Miguel del Valle is battling odds again
By Rummana Hussain Staff Reporter/rhussain@suntimes.com Jan 16, 2011 2:36AM
Mayoral candidate Miguel del Valle speaks at Telpochcalli Elementary School, 2832 W. 24th Blvd., on Tuesday. | Rich Hein~Sun-Times
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After he and his wife, Lupe, watched Puerto Rican pop star Chayanne perform a few weeks ago, Miguel del Valle stepped into a puddle and felt his sock soaking up the slush.
“He always has holes in his shoes,” the city clerk’s eldest son, Miguel del Valle III, recently explained. “He’s always literally walked through the neighborhoods on his campaigns and while he was working.
“And I remember within seven months, he’d always have a hole in his shoe, and he’d still go through like another month with the hole in his shoe until we forced him to buy new shoes.”
Dickensian footwear is perhaps expected with the self-proclaimed “poorest” mayoral candidate, who sustained his family on his modest legislative salary for two decades before moving up to the $135,545-a-year city clerk job in 2006.
Del Valle, 59, eschews fancy designer suits for more unpretentious selections from Men’s Wearhouse.
His family vacations have consisted of quick, economical jaunts to the Wisconsin Dells and Kiddieland. And every December, he and his wife dust off the $74 Christmas tree the couple purchased at Ace Hardware