CHICAGO | Politics and Current Events

[Randomguy34]

This certainly doesn't inspire confidence for Chuy's campaign

Unidentified congressman in federal ComEd conspiracy documents is mayoral candidate US Rep. Jesús ‘Chuy’ García, sources say

Mayoral challenger Jesús “Chuy” García is an unidentified member of Congress referenced in federal court filings detailing an alleged scheme by then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan to appoint one of García’s political associates to a lucrative position on Commonwealth Edison’s board of directors, the Tribune has learned.

García is not accused of wrongdoing, and through a spokesman, denies he played any role in the push by Madigan to appoint Juan Ochoa to the utility’s board, which is one of the centerpiece allegations in the ComEd bribery conspiracy case set for trial in March.

But García’s name surfacing — even superficially — in one of the biggest political corruption investigations in Illinois history could make waves in the upcoming city election, where García is running as a progressive and is widely considered to be the strongest challenger in a crowded field seeking to unseat Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

It also highlights a particularly thorny political problem for García, who has tried to distance himself from Madigan’s old-school politics even though he’d formed a yearslong alliance with Madigan that helped them both strengthen their spheres of influence.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...4aa-story.html

[bnk]

https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/ch...s-frontrunners

Chicago mayoral election: New poll shows Vallas, Garcia as frontrunners

By Mike FlanneryPublished January 20, 2023 11:57AM
Illinois PoliticsFOX 32 Chicago


Chicago mayoral election: New poll shows Lightfoot in fourth
A new voter opinion survey shows where Chicago's mayoral candidates stand.

CHICAGO - A new voter opinion survey finds Paul Vallas and Rep. Chuy Garcia leading the nine-candidate field for mayor of Chicago.

The top two finishers in next month’s voting will compete in an April 4th runoff election.


And, despite spending several million dollars on campaign advertising in recent weeks, incumbent Lori Lightfoot has fallen to fourth place, behind teachers union staffer Brandon Johnson.

Pollster Matt Podgorski, of the political consulting firm M3, said, "The big takeaway that we saw is that Chuy Garcia and Paul Vallas basically flip-flopped spots. Now I’ve got Paul Vallas in first place with 26% and Chuy Garcia in second with 19%."

...

[twister244]

Vallas celebrated these results, pushing them out to supporters in an email. Mayor Lightfoot, not so much. A spokeswoman called the poll deeply flawed — a claim rejected by Podgorski.

Typical LL response:

I don't like something I see, so I attack the person or process.

Seems like we are heading for a new mayor, one way or another. If LL can't even break 10% in current polling, she's done, unless something dramatically changes between now and then.

Vallas seems like a solid guarantee for the runoff. Garcia's campaign could still get hit from wildcards if any sniffs of corruption come up.

[Steely Dan]

I'm heartened to see the Vallas campaign gaining momentum.

If he can make it to the run-off, he's got my vote.

[tjp]

Interesting, I guess the tough on crime messaging is working.

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by moorhosj1

You ignored the entire discussion around violence prevention. The police operate at the bottom of the funnel, mostly chronicling and investigating crimes that have already occurred. If you can decrease the number of violent incidents in the first place (the top of the funnel), you won't need as many officers to take down violent criminals.

If you can offload the handling of non-violent criminals or those with mental health episodes, your existing officers can focus more on taking down violent criminals.

The idea of more officers, more training, more mental health resources, and more violence prevention funding seems very expensive. Without the last two pieces, we are repeating the 80s and 90s.

Vallas' proposals for "Public Safety" will add around $500 million annually. That doesn't include any increased funding for mental health or violence reduction. Where is funding coming from?:

• 1,800 more officers is at least $300 million/year
• New Witness Protection Program with cost ???
• 300 more CTA officers to cost $100 million/year (although officers may be coming from the 1,800 new CPD officers, not clear)
• New Case Review Unit to cost ???

