The Chicago mayor's election, cops and crime.

The campaign for Chicago mayor is just beginning.

Chicago is a Democratic Party city, but our municipal elections are non-partisan. There is an open primary and the top two vote-getters face each other in a general election if nobody gets a majority.

The current mayor, Lori Lightfoot, is being challenged by a long list of hopefuls.

Chief among them is Paul Vallas, a former CEO of the Chicago public schools under Richard Daley (2), my congressman Chuy Garcia and Cook County Commissioner, Brandon Johnson.

Vallas has decided to run a law and order campaign against Lightfoot with an emphasis on hiring more cops.

For years Vallas has served as a consultant to the Fraternal Order of Police and has been endorsed in this race by the FOP and it’s Trumper president, John Catanzara.

Like all major American cities, Chicago has seen an uptick in crime since the start of the pandemic.

Guns are easy to get even as Chicago’s gun laws are intended to limit their availability.

Chicago has no wall that can keep guns from flowing in and federal inaction along with court rulings protecting the gun industry are beyond any mayor’s control.

Vallas’ TV ads call for more cops.

The relationship of cops to preventing crime is tenuous. Like firefighters who arrive on the scene after the fire has started, cops become involved only after the crime has been committed.

After the cop murder of George Floyd the right-wingers jumped all over the demand to defund the police.

But in most cities defunding the police was never a real thing.

An examination of the budgets of more than 100 cities and counties found that 83% are spending at least 2% more on police in 2022 than in 2019.

Of the 109 budgets analyzed by ABC news, only eight agencies cut police funds by more than 2%, while 91 agencies increased law enforcement funding by at least 2%.

In 49 cities or counties, police funding has increased by more than 10%.

Chicago’s police budget has also increased each year.

Plus, there is little evidence that more cops leads to a reduction in crime.

Paul Vallas knows as much about public safety as he did about schools and education.

On education Vallas was a disaster.

He was fired from his jobs as head of school systems in Philadelphia, New Orleans, Bridgeport and he was forced out as head of Chicago public schools.

Vallas thinks he can use the concern with public safety and crime as a way to get to the fifth floor of City Hall.

It looks like he’s planning a “Willie Horton” campaign.

Vallas has run for Chicago’s mayor before and failed, placing ninth out of fourteen candidates in the first round.

I’m hoping for a repeat.