2023 Chicago Mayoral/Aldermanic Elections

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Wow Vallas sucks. Didn't research him until now.

Still good riddance Lightfoot!

Brandon Johnson uses the word 'Latinx' on his website.

BRTD immediately bursts into flames

BRTD: Lean Johnson>Safe Vallas

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Can Garcia still run for reelection for his house seat though? It'd suck to see him be out of elected office entirely.

I don't know why he couldn't.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Wow Vallas sucks. Didn't research him until now.

Still good riddance Lightfoot!

Brandon Johnson uses the word 'Latinx' on his website.

Dammit then I wish Garcia was making the runoff.

Chicago is such a godless city, it refused to vote for a guy literally named Jesus.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Wow Vallas sucks. Didn't research him until now.

Still good riddance Lightfoot!

Brandon Johnson uses the word 'Latinx' on his website.

Dammit then I wish Garcia was making the runoff.

Chicago is such a godless city, it refused to vote for a guy literally named Jesus.

But in this case, the name "Jesus" would be the Spanish equivalent of the English name "Joshua."

Oh, I remember Chuy Garcia being nicknamed "Jesus" and piggybacking off that to make a joke.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

#CantMaliceTheVallas

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Johnson seems to be winning the late mail ballots. This is like the 3rd batch of late votes he’s won.

https://twitter.com/asinmarx/status/1632891540145152001?s=46&t=cnaSCfvIMWiF0...

How many of these kinds of ballots are there?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Once a ball starts rolling, it's hard to stop.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Johnson seems to be winning the late mail ballots. This is like the 3rd batch of late votes he’s won.

https://twitter.com/asinmarx/status/1632891540145152001?s=46&t=cnaSCfvIMWiF0...

How many of these kinds of ballots are there?

They've counted 44,645 since 3/2 and reported around 130K still needed to be counted before hand.

Vallas now down to 33.0%, Johnson up to 21.6%. Vallas may dip to 31-32 while Johnson could jump to 22-23 when all is said and done.

Johnson's Northside blob and his Hyde Park blog keep getting bigger as more votes are counted.

https://twitter.com/FrankCalabrese/status/1633122330624000001?s=20

What does the blue mean? Votes for Chicago's homemade version of Bronz.
What does the green mean? Well, that's most black precincts in the city.
What does the orange mean? That's most Latino precincts in the city.
But,
What does the red mean?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Vallas hanging with his base.

https://twitter.com/PaulVallas/status/1634997204535627776?s=20

See, this is why as stupid as Johnson is, he's still better than Vallas. Yuck.

Marching in a St Patrick’s Day parade is what makes Vallas worse than Johnson?

St. Patrick's Day has been appropriated in the US into a holiday that celebrates terrorism.

Irrespective of your personal feelings about the holiday, do you think it is politically smart for Vallas to do this?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Nice to see Vallas bagging an endorsement from a US Senator. I'll take what I can get.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Nice to see Vallas bagging an endorsement from a US Senator. I'll take what I can get.

There was an article out today in relation to this about Durbin and Pritzker feuding over influence and control over the state party  - now that Madigan is gone of course. So if this is cause of what Vallas pushed Pritzker to do, then maybe this pushes Pritzker to formally endorse and put resources behind Johnson.

Does this make it look that Vallas pushing against Pritzker was a mistake? By introducing new elements that could jeopardize his election?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Really disappointed in Durbin, thought he was better than that. Vallas isn't just another conservative Dem who progs are calling a Republican. He's legit a Republican at this point. Why anyone from the Dem establishment in IL would support him is beyond me.

Vallas was in charge of CPS, was the 2014 Lt. Governor nominee (hence Pat Quinn's endorsement), and has been a fixture in IL Democratic politics for many years. He's about as establishment as you can get in this field (not "legit a Republican"), so this endorsement from Durbin is unsurprising.

Many takes like yours in this thread show a poor understanding of Chicago/IL politics (and this is coming from someone who finds Vallas pretty abhorrent/supports Johnson).