Chicago's spending outstrips LAs yet has a million less people. Maybe take money from CPS since they have lost hundreds or thousands of students in the last two decades while their budget keeps on growing (with bad results).

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by jtown,man

Maybe take money from CPS since they have lost hundreds or thousands of students in the last two decades while their budget keeps on growing (with bad results).

Couldn't the exact same comment be made about the CPD? Proposing to cut their budget makes you a radical, but cutting school budgets is just fine. Shows pretty clearly where our priorities lie.

[twister244]

So apparently homeless sleeping at the airport isn't a new concept, but it's clearly been ticking up recently, which is probably being noticed more now.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...oba-story.html

[tjp]

I don’t think he’s proposing the 3.5% income tax. Sun Times is the only outlet saying that and it seems to be an error.

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by JuliusDoaner

Progressives are insane, tax tax and more taxes on one of the most taxed cities in America, then they act shocked when companies and people relocate to more tax friendly places. A metra tax? 3.5% tax on people making over 100k, is he serious? You think losing Boeing, Citadel, and Tyson under Lightfoot was bad, just imagine the company exodus under Johnson.

Johnson does not represent all “Progressives” he represents the CTU. Plenty of Progressive candidates who aren’t calling for these idiotic taxes (Chuy, Kam, LL- whom you call a “leftist”)

Originally Posted by JuliusDoaner

Hotel tax...lol. Can't believe there's a worst candidate out there then Lightfoot. Not to mention he publicly supported the whole defund the police movement in 2020 when the savages were destroying our downtown and neighborhoods during the riots. Clown. Chuy is Lightfoot 2.0, trash. Buckner is decent but has no base. King is...no. Sawyer has no base. Wilson cant put out coherent sentences. Green is too young. Vallas it is.

Using the word “savages” to describe people tells us more about yourself than the candidates you are discussing.

Originally Posted by JuliusDoaner

People are sick and tired of criminals running the city. 3rd straight year of 700+ homicides. The only thing I'd like to see from Vallas is embrace the urbanist base. Let him go on a press run promoting bike lanes, being pro development, and CTA expansion and he definitely has mayorship on lock.

We had this much crime under Rahm and you are begging for him to come back. Almost like the facts don’t matter, the rhetoric does. Maybe Vallas doesn’t support those things, why do you assume he does? We know he helped privatize CPS service, which has not worked out great for the district or the students. How is he finding his massive CPD expansion? At least Brandon Johnson proposes a way to pay for his ideas, even if they are very bad ideas.

[ardecila]

It should be obvious to everyone by now that Chuy isn't a progressive, or at least he is not the kind of progressive outsider-reformer that some people think he is. He pretended to be one in 2015 to lure gullible Bernie Bro voters. He's really just the new (Latino) face of the machine. But if he brings even a watered-down progressivism combined with his connections/insider status, he could be the best person to achieve progressive goals. Nobody wants to hear that yet. But we'll certainly hear about it after the runoff, if it's Vallas vs Chuy.

Idealists like Brandon Johnson, if elected, will find very quickly that even a fiery progressivism means nothing if you can't work the system. Our city is technically a weak-mayor system with a lot of power vested in the aldermen. The reason Chicago is known for iron-fisted mayors is because those individuals were just masters of working outside the system, horse-trading and cutting deals, even blackmail sometimes. I don't think Johnson can play the game - neither could Harold Washington. It's sorta like LBJ at the presidential level - he was the ultimate "beltway insider" and mastered the workings of Congress like a swamp dweller, but once elected he was able to use that power to pass the most progressive agenda since FDR.

