A City of Brotherly Love. A City of Angels. A Charm City.
Chicago isn’t trying to be any of that. Exhibit A: This Tuesday’s mayoral election.
Concerns about crime have dominated the 2023 mayor’s race but the messy, nine-person race spawned a steady supply of campaign theatrics — even by Chicago standards. Two candidates got hit with the obvious red flags for using teachers and police officers as campaign props, and there was this thing about shooting rabbits. One perceived frontrunner in the field of declared Democrats has been pummeled as a secret Republican — the ultimate insult in a city that hasn’t elected a GOP mayor in a century.
Before this contest fizzles into a two-person runoff in April, here are the big, weird, lowbrow moments as voters cast their Election Day ballots:
Conservative Democrat — or Republican spy!
Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas is running to the right of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, politically squishy on abortion rights, pushing to flood the streets with more cops and getting the backing of the conservative Fraternal Order of Police. Although he told Block Club Chicago in mid-February that he is a “lifelong Democrat,” his rivals say everything adds up to being a Republican.
“What I feel like I am listening to is a version of Extreme Makeover: Paul Vallas Edition,” Lightfoot said during a January debate.
The speculation mainly stems from a 2009 interview, where Vallas said he was “more of a Republican than a Democrat now” and that he does not support abortion rights for religious reasons. He also said he was a fan of Rudy Giuliani during his presidential run at the time. Lightfoot ran with those sound bites, using the interview clips in an ad that closed with: “Paul Vallas is a Republican. Just ask him.”
Vallas accepted the Fraternal Order of Police’s endorsement by saying it represents support from the union’s rank-and-file officers, rather than its controversial leadership that has commended fatal police shootings, resisted vaccine mandates and posted inflammatory and racist things on social media.
‘Hunt them down like …’
Candidate Willie Wilson has a policing plan that includes bolstering police presence on city transit and installing more cameras throughout Chicago.