With just five weeks to go to win race for mayor of Chicago, the contest is 'about to get real'
While former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson largely avoided attacking one another in the leadup to Tuesday’s nonpartisan primary for mayor of Chicago, Johnson previewed the frantic five-week sprint ahead with an election night speech declaring, “It’s about to get real.”
Vallas, who took a firm first place with 34%, used his victory address both to stress public safety and to lay out his credentials as a “lifelong Democrat” ahead of the April 4 general election. “We will make Chicago the safest city in America,” said the candidate, who picked up the support of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police back in January.
Vallas, who declared his support for abortion rights, went on to use an interview with ABC7 to offer his take on Johnson, who benefited from heavy spending from the Chicago Teachers Union. “People are going to examine his record and see that there's not much other than a union organizer who was on the CTU's payroll,” predicted Vallas, who is a supporter of charter schools. “I'm gonna continue to talk about the issues to offer subs, tentative solutions, particularly on the issues of crime, the issue of quality of schools, and the issue of affordability.”
Johnson, a progressive who edged out Mayor Lori Lightfoot 20-17 for the crucial second place spot, didn’t waste any time either in trying to define Vallas as an ally of the far-right. “Paul Vallas is someone who is supported by the Jan. 6 insurrectionists,” Johnson said in a reference to FOP head John Catanzara, a Trump backer who played down the attack the following day. “He went as far as to say he’s more of a Republican than anything else,” the commissioner continued, adding, “He says he fundamentally opposes abortion. These are direct quotes.”
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/1/2155722/-With-just-five-weeks-to-go-to-win-race-for-mayor-of-Chicago-the-contest-is-about-to-get-real
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