Is Vallas a Democrat or a Republican? He's a Republicrat.

The first round of voting for Chicago mayor has already begun. Election day isn’t until February 28th, but early voting has started.

In a few days I will head over to the closest early voting site and cast my ballot for Mayor Lightfoot.

Elections in this overwhelmingly Democratic city are officially non-partisan.

It hasn’t always been that way.

Mayor Harold Washington ran as a Democrat back when we had party primaries and general elections.

Now we have one election and if no candidate get 50% plus one, the top two vote-getters face each other in a run-off.

When we had partisan elections Mayor Washington won twice against the Chicago Democratic Machine in party primaries and then the general election, even when most of the Democratic Party leadership supported the Republican Bernie Epton.

Hoping never to have someone like Harold win again, the Party bosses went to Springfield and had the election law changed to the current non-partisan structure.

Why they thought that trick would work is anybody’s guess. And it hasn’t worked.

Now the only way a Republican can win the Chicago mayor’s race is to claim they are a Democrat.

Which brings us to Paul Vallas, a leading challenger to Lori Lightfoot.

Mayor Lightfoot says Vallas is really a Republican. And there is plenty of evidence she is right about that.

There is the fact that he was an unpaid consultant to the Fraternal Order of Police and its pro-insurrectionist president, John Catanzara.

The FOP endorsed Vallas.

Plus Vallas is running a law-and-order campaign that certainly sounds Nixonian.

Then there is the 2009 interview in which Vallas described himself as “more of a Republican than a Democrat because, fundamentally, I oppose abortion.”

On education, Vallas is pro-voucher, pro-privatization.

Of course, that’s the problem.

So are many Democrats.

And Vallas was school boss under Democrat Richard Daley (2) and ran as the running mate of Democratic governor Pat Quinn who lost to Republican Bruce Rauner.

So this whole Republican/Democrat thing can get pretty confusing.

To complicate things even more, after losing to Republican Bruce Rauner, Rauner then appointed Vallas to the board of trustees of Chicago State University.

That was before Vallas was fired by the board from the job of chief administrative officer of the predominantly Black south side university.

In casting out Vallas, board Vice President Nicholas Gowen said he felt that Vallas had used the 150-year-old university solely to further his political ambitions. Gowen said Monday that Vallas never informed him about plans to leave the job early or to seek political office.

Had he known that, Gowen said, his decision to vote in favor of hiring Vallas, 64, for a position that was essentially created for him would have been different.

“I find it unfortunate that he would attempt to use Chicago State University as a platform to run for the mayor of the city of Chicago,” Gowen said. “It is not the role of Mr. Vallas to try to use Chicago State University to try to bolster his bona fides to the black community.”

So is Vallas a Democrat or a Republican?

He’s what I call a Republicrat.

A corporate Democrat.

A pro-business Republican.

A politician who talks out of both sides of his mouth on issues like reproductive rights.

A guy who hangs with Trumper insurrectionist John Catanzara.

A candidate who takes donations from cops involved in the killing of Laquan McDonald.

Vallas can call himself whatever he wants.

Except mayor.