In a Wall Street Journal op-ed Joseph Epstein remarks on the upcoming Chicago mayoral primary election:
I love Chicago. It is the city of my birth and upbringing. But after listening to nine mayoral candidates engage in three hours of political debate in two 90-minute sessions, I have concluded that, were I younger, I would have to think seriously about leaving. With one exception, all the candidates stressed the city’s crushing crime, unfair taxation, increasingly unaffordable housing and dismal educational institutions. The exception, of course, was the incumbent, Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Over the past four years she has amply demonstrated her unfitness to govern yet has thrown her fedora back into the ring, hoping for another term.
He continues:
Seven of the candidates for mayor are African-American. One is Hispanic and one white. Chicago is no longer a white town, run by white politicians. The city is roughly a third black, a third Hispanic and a third white. The Irish political mafia is no more. All those Kellys, Kennellys and Daleys, who once ruled the city with a combination of corruption and competence, are gone. Increasingly, the city’s official faces—chief of police, chief of the fire department, head of the public schools—are people of color and women.
Of the current crop of candidates for mayor, all but two have held office or worked in government: in the city council, on the Cook County Commission, in the state senate, in the educational system, in U.S. Congress. All agree that Lori Lightfoot has to go. On a show of hands, all further agreed that, if elected, they wouldn’t rehire Police Superintendent David Brown. To hear Ms. Lightfoot tell it, however, things are looking up and every day in every way getting better and better for Chicago.
In a very narrow sense things are getting better. Last year was better than the previous year. But the last three years have been the worst with respect to many crimes including homicide and carjacking of any three year period in Chicago history. Here’s the track record for carjackings:
Not only are crimes spreading beyond the South and West Sides, they’re spreading into the adjoining suburbs. Last week there was an attempted carjacking a block and a half from where I’m sitting and this is one of Chicago nicest neighborhoods.
However, if you look at the overall official crime statistics, crime is down. Why do people think that crime is up? I think it’s because police responses are sufficiently phlegmatic that many crimes aren’t even reported any more. That’s borne out by the 911 call statistics.
The latest polling information is interesting.
I’ve highlighted the four candidates polling the highest. Interestingly in the same poll Willie Wilson, the only candidate who isn’t a apparatchik, is the second most favorite candidate of 16% of voters, the highest of any candidate (Paul Vallas is the second highest) with Lori Lightfoot half that.
Only the two top voter-getters will go forward to the general election. I hope that Lightfoot doesn’t make it but I suspect that the general election will be between Vallas and Lightfoot.
