Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has made history again. She is the first Chicago mayor in 40 years to fail to be re-elected. Now Paul Vallas will face Brandon Johnson in the runoff to be held in April. That will be a contest between the anointed candidate of the Fraternal Order of Police and the candidate endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union who has run on a platform of defunding the police. We’ll see.
Lori Lightfoot was elected four years ago largely on the basis of not being Toni Preckwinkle. She is still not Toni Preckwinkle but that wasn’t enough to be re-elected—she needed to be an effective mayor and has not succeeded at that. In addition to not being Toni Preckwinkle she prevailed in the primarily election last time by getting votes from the Northwest Side. She forgot the old dictum, “Dance with the one what brung youâ€.
Update
At the Sun-Times Fran Spielman quotes Joe Ferguson’s reasonable take on what happened:
“At the front end, she did not govern the way she ran. And at the back end, she ran the way she governed,†Ferguson said, apparently referring to Lightfoot’s recent warning that any South Side vote for “somebody not named Lightfoot is a vote for Chuy Garcia or Paul Vallas.†At that same campaign stop, she declared: “If you want them controlling your fate and your destiny, then stay home. Then don’t vote.â€
“Her greater interest was in holding the power in a transactional way,†Ferguson said, “and not governing as the times called for and that she promised she would.â€
Pressed for specifics, Ferguson pointed to Lightfoot’s own campaign themes and 2019 transition report. He argued the “vast majority†of promises made in that report “never got implemented and, in critical areas, she did the opposite of what she said she would do.â€
Exhibit “A†was reforming the police department. It was supposed to be Lightfoot’s greatest strength. She served as Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Police Board president. She co-chaired the Task Force on Police Accountability, which championed a series of reforms laying the groundwork for a federal consent decree in the furor following the shooting of Laquan McDonald by Chicago police.
“She brought in, as the interim [police superintendent], the person in the United States who had successfully transformed a big-city police department under terms of a consent decree,†Ferguson said, referring to Charlie Beck, the retired Los Angeles police chief.
But then, “she brought in a permanent superintendent who undid all of that in a matter of two weeks, then never held him to account,†Ferguson added, referring to CPD Supt. David Brown, whom Lightfoot lured from Dallas.
All of Mayor Lightfoot’s opponents in the primary vowed to remove that permanent superintendent.
Update 2
Chicago Police Department Superintendent David Brown has residnged, effective March 16. ABC 7 Chicago reports:
CHICAGO (WLS) — Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown will resign his position on March 16.
Lightfoot made the announcement in a statement Wednesday afternoon, saying Brown informed her of his resignation today.
“I accepted his resignation and want to commend him for his accomplishments not just for the department but the entire city, including setting a record number of illegal gun recoveries for two consecutive years; leading a double digit reduction in violent crime in 2022; significant, consistent progress on the consent decree; standing up a full time recruitment team that yielded over 950 new hires last year; significantly expanding the resources for officer wellness; and promoting more women to the senior exempt ranks than ever before in the history of the department,” the statement read. “I personally want to thank him for his service to our city.”
Brown said in a statement he has accepted a job as COO of Loncar Lyon Jenkins, a personal injury law firm in Texas.
“It has been an honor and a privilege to work alongside the brave men and women of the Chicago Police Department. I will continue to pray that all officers return home to their families safe at the end of their shift. May the Good Lord bless the city of Chicago and the men and women who serve and protect this great city,” Brown said in a statement.
I’m not sure which cliche desribex his action best: the hand writing on the wall, getting out while the getting is good, or the rats leaving the sinking ship. Both Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson had said that if elected they would fire Supt. Brown and one of them will, indeed, be elected.
