor. He ran for alderman in 1984 and lost. In 1986, he ran again and won in one of two new Hispanic-majority wards. After Washington died, Gutierrez backed Richard M. Daley in the 1989 election. Backing winners is a formula that works in Chicago politics. In the 1992 primary, for the new House seat, rival Alderman Juan Solis called Gutierrez a machine candidate. Gutierrez won, 60%-40%. Since easily winning a rematch in 1994, Gutierrez has not had serious competition. Read More

The congressman from the 4th District is Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat and the first Hispanic member of Congress from Illinois. He has represented the district since it was created in 1992. Gutierrez (goo-tee-AIR-ez) is of Puerto Rican descent and grew up in Chicago. As a student at Northeastern Illinois University in the 1970s, he joined a protest of the lack of basic English classes for students from other countries, which ended up with the protesters taking over an administration building. Gutierrez worked as a teacher for two years in Puerto Rico after college. When he returned to Chicago, he worked as a cab driver and social worker. In 1983, he ran for 32nd Ward committeeman against Democratic U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski and lost decisively. Then he became a staffer for Mayor Harold Washington, the city’s first black mayor. He ran for alderman in 1984 and lost. In 1986, he ran again and won in one of two new Hispanic-majority wards. After Washington died, Gutierrez backed Richard M. Daley in the 1989 election. Backing winners is a formula that works in Chicago politics. In the 1992 primary, for the new House seat, rival Alderman Juan Solis called Gutierrez a machine candidate. Gutierrez won, 60%-40%. Since easily winning a rematch in 1994, Gutierrez has not had serious competition.

In the House, Gutierrez has staked out liberal positions, and is known for his feisty, blunt style. As a freshman, his outspoken opposition to congressional pay raises, including labeling the House “the belly of the beast” in a television interview, got him into hot water with Democratic leaders. “I’ve gotten my rear end kicked around here,” Gutierrez told The Washington Post. Gutierrez was denied seats on choice committees, and he has stayed on the Financial Services Committee, which may have seemed a backwater then, before the financial crisis. Now the panel is at the center of major economic debates. Gutierrez chaired the Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee when Democrats controlled the House and now is the ranking minority member on the Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing, and Community Opportunity. In 2009, he proposed higher FDIC charges for big banks and lower fees for community banks. He also sponsored the $200 billion receivership fund (later reduced to $150 billion) for banks, which was included in the financial regulation bill of 2010. “This is not a bailout fund,” he said. “This is a dissolution fund.”

His major effort in recent years has been pushing for a comprehensive immigration bill. Over the years, he has pushed to restore food stamp eligibility to legal immigrants, to grant automatic citizenship to immigrants in military combat, and legal status to immigrants without documentation who make major contributions in the United States. “I want to be a spokesperson for people that are new to this country,” he has said. In 2005, he was the lead Democratic sponsor of the House version of an overhaul in immigration policy, which passed the Senate in 2006 but died in the Republican-controlled House. In the 110th Congress (2007-08), he revived the bill with a provision to allow illegal immigrants who had been employed in the U.S. before June 1, 2006, to apply for “conditional non-immigrant status.” After an appearance on MSNBC to debate the immigration issue, Gutierrez got into a shoving match with then-Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, a Republican known for his tough, anti-illegal immigrant positions. Gutierrez said afterward, “It wasn’t my best moment.”

In March 2010, Gutierrez said he would vote against the Democrats’ sweeping health care bill because it barred illegal immigrants from the proposed insurance exchanges; two days before the vote, he switched and said he would vote yes. For much of the 111th Congress (2009-10), he pressed the Obama White House and the House Democratic leadership to advance comprehensive immigration legislation, to no avail. When Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill authorizing immigration status checks of people stopped by police, Gutierrez in April 2010 called for federal intervention, and the next month, was arrested in a demonstration outside the White House.

Gutierrez has weighed in on Puerto Rican issues. He stoutly opposed the Democratic leadership’s bill mandating a referendum on the current commonwealth status in Puerto Rico, and, if that were rejected, giving Puerto Rican voters a choice between the current status and independence. “This bill is not the product of consensus. It does not provide for true self-determination. The two-step process in the bill is designed to craft an artificial majority for statehood,” he argued. The House passed the bill 223-169 in April 2010, but it died in the Senate.

In 2008, Gutierrez was the subject of unflattering news coverage about real estate deals with local developers. The Chicago Tribune reported that starting in 2002, Gutierrez had made about $421,000 by investing in half a dozen real estate deals with campaign supporters and then exiting a short time later. Gutierrez told the newspaper that he had made a profit in five of the deals but lost money on the sixth. Developer Calvin Boender, who loaned him $200,000 in a 2004 real estate deal, was convicted on bribery charges in March 2010. During the trial, there was testimony that Gutierrez helped Boender get a zoning change for a development on the West Side of Chicago.

Though he often plays the rebel, Gutierrez has been capable of building bridges as well. In the past, he has brought together Chicago’s fractious Democratic politicians to maximize Latino influence. He considered running for mayor of Chicago, but decided against challenging Mayor Richard Daley after Democrats regained the House majority in 2006. In early 2009, he announced he would retire from Congress but reversed that decision in time for the candidate filing deadline. In the February 2011 mayoral election, he endorsed Chicago schools chief Gery Chico. Had he chosen Emanuel, he would have backed a winner.