Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson will meet in a runoff to be the next mayor of Chicago after voters on Tuesday denied incumbent Lori Lightfoot a second term, issuing a rebuke to a leader who made history as head of the nation’s third-largest city.
Vallas, a former schools CEO backed by the police union, and Johnson, a Cook County commissioner endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union, advanced to the April 4 runoff after none of the nine candidates was able to secure over 50 percent of the vote to win outright.
Lightfoot received only 17.1 percent of the vote with about 94 percent of the votes counted, according to The New York Times.
Lightfoot, the first black woman and first openly gay person to lead the city, won her first term in 2019 after promising to end decades of corruption and backroom dealing at City Hall. But opponents blamed Lightfoot for an increase in crime and criticized her as being a divisive, overly contentious leader.
……Vallas served as an adviser to the Fraternal Order of Police during its negotiations with Lightfoot’s administration.
He has called for adding hundreds of police officers to patrol the city, saying crime is out of control and morale among officers sunk to a new low during Lightfoot’s tenure.
Vallas’ opponents have criticized him as too conservative to lead the Democratic stronghold. Lightfoot blasted him for welcoming support from the police union’s controversial leader, who defended the Jan. 6 protesters at the Capitol and equated Lightfoot’s vaccine mandate for city workers to the Holocaust.
Of course, she blames her failures on ‘race’:
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was put on blast by critics for blaming her dwindling re-election prospects on race and gender instead of the city’s crime crisis.
“I’m a Black woman and, let’s not forget, some folks frankly don’t support us in leadership roles,” Lightfoot told The New Yorker recently.
“I think Lori’s time is up,” local radio host Ray Stevens responded Monday on “Fox & Friends First.”
“Personally, I don’t [think she can pull off this race], but I’ve been wrong before as the polls have in the past,” he said earlier in the segment.
Stevens told co-anchors Todd Piro and Ashley Strohmier that, instead of fixating on skin color, the race will boil down to key issues – most importantly, crime.
“Chicago has a rampant crime problem, and not only is it in Chicago, but its has reached the collar counties… crime, crime crime is going to be the issue in this election and, personally, what I’m hearing from my constituents, from listeners, is that it will come down to [Paul] Vallas [or] Brandon Johnson.”
Vallas would be a good choice if he actually lives up to his vocal support of police and tough on crime statements.
Lightfoot was elected because she checked the female, black, and gay boxes. No real qualifications, no substance, just ‘woke’.
This is what she said after the outrage over the removal of the Christopher Columbus statue:
Real classy.
Reporter William J. Kelly said Lightfoot was the ‘worst thing to ever happen to Chicago’:
Chicago-based reporter William J. Kelly sued Lightfoot after she revoked his media credentials, but despite the setback, he vowed to continue his journey to get answers on the very issues that have plagued the Windy City under her leadership.
“Lightfoot was the worst thing that ever happened to Chicago,” Kelly told Lawrence Jones on Wednesday. “We are free now of Lightfoot, but it’s not over yet. As you mentioned, Lightfoot trampled the rights of schools, churches, businesses. As a lifelong Chicagoan, and it broke my heart to see her turn a blind eye to looting and lockdowns.”
“We’re not going to stop until we get the answers to the looting, the lockdown and Lightfoot’s destruction, economic destruction of the city of Chicago,” he continued.
But the crime surge has impacted other facets of life for Chicagoans according to Lightfoot’s critics, with one of those facets being the city’s small business sector.
Kelly filmed a video in recent weeks depicting empty storefronts on Chicago’s once-lively State Street, as the retail vacancy sits at a dismal 20%.
The Democrats have controlled America’s major urban areas for over half a century, with disastrous results. Crime, poverty, and corruption are their trademarks.
But the most important issue at the top of their fucking list is removing statues of historical figures that trigger their delicate leftard sensibilities and pushing ‘pronouns’.
Everything the Left touches turns to shit.
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