The Quazzo/Vallas connection.

In 2013 Mayor Emanuel picked Deborah Quazzo as a replacement for Penny Pritzker on the CPS board of education.

Penny was off to serve in the Obama cabinet.

The problem was that Quazzo was heavily invested in making money from CPS.

In fact, Quazzo would give talks on how to make big bucks off of public education.

It now comes out that Quazzo is a financial backer of Paul Vallas’ run for Chicago Mayor.

Recent polls show Vallas replacing Chuy Garcia as a likely candidate to face Lori Lighfoot in the runoff although things may change.

Garcia’s has been hurt by recent reports of receiving financial support from bit coin hustler, Sam Bankman-Fried and ties to Michael Madigan.

Early voting has already begun.

I remember Quazzo, and she is some piece of work.

But she’s a perfect fit for Vallas, who made his mark by being fired as the head of school districts in Chicago, Bridgeport, Philadelphia and New Orleans.

Running for Mayor of Chicago four years ago Vallas got 5% of the vote.

But this time he has the white - I mean right - lane all to himself and he’s got more money, thanks to those like Deborah Quazzo.

From the Chicago SunTimes, December 22, 2014:

Companies that Chicago Board of Education member Deborah Quazzo has an interest in have seen the business they get from the city’s schools system triple since Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed her to the board last year, records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show.

From 2010 until her June 2013 appointment, the total payout to companies that Quazzo invested in has come to about $930,000, the records show.

Quazzo’s companies have gotten an additional $2.9 million in Chicago Public Schools business in the year and a half since the millionaire venture capitalist joined the board to fill a vacancy left by Penny Pritzker when President Barack Obama named Pritzker commerce secretary.

In all, five companies in which Quazzo has an ownership stake have been paid more than $3.8 million by CPS for ACT prep or online help with reading, writing and math. One of them stands to collect an additional $1.6 million this year from a district contract.

WBEZ also reports:

Also this week, Vallas accepted $50,000 from Shawn Fagan, the top lawyer at Citadel — the hedge fund that moved its headquarters from Chicago to Miamilast year — and $25,000 from Ron Gidwitz, who was Illinois finance chair for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and served as U.S. ambassador to Belgium under Trump.