In Rahm Emanuel’s first public appearance after resigning as White House chief of staff in October 2010, he showed up in the Pilsen neighborhood accompanied by Juan Rangel, the community activist. Emanuel and Rangel had spoken for the first time only days earlier, yet Rangel soon would become a co-chairman of Emanuel’s successful bid for mayor.

Last November, Emanuel reminisced about those times in his keynote speech at the annual fund-raising dinner for Rangel’s United Neighborhood Organization. “I remember when we were campaigning,” Emanuel said, apparently forgetting that U.N.O. is not supposed to get involved in elections because it is a tax-exempt, nonprofit group.

The mayor drew knowing laughter from the 900-strong crowd at the Fairmont Chicago’s ballroom by quickly correcting himself: “I was campaigning and Juan was touring. Let’s remember those roles, O.K.?”

That distinction may be difficult to discern, even for astute City Hall observers. Since arriving in Chicago as a boy with his working-class, immigrant family, Rangel has forged close ties to almost every important figure in local and state politics, leveraging those connections into one of the city’s largest charter-school networks.

With Rangel as its chief executive, U.N.O.’s strong relationships in Springfield helped land a $98 million state grant to build more schools in 2009. The group, which ran a single charter school until 2005, now has 11 and expects to open another six within two years.

In 2012, U.N.O. will have a total budget of about $95 million, the organization’s executives said. The vast majority of that financing will come from government sources, including $52 million to run existing schools and $33 million to build the new ones.

Rangel’s clout was on display again last month. The City Council pushed through a zoning change needed for a new U.N.O. school in a Northwest Side neighborhood where the Hispanic population has grown markedly. The approval came despite the initial reluctance of the ward’s alderman and vocal opposition from the teachers’ union.

“He has grown to be one of the most respected and influential community leaders in Chicago and in Illinois,” Alderman Edward Burke said of Rangel, proudly noting that the futuristic new U.N.O. Soccer Academy is down the block from his house and is one of six U.N.O. schools in his 14th Ward.

Rangel said he attributes his group’s successes to the community-organizing model of the renowned South Side activist, Saul Alinsky: identify the powers that be and join forces rather than fight them.

Rangel, 45, was born far outside the circles of Chicago clout, in Brownsville, Tex., to undocumented immigrants from San Luis Potosí, Mexico. The family moved here, to the little Village neighborhood, when he was 4.

Rangel’s parents and their seven children settled first in the attic of a Polish couple’s home. He did not speak English when he enrolled at a public school. “I was immersed in English in kindergarten,” he said. “I picked up the language so fast.”

After studying at the American Academy of Art and working as an illustrator, Rangel got his first taste of political power when he agreed to serve as a U.N.O.-backed candidate for the first Local School Council elections in 1989. Rangel was elected to the council at his former elementary school, and received organizer training from Daniel Solis, U.N.O. founder and now the 25th Ward alderman. After voting to oust the principal, Rangel lost his bid for a second term on the school council.

“I upset the apple cart, and I lost everything,” he said. “The better politics would have been to work it out.”

He also lost in a run for alderman in 1995, although he received the backing of Mayor Richard M. Daley’s political troops. The following year, when the mayor appointed Solis to a City Council vacancy, Rangel succeeded Solis as U.N.O. leader. Solis recalled last week that Rangel was not his first choice for the job because he seemed too meek and did not fit the family-man mold of many Hispanic community leaders.

Solis said Rangel has grown into a strong voice for the organization. He not only seized the opportunity to transform U.N.O. from a community group to charter-school operator but also created a program called the Metropolitan Leadership Institute for young Hispanic professionals. The program has become an incubator for rising stars in Daley’s City Hall, including Richard Rodriguez, the former president of the Chicago Transit Authority, and Alderman Proco Joe Moreno of the 1st Ward.

Historically, Rangel said, only left-leaning, social-service agency leaders were seen as community leaders, while successful Hispanic professionals often were dismissed as “coconuts” — brown on the outside, white inside. “We have transformed what leadership in the Latino community is here in Chicago,” Rangel said.

U.N.O. under Rangel has also been quick to express support for causes that top Illinois Democrats favor. The group backed the expansion of Wal-Mart stores in Chicago and the recent electricity-rate hike for ComEd. Wal-Mart and ComEd have been donors to U.N.O., according to the group’s website.

Another U.N.O. financial supporter was Midwest Generation, operator of coal-fired power plants that have been a target for environmental activists. This week, in the backyard of his modest one-story brick home in little Village, Rangel shrugged at the mention of the Midwest Generation smokestacks belching a short distance away. “These neighborhoods were built because you had factories like that,” he said. “You have to be practical. There are several hundred jobs there.”

Solis said he suggested to Emanuel that he contact Rangel as he considered his campaign for mayor in the fall of 2010. in supporting Emanuel, Rangel spurned two well-known Hispanic mayoral hopefuls.

In a statement Friday, Emanuel said Rangel has been a “strong partner” in promoting his education plans. “He is a good friend and close ally,” the mayor said.

Critics in Hispanic politics said that the mayoral election was not the first time that Rangel favored white politicians over Hispanic candidates.

“His philosophy is if you want things done, you have to kowtow to the powers that be,” said Rudy Lozano Jr., who lost a 2010 Democratic primary race to Burke’s brother, State Representative Daniel Burke. Rangel endorsed the Irish-American incumbent over Lozano.

Detractors also point to Rangel’s U.N.O. salary, which topped $265,000 in 2010, according to the group’s tax returns. Rangel relies on a small group of trusted aides, including Phil Mullins, a childhood friend of Solis, and Miguel d’Escoto, who was a high-ranking aide in the Daley administration.

Rangel was unapologetic in response to the frequent complaint that he had taken a group of community leaders in blue jeans and outfitted them in pinstripes.

“I’m not going to wear sandals,” he said. “There is a corporate world, and why shouldn’t we have a seat at those tables? There are plenty of issues that still need to be addressed. We’re not done. I guess I’ve never understood the concept of being too powerful.”

A Lifetime of Close Ties and Growing Clout

Tags: campaigning, juan rangel, last november, observers, pilsen neighborhood, school networks

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