Chicago Fire is getting political this season now that Casey (Jesse Spencer) is running for City Council. The firefighter is hoping to become the newest alderman of his ward.
With one more week to go until the show returns, E! News spoke with Spencer on the red carpet at the Paleyfest celebration of Chicago and Law & Order mastermind Dick Wolf. Election day is nearing closer for Casey, and the race for City Council is heating up just as the presidential race is intensifying in real life.
"It's like perfect timing with everything that's going on, although he's only running for alderman, not president—yet," Spencer tells us.
The local race has already gotten pretty intense—and that's not about to stop any time soon. "There's going to be a lot of temptation and there's a lot of corruption," dishes Spencer. "We've all heard about Chicago politics and apparently what you hear is literally the tip of the iceberg. It's pretty hardball."
Spencer has done his research, speaking with a real-life alderman in Chicago. "He ran as an independent and the ward loves him and he set out to protect his ward, so it's kind of like exactly what I'm doing on the show," Spencer says. "He didn't know anything about politics, he just got into it because he wanted to help the firefighters and cops—there are a lot of servicemen and women in his area."
Adds the actor, "These people do exist. There's not many of them, but they don't owe anybody any money, they can actually just do what they set out to do."
On Tuesday's episode, Dawson will enlist the firehouse team to help out with Casey's campaign as Alderman Becks continues to bad mouth Casey to the press.
Chicago Fire airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on NBC.
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