50 Comments - Cheryl44 - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 9:55 am: Stupid and heartless - Amalia - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 9:56 am: talk about a campaign going down in flames…. - 10th Ward - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 9:58 am: Toni, you are selfish person who obviously is so desperate right now…may I remind you WILL have to work with Mayor Lighfoot. C’mon you are smarter pol that you are demonstrating - Boat captain - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 9:58 am: It seems like the line of decency in political ads has been erased. And for Preckwinkle to not take it down when the family asked is irresponsible, and shows no compassion for the family just to better herself. It might backfire on her. - wordslinger - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 9:59 am: –That’s not only gross political malpractice, it’s grotesquely inhumane. – Just horrible. Once this is over, I predict that the Preckwinkle crew will engage in a cage match of back-stabbing and finger-pointing to try to salvage their reputations from this FUBAR. - Anonymous - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:00 am: I am no fan of Toni, but was going to vote for her anyway. No more. - Ron Burgundy - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:01 am: We are truly seeing the worst of Toni Preckwinkle. Don’t forget it, folks. - Fav Human - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:02 am: Well, she has passed Randy Hultgren for the winner of the “most amazingly stupid and incompetent campaign” award. Who could have predicted such a amateur hour performance from TP back in Nov???? - lakeside - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:04 am: If you had told me even four months ago that I’d be hoping Toni Preckwinkle goes down hard in the mayoral runoff, I wouldn’t have believed you. My vote for Lightfoot is about 50 percent a rejection of how Preckwinkle has waged her campaign. - PublicServant - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:05 am: The needle will move with the release of this ad, but not in the direction Preckwinkle wants. I think she’s essentially just wrecked whatever she had left of her political life with the tawdriness of this campaign. People are sick and tired of the demonization of political opponents. Stick to the issues, our democracy and all of us would be better off. - Responsa - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:06 am: WOW. Politics ain’t beanbag but this ad is over the top. Feel just so sorry that the family who had the fire are forced against their will to relive it via Chicago television and are being put in the middle of a nasty election. - don the legend - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:09 am: I wonder what Toni’s concession phone call to Lori will say on election night? Any guesses? - Anonymous - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:13 am: The worst part of this election for Toni is that it completely destroys the credibility of the Cook County Democratic Party. When judges and other potential candidates decide that they do not need or want the endorsement of the Party because the party appears amateurish or that it doesn’t know how to run a campaign is particularly damaging to the brand. With this, the ability to raise funds will be diminished. - Huh? - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:15 am: Harbinger of toni’s next campaign for cook county president? - Montrose - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:19 am: Wow. It’s one thing to mess up rolling out an ad like that. It’s another thing to double down on your mistake. That’s the part that gives me pause about her running the city. Own a mistake and learn from it. - Just Me 2 - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:20 am: I can’t believe the Cook Republican Party didn’t even put a candidate up against Preckwinkle for County President. They wouldn’t have won, but it would have forced Toni to work for it. If she had worked for it she wouldn’t feel so entitled and think this type of behavior is appropriate. - NIU Grad - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:30 am: It’s not that Toni has changed…it’s just that this campaign has shown her true colors. Hopefully she gets more scrutiny as President after this is all over. - Fin - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:33 am: The bright lights of the mayor’s race were unkind to two paper tigers that were able to avoid deep inspection prior to it: Toni and Mendoza. Susana will recover. She is young and plenty of people like her. Toni, as County Board president and County Party Chair, is going to get annihilated on Tuesday. Not sure what that means for her as Party Chair but she will not be able to run for County Board again (nor do I think she was going to anyway). Literally every chicken came home to roost for Toni in this election. This commercial is the death rattle of a politician that has reached the end of the line. - Anonymous - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:34 am: Finally we have a campaign that makes the Alan Keyes Senate run look good by comparison. - Lil Squeezy - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:36 am: I was a Preckwinkle vote, then I saw the family’s response. - A guy - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:37 am: Ick. Desperate people do desperate things. Desperately. So sad for that family. - Northsider - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:38 am: Well, that settles it, then. I’m voting for Lightfoot. - Terry Salad - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:42 am: Hermene Hartman on the WGN post-debate coverage said “Toni Preckwinkle is just mean!.” I guess some viewers complained because WGN apologized on the news the next day. But Hartman had it right! - Seats - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:46 am: Lightfoot all the way. The ad itself could be forgiven, the doubling down after the family ask you to take it down? Disqualifying - A Jack - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:46 am: Preckwinkle fired her last campaign manager for a tasteless Facebook post in February, but now wants to run tasteless and hurtful TV ads. - twowaystreet - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:48 am: Preckwinkle should have stuck with staying off the airwaves. United Working Families just released some pretty vicious ads on facebook as well. They should have left this to the pacs and easily could have dodge those bullets. - The Captain - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:49 am: You’ve got weekend log deadlines, if she’s going to swap out that ad she’s basically got about an hour to do it