Vallas is a (conservative-leaning) reform type. But it's important to remember that he is an outsider, just like Lightfoot, Brandon Johnson or Harold Washington. You may think this is a good thing, but it definitely impacts the ability of a mayor to cut deals and get stuff done.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by ardecila

It should be obvious to everyone by now that Chuy isn't a progressive, or at least he is not the kind of progressive outsider-reformer that some people think he is. He pretended to be one in 2015 to lure gullible Bernie Bro voters. He's really just the new (Latino) face of the machine. But if he brings even a watered-down progressivism combined with his connections/insider status, he could be the best person to achieve progressive goals. Nobody wants to hear that yet. But we'll certainly hear about it after the runoff, if it's Vallas vs Chuy.

Idealists like Brandon Johnson, if elected, will find very quickly that even a fiery progressivism means nothing if you can't work the system. Our city is technically a weak-mayor system with a lot of power vested in the aldermen. The reason Chicago is known for iron-fisted mayors is because those individuals were just masters of working outside the system, horse-trading and cutting deals, even blackmail sometimes. I don't think Johnson can play the game - neither could Harold Washington. It's sorta like LBJ at the presidential level - he was the ultimate "beltway insider" and mastered the workings of Congress like a swamp dweller, but once elected he was able to use that power to pass the most progressive agenda since FDR.

Vallas is a (conservative-leaning) reform type. But it's important to remember that he is an outsider, just like Lightfoot, Brandon Johnson or Harold Washington. You may think this is a good thing, but it definitely impacts the ability of a mayor to cut deals and get stuff done.

Except that right now..... People are not in a "progressive" mood. We are still dealing with massive inflation and elevated crime. The last thing people want in this city is more taxes eating away at whatever little spending power they have, especially if a broader recession starts to settle in.

People want crime to go down. Plain and simple. Johnson can be as progressive as he wants with revenue generating plans, but people don't care about that right now. They want car jackings and homicides to go away. Vallas isn't perfect, but he's smart enough to see that crime is front-center for folks in the city right now.

Once that problem is tackled - THEN we can start to have a conversation about how to better structure our revenue to best serve the city. Part of the problem there will be eroding away the corruption of how we are throwing money at empty schools in this city.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by tjp

I don’t think he’s proposing the 3.5% income tax. Sun Times is the only outlet saying that and it seems to be an error.

Nope.

https://abc7chicago.com/chicago-mayo...plan/12729345/

It includes a 3.5% city income tax on Chicagoans and suburbanites earning more than $100,000 a year; a financial transaction tax; a 66% increase in the city's hotel tax, which is already the highest in the country; a revived employee head tax; and raising the real estate transfer tax on high-end home sales.

And if you think that's not enough.....

Raising $98 million by "making the big airlines pay for polluting the air" in Chicago neighborhoods.

Or....

Taxing financial transactions - Johnson calls it a "Big Banks Securities and Speculation Tax" - at a rate of $1 or $2 for every "securities trading contract." A tax of "less than 0.002 percent of a trade's value" would generate $100 million, he said.

Hard pass on this candidate for me. No thanks.

[Kngkyle]

It's not surprising that Johnson wants to raise taxes across the board. How else can he give away what's left of the farm to his CTU handlers?

Vallas is the least bad option in my book, but I'd take Rahm over any of these clowns. I wish Vallas would talk more about transit.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

It's not surprising that Johnson wants to raise taxes across the board. How else can he give away what's left of the farm to his CTU handlers?

Vallas is the least bad option in my book, but I'd take Rahm over any of these clowns. I wish Vallas would talk more about transit.

I do too..... I would hope that after Vallas comes in, and after a year or two, there is some movement to improve transit from a Vallas admin.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by twister244

I do too..... I would hope that after Vallas comes in, and after a year or two, there is some movement to improve transit from a Vallas admin.

I doubt it. The people advocating for bus lanes, bike lanes, etc are very much not Vallas' base. His base are the most rabid cagers the city has, plus wealthier downtown commuters who just want the CTA cleaned up.

I guess we'll see when he appears at the Safe Streets For All forum next weekend, but I'm just expecting some vague talking points out of him.

https://safestreets4all.org/forum

[twister244]

Originally Posted by ardecila

I doubt it. The people advocating for bus lanes, bike lanes, etc are very much not Vallas' base. His base are the most rabid cagers the city has, plus wealthier downtown commuters who just want the CTA cleaned up.

