Although voters in the 6th Ward will see six names on the ballot in the race for alderman, the real contest seems to be between incumbent Freddrenna Lyle and Roderick T. Sawyer. The son of former mayor Eugene Sawyer, Roderick has been included in the class of City Council candidates hoping to stay in the family business of politics. Lyle, who spoke at the elder Sawyer's funeral in 2008, told the Chicago Sun-Times that she was surprised that Roderick jumped into the race to run for her council seat, especially since he used to be a Lyle supporter, “I thought we were friends. Do I hate him? Nah. But I’m going to beat him. And then we can be friends again, I guess," she said.

Lyle went on to say that there is a slight concern that older voters could go for Sawyer due to their familiarity with his father. But Lyle thinks younger people in her ward "don’t subscribe to that at all. There’s fatigue with family dynasties."

For his part, Sawyer says he is not looking to bank on the family name and isn't running to further future political aspirations -- or to irk Lyle. He says he is running because he doesn't agree with the alderman's voting history, citing her 'yes' vote for the parking meter deal as one of those instances. He also explained some more localized reasons for his run.

"The response has been overwhelmingly negative towards the incumbent," Sawyer told Progress Illinois. "It's an 'anybody but the incumbent' feeling that people have been expressing to us. The overwhelming issue that I have been hearing is the lack of response to service requests. We all have those similar problems as it relates to crime, education and economic development; those are all citywide problems -- they are not unique to the 6th Ward. But here, people seem to think the service issue is the overwhelming problem."

In order to get questions from people in the community in front of the candidates, TheSixthWard blog issued a questionnaire to the aldermanic contenders, to which only Lyle and Sawyer responded. In the questionnaire, the issue of video gambling came up. Specifically, the questionnaire quoted a Sun-Times article stating that Greg Goldner, who is behind For A Better Chicago, a political action committee using secret money to support candidates in the aldermanic races, is looking to lift the ban on video gambling.

"If Goldner succeeds, Chicago could end up with 15,715 video-gambling machines in hundreds of bars and other businesses that serve alcohol -- including restaurants at O'Hare and Midway airports, as well as Wrigley Field and other arenas … The 6th ward has 26 establishments that are eligible to house up to five machines for a total of 130 for the ward," reads the questionnaire. When answering the question of whether they would support video gambling, Lyle flat out said no. Sawyer, on the other hand, is in support of the potential revenue generator, albeit with regulation, citing the city's need to "recapture some of the revenue we are losing to the Indiana casinos."

The candidates also differ on the issue of tax increment financing districts. The questionnaire noted that the ward now has four TIF districts, including the 67th (Kennedy King), the Chatham Club, 87th Cottage, and 71st districts. When asked if the ward was becoming too reliant on TIFs, Lyle responded with another no, saying that TIF districts were created for communities that need economic development and pointing out that the area was actually late in taking part in the TIF process.

Sawyer begged to differ in his response, even suggesting that a hold be put on plans for new TIFs. "We have become over dependent on TIFs to spur economic development," he wrote. "I believe that the current TIFs should stay place and place a moratorium on creating anymore. The funds created from these TIFs need to be accounted for and reported to the public."

Lyle has scored the lionshare of endorsements in the race, including those from the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Defender, Citizens Action, UNITE-HERE, AFSCME, IVI-IPO, SEIU (whose Illinois council sponsors this site), and many others.

When it comes to cash, Lyle reported having $9,442.44 in her campaign fund to the state board of elections, while Sawyer indicated that he had $5,319.57 in his warchest. The other candidates running for 6th Ward alderman are Brian E. Sleet, who used to work in U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s office, former Cook County State's Attorney Cassandra Goodrum-Burton, police officer Richard A. Wooten, and businessman Sekum Walker.