otherwise it’s going to run all weekend no matter what. Even if the backlash swells and she finally relents this afternoon it may be too late by then to do anything about it until Monday. - Precinct Captain - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:49 am: I sympathize with the family, but the fact is that under Lori Lightfoot’s management, the 911 center botched these calls, prevented a timely response, and cost lives. Then, Lori Lightfoot destroyed evidence and lied to a judge (a habit of hers) as part of a cover-up. It’s important for voters to know this. - Just Me 2 - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:52 am: Precinct Captain - Are you a captain in the 13th ward by chance? - Teve Demotte - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:52 am: Every campaign is ultimately a reflection of the candidate. Toni is a mean-spirited, thin-skinned individual. From what I hear Scott Cisek, her mean-spirited former/current campaign manager is still very much involved in Toni’s campaign. - Fav Human - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 10:59 am: completely destroys the credibility of the Cook County Democratic Party. You say that like it’s a bad thing? ))) - Annonin' - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 11:07 am: Maybe she can get GovJunk to race back from Italy and toss out an endorsement - Misinformation Alert - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 11:14 am: @PrecinctCaptain Lori never ran the 911 center and was not managing those calls. Also didn’t lie to a judge. Just take the 20% whooping and stop fighting back with ridiculous lies. - OneMan - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 11:37 am: == Preckwinkle said she will not pull the ad, and doesn’t regret it. “No, I think this is an ad that shares with the voters important factors of my opponents capacity to lead,” she said. == So to heck with the family… I think this has become real personal with Toni and assuming the polls are correct, I wonder how well she will work with the new Mayor of Chicago. - @OneMan - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 11:38 am: She will work with the new Mayor as well as she works with most: poorly. It won’t matter because she won’t have any muscle left. - Fixer - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 12:13 pm: The family asked you to take this down and your response is basically that you’re going to continue with it, regardless of the personal cost to them emotionally, because you think you know better? Kindly see yourself out, ma’am. - Lincoln Lad - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 12:59 pm: This desperation is destroying her reputation. I hope it isn’t easily forgotten. Her time is up in politics, because of her own doing. - Amalia - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 1:03 pm: next campaign for Toni? nope, she’s done. and her little protege too, Kim Foxx. Toni has tainted the Democratic Party and Kim has tainted the Office of the State’s Attorney and the reputation of anyone who has ever worked there is now in question. memo to a boatload of progressive women who put those two in office, what the what? and, told ya. - Anonymous - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 1:07 pm: === Kim has tainted the Office of the State’s Attorney and the reputation of anyone who has ever worked there is now in question. === Don’t you think it is a bit much to say that the reputation for anyone who has ever worked there is now in question. There are many Assistant State’s Attorneys that worked there well before Kim Foxx took over (some of which remain and some of which left prior to her taking office or shortly thereafter) that still do a fantastic job and have fantastic reputations. - Amalia - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 1:48 pm: @Anonymous, I’m not saying they are bad. I think Foxx has given the office a bad reputation and it sticks to people. mention someone was an ASA and they start talking about how bad things are. Foxx had done real damage to the office in multiple ways. that national organization which criticized her, the NDAA? that group frequently looked to have CCSAO ASAs for key roles. my guess is no more. Kim Foxx needs to resign and someone with real integrity needs to clean things up. it’s not a social service agency. or a political and pr tool. it’s a agency which fights for justice. - Anonymous - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 2:00 pm: Nobody complained when the Willis children tragedy was used against George Ryan. Just saying. - Rich Miller - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 2:02 pm: ===Nobody complained === What does this even mean? The point here is that a family member complained to the most-watched TV news channel in Chicago. Did any Willlis family members complain? Nope. I deleted your goofy point once, but I figured I’d respond this time since you are so proud of your deep thought that you made the effort to post it again. - wordslinger - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 2:03 pm: –Nobody complained when the Willis children tragedy was used against George Ryan.– I recall many saying it was unfair. I can’t think of a time when the complaint “nobody ever… held up. - Anon773 - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 2:04 pm: Going negative may not work, but its goal to drive down turnout could impact the treasurer’s race where conyers-ervin needs strong turnout in AA wards. - Huh? - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 2:08 pm: toni is lucky to have a day job when she loses on tuesday. She can lick her wounds until she loses her next election. - Rich Miller - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 2:30 pm: ===I recall many saying it was unfair=== The Tribune editorial board was predictably outraged. Willis family? Not so much. - Soccermom - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 3:13 pm: I immediately thought of the Willis family as well. But that was a completely different fact situation. And, as Rich notes, the Willis family did not complain. - Soccermom - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 3:18 pm: I can’t remember == did Rod do ads about the Willis family? - Chicago Cynic - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 3:59 pm: What is most mind blowing to me is that she’s down by about 30 points and chooses first to run it and then to ignore the family when they beg her to remove it. The ad is not going to eliminate a 30 point gap. But it is going to cement Toni’s reputation as a cold, heartless person and a terrible politician. - Anonymous - Friday, Mar 29, 19 @ 4:27 pm: Soccermom Poshard was running against Ryan at the time. 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