Many Chicagoans were celebrating Tuesday when failed Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was turned out of the mayor’s office by Windy City voters in round one of the city’s elections. But round two will feature progressive Democrat Brandon Johnson, a left-winger who is still in the running and who really isn’t much of a step up from Lightfoot.
Once all the votes came in on Tuesday, former Democrat Chicago Public Schools chief Paul Vallas — who did not get the support of the teachers union — led the polls with about 35 percent of the vote, while Johnson – who did get the union’s support — came in at a distant 20 percent. For her part, the city’s first black, gay, hearing-impaired mayor rolled in with a meager 16.5 percent. For such a “historic” candidate only four years ago, Lightfoot’s finish was pitiful.
With that disastrous total, Lightfoot became the first Chicago mayor to lose a reelection bid in the 40 years since Mayor Jane Byrne was tossed out of office in 1983.
Crime was one of the major issues that cut Lightfoot down to size.
As Breitbart News reported, crime has already seen a significant increase this year:
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.
Crime will likely become the top issue in the coming runoff between front-runners Vallas and Johnson. And while Vallas made crime a major issue in his campaign, Johnson may not be nearly as interested in the topic.
If Vallas is smart, he will hone in on Johnson’s claim that defunding the police in Chicago is his political goal, not just a philosophical concept. And he didn’t just mouth the idea. He acted on defunding.
According to the Chicago Tribune, in the wake of the death of George Floyd back in 2020, Johnson — who was a Cook County Commissioner at the time — introduced a resolution to “redirect funds from policing and incarceration to public services not administered by law enforcement.” His “Justice for Black Lives” resolution passed overwhelming in July of 2020.
He also blasted Lightfoot — who opposed defunding — and insisted that “she’s on the wrong side of history. … And the other side of the building has to come to their own reckoning.”
Johnson celebrated saying, “This will give the county commissioners a road map for taking millions of waste spent on incarceration and policing and reinvesting it.”
A year later, Johnson appeared on WCPT 820′s The Santita Jackson Show, and said that defunding the police isn’t just a slogan, adding, “I don’t look at it as a slogan. It’s an actual real political goal,” the Tribune added.
Johnson has also opposed certain expenditures for the Cook County Sheriff’s office.
Unsurprisingly, with a soaring crime rate affecting every neighborhood during this campaign for mayor, Johnson has mostly avoided addressing his past anti-police comments. While his stated public safety plan does not call for cuts in the Chicago Police budget, he has skirted questions from the media on his real feelings about defunding the police.
Johnson did try to allay fears. In a statement on Wednesday, his spokesman, Ronnie Reese, said:
Brandon’s plan for public safety is a comprehensive, wide-ranging policy that gets smart on crime by maintaining the current CPD budget while making the department more efficient and providing new investments in additional public safety initiatives outside of the police department, including new teams of non-personnel first responders for mental health crisis calls.
In other areas, Johnson is in favor of hiking taxes on a city that is already groaning under some of the highest taxes in the nation. So homeowners and the business community both should see Johnson as an opponent, not an ally.
The election on Tuesday broke up the minority vote between Johnson, who is black, Lightfoot, and Hispanic Democrat Chuy Garcia, who also ran as a progressive. But on April 4, when voters are next set to try to fill the now soon-to-be-vacant mayor’s office, the entirety of the minority vote is open for the left-wing Johnson. If history is any guide, Vallas will have an uphill climb, even though he convincingly won round one.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston
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