A big win for great-white-hope candidate Vallas, in Chicago
The only question now is, can progressives rally behind Brandon Johnson in April?
First, let me congratulate Commissioner Brandon Johnson on his second-place finish in the first round of Chicago’s mayoral election. I didn’t vote for him but he’s got my support in the runoff.
Johnson now becomes the only candidate with a chance to stop Paul Vallas and his right-wing, “law-and-order” crowd from taking control of City Hall in the upcoming runoff election on April 4th.
Vallas, who ran on the racist, dog whistle refrain of “taking the city back”, was the only white candidate in the low-turnout race and easily captured the white-backlash, anti-Lightfoot vote with backing from the Fraternal Order of Police (F.O.P) and its MAGA leader John Catanzara. But look for him to pivot to the center in the runoff and try and paint Johnson into a far-left corner.
Johnson, running with heavy financial and organizational backing from the Chicago Teachers Union, edged out incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the city’s first Black and openly gay female mayor, by three points while losing to Vallas 34.8% to 20.2%. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia finished fourth with 13.8%, ahead of Willie Wilson with 9.5%.
They were followed by a group whose only apparent purpose in running was to skim votes away from Lightfoot. While their individual numbers may seem minuscule, Ja’Mal Green (2.1%), Kam Buckner (1.8%), Sophia King (1.2%), and Rod Sawyer (0.4%), taken together, more than covered the gap between Johnson and Lightfoot.
Greg Hinz at Crain’s writes this morning:
Polls suggested that had Johnson and Garcia run closer, Lightfoot would’ve had a chance. That didn’t happen.
Please forgive the woulda, coulda, shoulda analysis, but if you combined the vote totals of the top three progressive (anti-Vallas) candidates of color, it would have put one of the three in the winner’s circle with no runoff needed. But instead, the toxic vitriol and factionalism that has split the Chicago progressive/left since the 2019 election grew even worse this time around, enabling Vallas to cakewalk into first place.
The only question now is, can the Johnson, Garcia, and Lightfoot forces come together and pick up the pieces of what was once a powerful progressive, multi-racial movement in the city, and get behind Brandon Johnson for mayor? They’ve only got 35 days left to do it.
A big win for great-white-hope candidate Vallas, in Chicago
I don’t see how someone like Vallas can call themselves a democrat, or why we even allow them?
Vallas, who ran on the racist, dog whistle refrain of “taking the city back”, was the only white candidate in the low-turnout race and easily captured the white-backlash, anti-Lightfoot vote with backing from the Fraternal Order of Police (F.O.P) and its MAGA leader John Catanzara.