by Frank Holmes, reporter
It sounds unbelievable, but it’s true: Republican donors have invested almost $1 million to make sure a self-described “lifelong Democrat” wins his race.
That may be dysfunctional, but so is the entire political landscape in Chicago, where GOP donors believe they have found the perfect candidate to force incumbent Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot out of office.
Paul Vallas is currently tied for first place in the polls with Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, another Democrat.
Republicans lined up behind Vallas, even though he’s a member of the other party, because it’s been 92 years since a member of the GOP won a mayoral election. Vallas seems the best alternative to four more years of Lightfoot — and they’re willing to put their money against the mayor.
Lightfoot has proven so disastrous in office that Republicans have flooded her fellow Democrat, Vallas, with hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time.
Michael Keiser, a golf course developer (is there a more Republican-sounding job title?) donated $700,000 to Vallas. Another $100,000 came from John Canning, a private equity executive. James N. Perry Jr.—who has given tens of thousands of dollars to the National Republican Congressional Committee and former Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse—has also reportedly donated to Vallas.
Chicago has a run-off form of election: If no candidate gets 50 percent of the vote, then the top two vote-getters face off against each other, like in the Georgia Senate race. The election is April 4—and the cash influx is already having an impact. Things look so bad for Lightfoot that she may not make the mayoral run-off. She’s currently stuck in third place at a mere 14 percent, according to a poll released this week by Northwestern University’s Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy. Vallas has 19 percent backing, Garcia 17 percent.
It’s no secret why Lightfoot is so unpopular: Murders reached an all-time high under her time in office, breaking historical records in 2021. Although homicides fell slightly in 2022, there were still 188 more murders on Chicago streets last year than when Lightfoot came to power in 2019. Mass shootings have become a staple of every weekend.
Shootings decreased a little in 2022, but total violent crime spiked by 41 percent last year.
Lightfoot takes no responsibility for the bloodshed on her streets, pinning the blame on the victims. When robbery in Chicago’s Little Village increased by 114 percent last month, she told business owners “to protect themselves (by) not using cash.”
She tells them to “protect themselves,” because Lightfoot tried to “defund the police” with a massive $80 million budget cut. Vallas promises to hire more cops, whose union has endorsed him.
It’s not just safety that hurts Chicagoans; it’s also joblessness—and hopelessness.
Lightfoot told Europeans Chicago has a “thriving economy,” even as major corporations like Boeing and Caterpillar have moved out of town. Ken Griffin said he moved the hedge fund Citadel out of the Windy City, because “people aren’t safe here.”
CNBC ranked the city third from the bottom for adopting business-friendly policies.
Of course, many mom-and-pop stores closed thanks to her strict lockdown orders during COVID-19. But as the rest of the city sheltered in place at her order, Lightfoot went maskless and took a trip to the hair stylist.
Her hypocrisy and incompetence has turned even old friends into bitter enemies. During a speech before the plumbers’ union, Lightfoot spoke for one minute before being booed off the stage by her onetime political allies.
And it’s united bitter enemies in a combined effort to elect someone else, even a less radical Democrat like Vallas. Chicago’s mayoral elections are officially nonpartisan, but no Republican has been elected mayor of Chicago since 1931.
Lightfoot’s campaign has tried to capitalize on that fact by claiming Vallas is actually a closet Republican. Vallas “has so strongly aligned himself with Republican views that he can’t even be considered a moderate Democrat,” she said. But Vallas has run for office as a Democrat for at least 21 years and worked for former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.
The attacks don’t appear to have stalled Vallas with the voters.
At this point, Chicago’s wearied, impoverished, and bloodied residents don’t seem to care if a candidate calls himself a Republican, Democrat, or independent—as long the candidate doesn’t call herself Lightfoot.
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”