Closing out February in Chicago was the early 2023 Mayoral election with the winner of the three-way dance heading to a runoff. Current Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot would be going against former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas (D) and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson (D). With three Democrats running for the position, it was a choice between three different versions of the same old shit.
Lightfoot lost cleanly, becoming the first Mayor to lose a bid for reelection in 40 years. The last time it happened was when former mayor Jane Byrne failed to clear the streets in a major snowstorm. The residents were so fed up that she was out in a landslide. For Lightfoot, this is much of the same here.
Except it’s not a snowstorm she failed to save her people from. Instead, it is the crime that has plagued the city on her watch, from drug dealers killing off junkies with a flood of fentanyl to gang violence to robberies. The City of Chicago has now fully earned its nickname of ChIraq. COVID not only destroyed parts of the city but the riots and robberies flourished in the city with her in office.
As Breitbart previously reported “Compared to the first 22 days of 2021, the major crime rate in Democrat-run Chicago is already up 97 percent this year, reports Wirepoints. Compared to those same 22 days last year, crime is up 61 percent…In just 22 days, there have been 2,189 cars stolen. That’s nearly 100 car thefts per day. Compared to the first 22 days of 2022, that’s a 165 percent jump. Compared to the first 22 days of 2019, that is a — not a typo — 349 percent increase.”
For what it’s worth, Lightfoot seemed to know it was coming. She consistently came in third in polling across the city. Instead of campaigning and trying to convince people she could save the city, she gave up as early as January when she was seen dancing away at a Lunar New Year parade.
The polling proved to be rather accurate, as Vallas took home roughly 35% of the vote when they declared he had secured his spot. Johnson then took 20% of the vote, and Lightfoot an embarrassing 17%.
Vallas and Johnson ran very different campaigns, with Vallas pledging for more police officers to be hired and on the streets, with Johnson aligning himself with the defund the police movements, but later pulling that alignment back. This decision has proven to be very costly for many elected officials in the midterms, and only looks to get worse.
The approach from Vallas should send a loud signal to the rest of Chicago and the left as a whole. The idea of more police is what we need. We need to get better training for the people and get them out there patrolling properly. Not eliminating their budget to get their officers up to snuff and making it harder for them to do their jobs.
Lightfoot also initially campaigned on a similar message. She set forth to try and rid City Hall of corruption and to make the city a place to be proud of. In her quest to change things up, she wanted to ensure the people of Chicago were taken care of properly and that she would regain their confidence and faith. Quickly her aspirations turned to failures. Her energy to exhaustion.
Quickly, she transitioned into the failure suckling to the socialist-based agenda of the more extreme left like Johnson campaigned on for a moment in time. This failed idea of hiding more information, defunding the police, and ensuring the police were being forced to do more with less is exactly what she wanted to do, and she did it in full force.
Now that the people of Chicago have paid dearly, they want her to fade away, and let Vallas lead the way. With that kind of voting, he could be a huge beacon in the future.