I guess we'll see when he appears at the Safe Streets For All forum next weekend, but I'm just expecting some vague talking points out of him.

https://safestreets4all.org/forum

I don't know if I buy this claim. If that was the case, he wouldn't be up with Garcia getting the polling numbers he is getting. Based on feedback in this thread alone, I feel like Vallas has a growing base of middle voters that want to see crime reduced.

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by twister244

Based on feedback in this thread alone, I feel like Vallas has a growing base of middle voters that want to see crime reduced.

Be careful with the sample size. This board was convinced that Kim Foxx had no shot at re-election. She won by 15%.

[Handro]

Originally Posted by ardecila

It should be obvious to everyone by now that Chuy isn't a progressive, or at least he is not the kind of progressive outsider-reformer that some people think he is. He pretended to be one in 2015 to lure gullible Bernie Bro voters. He's really just the new (Latino) face of the machine. But if he brings even a watered-down progressivism combined with his connections/insider status, he could be the best person to achieve progressive goals. Nobody wants to hear that yet. But we'll certainly hear about it after the runoff, if it's Vallas vs Chuy.

Idealists like Brandon Johnson, if elected, will find very quickly that even a fiery progressivism means nothing if you can't work the system. Our city is technically a weak-mayor system with a lot of power vested in the aldermen. The reason Chicago is known for iron-fisted mayors is because those individuals were just masters of working outside the system, horse-trading and cutting deals, even blackmail sometimes. I don't think Johnson can play the game - neither could Harold Washington. It's sorta like LBJ at the presidential level - he was the ultimate "beltway insider" and mastered the workings of Congress like a swamp dweller, but once elected he was able to use that power to pass the most progressive agenda since FDR.

Vallas is a (conservative-leaning) reform type. But it's important to remember that he is an outsider, just like Lightfoot, Brandon Johnson or Harold Washington. You may think this is a good thing, but it definitely impacts the ability of a mayor to cut deals and get stuff done.

So true re: Chuy. It's frustrating to see such an obvious empty suit figurehead for the cook county machine gain so much traction. Hard to see how we'll ever break out of the cycle when pols like him just have to show up to become a frontrunner in elections.

I'm pretty sold on Vallas at this point. In a perfect world Kam would have a real shot, but I don't think he's got the juice this time around.

Vallas has decades of (successful) experience in civic admin roles--he's worked within the Chicago system before without getting swallowed up by it and has worked all over and gotten (mixed, but mostly successful) results. I was just recently reading about his time in Philly and he's still viewed as one of their best superintendents even 20 years later. I appreciate that he has partnered with lots of stakeholders from around the world throughout his career--Chicago needs someone who has a rolodex full of contacts outside of IL. The city is parochial enough.

I don't love his courting of the FOP or speaking at ultra-conservative events, but I'm of the strong belief that party politics do not matter in local elections. Pragmatism > ideology every day of the week when it comes to mayor.

EDIT: I'm not wealthy or a rabid anti-crime person, btw. My biggest issues are improved transit and growing the population. Crime--or the perception of crime--is arguably the biggest hurdle Chicago faces to accomplish major progress in those two areas.

[Tom In Chicago]

Originally Posted by Handro

Crime--or the perception of crime--is arguably the biggest hurdle Chicago faces to accomplish major progress in those two areas.

Yes. . . this is a very true statement. . . I've often said that it took a generation of us in the early 1990s who moved in and participated in making Chicago a great place to live, and it took less than a month to unravel that into the mess we have today - real or imagined. . .

The fact that this new generation of Chicagoans tolerate this level of crime, homelessness and drug abuse is very concerning for the future of the city. . .

With that being said, I'm probably gonna vote for Vallas. . .

. . .