That’s a disrespect. You don’t do that. You don’t send a representative. Maybe he’ll show up this time. He’s feeling the pressure, that’s for sure.”

Cuahutémoc Morfín is a candidate for alderman in the 25th Ward. He says he hopes that alderman Daniel Solís personally attends a debate open to the community on 18th Street scheduled March 28. This is the second time Morfín is running for alderman. Right now he’s sitting inside one of his campaign offices on a sunny Friday morning on Canalport, near Jefferson in East Pilsen, the neighborhood where Morfín grew up and still lives.

When Morfín ran for the City Council the first time around, in 2007, he and other challenging candidates at the time attended a community forum and hoped to lure the big fish, incumbent Solís into the battle. Instead, Morfín says, the alderman sent a representative in his stead to debate his challengers.

Solís beat out a field of five contenders without much difficulty that year. But on Feb. 22 of this year, Morfín and Ambrosio Medrano Jr. forced Solís into a run-off election. Morfín earned 2,467 votes (27.96 percent) to Solís’ 4,315 (48.9 percent), with Medrano coming in a close third at 23.13 percent.

As he works to win the run-off on April 5, Morfín has picked up endorsements from Medrano Jr. and City Clerk Miguel del Valle. One endorsement that he did not receive but was hoping for was that of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), who initially did not support Solís but recently announced their endorsement of the alderman after he agreed to support the Chicago Clean Power Ordinance.

Solís opposed this particular incarnation of the proposed city legislation aimed at cleaning up the Fisk and Crawford coal-fire power ...