Do you think it is natural I am supportive of Vallas?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Let’s go Vallas

I hope he does win.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

And just like that, a very strong drop for Johnson. If the rest look like that it's very over.

I would rather be Johnson than Vallas. The trendlines look grim...

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

And just like that, a very strong drop for Johnson. If the rest look like that it's very over.

I would rather be Johnson than Vallas. The trendlines look grim...

Dunno if I could say anything that concrete; it's hard to tell if the trendline means anything when there is no geographic data attached.

Ok.  Fair point.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

How is Vallas doing in the 19th ward?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Irrespective of what we think of Vallas, can we all agree that Illinois would (likely) be better off if he had won the Democratic primary for governor in 2002 over Rod Blagojevich?

I remember at the time thinking that the people there would be Illinnoyed if Vallas didn't win the primary.

Good one.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Chicago voters voted for St. Louis, and they're going to get it good and hard. The city might not clear 2 million next census if Brandon gets his way.

Which Brandon?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Dang, it's over already? I was hoping Vallas would win.

Nope, he lost.
Hopefully Johnson isn't awful.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Fascinated by the takes that Chicago is doomed because they voted for a new mayor. Even if his policies were destined to be destructive, how often do big city mayors (or any executives, really) actually get their entire platform enacted? If I didn't know better, I'd think that people can only imagine cities in perpetual states of collapse.

Crime has risen dramatically in several cities since the 2020 George Floyd protests. The logically thing would be increase police presense and crack down on crime like shop lifting and car break ins.

Johnson wants to do the opposite. In fact, he wants to push policies that made it so bad on the west coast.

Even if Johnson doesn't make it worst (which is a big IF), it will not get better. With Vallas, you had a small chance it would get better.

So guess what? People will contiune not to feel safe and move out the city.

Want to know what'll hurt inner city kids the most? When every rich, middle and working class family moves out. Watch what'll happen to inner city schools. There is already a teacher shortage. No pay increase by Johnson will make up for every decent child leaving the city, leaving behind the worst.

Could you have a more melodramatic take?

How am I melodramatic?

Everything you wrote is sensationalist and over the top.

Did I say anything false? Or even unlikely? Everything I said is based on existing treads are they not? Families are leaving Chicago. Schools are getting worst. Crime is getting worst.

I agree with what you are saying but it doesn't bode well for our education system that a teacher thinks 'Schools are getting worst' is a proper sentence.

Dude, I am a Muslim. I jsut broke my 14 hour fast. I am sitting in bed. I'm not putting too much thought into mistakes while I argue with strangers on the internet.

Ramadan Mubarak! From a fellow Muslim, best of luck.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I am getting the impression Vallas really didn't conduct a perfect campaign.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

For those interested, Chicago just witnessed the narrowest budget vote in the City Council since the 80s — Lightfoot's budget only passed 29-21, with six aldermen dissenting from the left and 15 from the right. One DSA-affiliated council member and another generally associated with the city's left voted for the budget; if they and a couple other conservatives voted against, the budget fails.

Lightfoot will be a one term mayor.

Like there’s anyone who could garner the support to win in Chicago. She’s got major incumbency and name recognition advantages very useful in this cash-strapped pandemic environment.

The election's not until 2023, so it certainly won't be in a pandemic environment. The most obvious left-of-center candidate is Brandon Johnson, who'd certainly draw at least some union backing, and who has a decent amount of name recognition (county commissioner with a regular radio show). The right will almost certainly have someone with a ton of cash too (Paul Vallas?). And then there's Willie Wilson.

Lightfoot is a weak, weak mayor with no natural base of support and she's gonna draw a handful of very well-funded challengers.

Just impressive, really.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Johnson is now officially mayor, I wish him the best, he will need it. Let's give him a chance, and see what he does.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/elections/ct-chicago-mayor-brandon-johnson-sworn-in-20230515-h4h3flacmjgytnwf6xgbp6dtry-story.html

He's in a tough job.
Do your best, Brandon!