Vallas is the candidate of the extremist FOP and funded by the 1%.
The election for Chicago mayor is heading for a conclusion in about a month in what is looking to be fiercely contested fight but with an expected low turnout of voters.
The primary only attracted a third of the city’s registered voters. It was even lower in many Black and Latinx wards.
Young voters found nothing for them and stayed home in droves.
But those low turnout Black and Latinx wards are precisely where this election will be won or lost.
Vallas, who is white, may have tapped most of his potential in the many white majority wards he won and will have to lean heavily on getting Black voters who align with his push for more police presence and voters of color turned off by a progressive message.
About half of those voting in the primary voted for someone other than Paul Vallas or County Commissioner Brandon Johnson.
I voted for the incumbent Lori Lightfoot and now support Brandon Johnson, who received just over 20% of the vote.
Vallas got most of his votes from the white wards in the far north west and far south west sides of the city.
Johnson came in first on the north side getting many of his votes from liberal and progressive white voters.
Now the fight moves to the south and west sides and the Latinx wards where Lightfoot and Congressman Chuy Garcia came in first.
It will be a lot harder for Vallas to add many more white voters to his total so he has to find votes outside of what are known as the “cop wards.”
He has received some endorsements in those Black and Brown wards but it is a question as to whether those endorsements can be turned into votes.
TV ads may mean more than anything else and Vallas has a ton of money to spend.
Vallas has received the endorsement of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police and it’s newly re-elected MAGA president John Catanzara.
But that’s not where Vallas’ money is coming from
For that he has the backing of Chicago’s one percent.
Paul Vallas, the city’s ex-schools chief who pledged to be tough on crime and restaff the police force, is backed by personal donations from executives at hedge fund Citadeland private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners. He has raised $6.3 million — more than any other candidate except Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
And this from Crain’s Chicago Business:
Craig Duchossois, executive chairman of the Duchossois Group and heir to a racehorse fortune, led the pack with $500,000. Duchossois, a frequent donor to the Illinois Republican Party and GOP officials, previously donated $10,000 to Vallas and $50,000 to the Get Stuff Done PAC, which has spent more than $1 million supporting or opposing candidates for the City Council.
Vallas also brought in six-figure donations from several financial executives, including $250,000 from Donald Wilson, CEO of DRW Holdings, and $100,000 from Kenneth Brody, a partner at the same firm.
Despite founder Ken Griffin's departure to Florida, Citadel executives continue to play in Illinois politics, with Chief Operating Officer Gerald Beeson and Matthew Simon each giving $100,000. Vallas has previously reported taking $200,000 from Beeson.
James Perry, a managing director at Madison Dearborn Partners, is also a repeat donor, contributing this week $200,000, matching the $200,000 he gave to Vallas to help him reach the runoff.
I’ll be joining my brother on Friday’s Hitting Left with Mike Klonsky and Friends, this Friday at 11am on Lumpenradio.com. We will be talking more about the election.
Johnson will have to expand his block also. I got polled by AFSCME yeaterday. I told them I thought he needed to reach to people in the neighborhoods.
People worry about the kids. With the schools not working, people feel they are being forced out of the City. If they can't leave, they feel trapped. Johnson needs to show there will be a better alternative under a Johnson administraton.
Promising to increase Public School funding may not work. Everyone knows the schools are good at spending money. Johnson needs to show how he can make the educational system work.