On Sunday Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot appeared at the plumbers’ union hall. She spoke during a fundraiser for the union’s political action committee (PAC), the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Then the mayor was booed off the stage by the crowd, a shocking new video shows.
One attendee, remaining anonymous, spoke to the Sun-Times on Monday and described Lightfoot as having been “booed off stage.”
The anonymous attendee told the Sun-Times, “[Lightfoot] spoke for less than a minute. And there was a resounding booing throughout the room. Almost deafening, … I was sitting at the table with a bunch of plumbers. They’re like, ‘We’ve never heard that before here.’ … Clearly, their membership is not with her. … They were calling her names. It was bad.”
Union Recording Secretary Pat McCarthy disputed the anonymous account.
“I was there when she was speaking. There were a couple of people in the corner that booed. But it was nothing significant. And it didn’t disrupt the event at all,” McCarthy told the Sun-Times. “I would have to suspect whoever was booing at that event was not a member of this local,” he told the Sun-Times. “We respect her and we have no problems with the mayor.”
Union President Jim Majerowicz spoke about the union’s recent activity with the mayor. Recently, the city changed the plumbing code to allow for more use of plastic pipe. Majerowicz said, “We’ve been working with the mayor’s office on that. We’ve been supporting the mayor since Day One. We were the first union to support the mayor. She’s been here numerous times at meetings and stuff. She’s a great partner of ours. I just find it hard to believe.”
The Sun-Times echoed Majerowicz’s account of endorsing Lightfoot. Namely, the paper described the plumbers’ union as “the first union to endorse her in the 2019 runoff election.” However, Lightfoot’s press release from March 2019 mentions a previous endorsement by the firefighters’ union.
In the first round of the election, the plumbers’ union went on TV to endorse one of Lightfoot’s opponents. Then, the union’s preferred candidate failed to advance to the second round, and the union endorsed Lightfoot in the runoff.
“”We are proud and honored to endorse Lori Lightfoot for mayor,” Coyne said at a news conference March 2019. “After meeting with Lori several times, I can tell you she has presented herself as someone who is very progressive.”
Lightfoot plans to seek the union’s endorsement again during the 2023 election, her political director told the Sun-Times on Monday.
On Wednesday a video of the alleged incident went viral.
One person on video said, “I knew this was gonna happen.” It remains unclear whether the video has been edited.
Lightfoot has been booed before. She and Gov. J. B. Pritzker were booed at a White Sox game in April.
Watch the videos here —
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFgH4zoF4Vk
The Horn editorial team