* Next Tuesday the 28th is election day in Chicago. All votes must be counted two weeks later, on March 14. The final canvass is supposed to conclude a week later. The runoff is April 4. Paul Vallas is a heavy favorite to make the runoff, so he will likely start spending right away. But it’s possible that the city might not know who else is making the runoff for days while mail-in ballots arrive, which could give Vallas a head start.

* Rep. Kam Buckner is VP of Governmental Affairs at billboard company OUTFRONT Media. The company just filed an independent expenditure report of $23,925 to pay for a billboard boosting its employee’s mayoral bid.

* Johnson is doing a house party fundraiser the Saturday before election day?…

Folks! I’m co-hosting a house party for Brandon Johnson (yes, he’ll there!) at my place this Saturday afternoon!

Brandon is the real deal and if you wanna hear and ask him questions, this is your best shot!

RSVP below! #brandonisbetterhttps://t.co/jLHJp2IoPr

— Tom from Chicago (@EyesOnChi) February 22, 2023

Johnson’s gross ratings points have dropped considerably during the final week. Not a great sign. But he does have lots of troops.

* Meanwhile…

Chuy Garcia @ChuyChicago receives $600,000 from International Union of Operating Engineers for his run for mayor of Chicago #twill #chimayor23 pic.twitter.com/LmMhuTNbcW

— Frank Calabrese (@FrankCalabrese) February 21, 2023

* While we’re on the topic of money, here’s NBC 5…

As of Tuesday, Vallas had spent the most on television ads, at $3.5 million, compared to Garcia’s $1.7 million. García has also been outspent by Lightfoot, at $2.9 million; Willie Wilson, a millionaire businessman, at $2.74 million; and Cook County Board of Commissioners member Brandon Johnson, $2.75 million.

García is the only candidate who has been spending on Spanish-language advertising — about $118,000 so far.

Johnson has so far reported raising $2.4 million from teachers unions.

* We haven’t seen much paid media attacking Paul Vallas’ background. I figure that most operatives believe Vallas can’t be prevented from reaching the runoff, so why bother until the race is down to two candidates. But after the runoff, we could see amplifications of stuff like this and maybe this.

* The Get Stuff Done PAC has reported spending $85K to support Aida Flores and $62K to oppose Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez. Press release…

The Get Stuff Done PAC funded by some of the wealthiest white men in Chicago has officially broken the fundraising caps in the 25th ward aldermanic race in an attempt to install their puppet, Aida Flores, as alderperson.

“I fought to unite Pilsen, Little Village, Marshall Square and University Village into Chicago’s largest Latino ward so that our voices can finally be heard in City Council,” said Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez. “In my four years fighting for working class residents, I’ve never once heard from the likes of Michael Sacks, the Crown family or the Duchossois family about their apparently grave concerns for the people of the 25th ward.

“I welcome their input on how to keep long-term residents in their homes, reform the property tax system and combat the violence that tears through our communities, but I doubt they will ever want to have those conversations, much less spend a single day in the ward to gain even an ounce of understanding of the challenges we face.

“Instead, they hide behind their PAC, puppet masters trying to maneuver my opponent into office and return the 25th ward to the corruption and unchecked gentrification we suffered under disgraced former alderman Danny Solis.”

* Isabel’s roundup…

* Fox Chicago | Mail-in votes surge with one week to go: More than 100,000 Chicago voters have already cast ballots, prompting election officials to raise their estimate of how many votes will be cast by next Tuesday, when we count them all up.

* Sun-Times | Lightfoot campaign sent 9,900 emails seeking support from CPS, City Colleges staff, documents show: Four emails were sent to City Colleges of Chicago Chancellor Juan Salgado — who reports to the mayor — at his work email address inviting him to a Lightfoot campaign event. In all, the mayor’s reelection campaign sent more than 9,900 emails to CPS and City Colleges staff beginning last April, according to documents obtained through public records requests that reveal the previously unreported breadth of the outreach to government employees. The emails went to at least 64 City Colleges staff members starting in July. It’s unclear how many individual CPS staff members were emailed, as those details were not provided.

* NBC Chicago | Lightfoot Holds Briefing to Address Criticism From Mendoza Over Police Pension and COVID: Pension benefits for police officers impacted by COVID are at the center of criticism from Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who questioned Mayor Lori Lightfoot after her brother was denied disability payments. With just one week before the Chicago mayoral election, Lightfoot addressed Mendoza’s claims.

* Tribune | Mayoral challenger Paul Vallas has promoted his schools resume, but blemishes garner scrutiny: While Vallas has been praised by some for boosting student test scores, straightening out day-to-day finances and restoring discipline to a Chicago school system once deemed the nation’s worst, he also has been criticized for over-stressing the importance of test scores, and he’s been asked to defend his handling of the district’s pension payments and for expanding school privatization and charter schools — ideas that have aged less well as union power has grown.

* Steve Cochran Show | ‘Chicago needs a symphony conductor, not an army general to lead the city.’ -Chicago mayoral candidate Rep. Kam Buckner: Chicago mayoral candidate Rep. Kam Buckner joins the Steve Cochran Show to talk about why Republicans should vote for him, how to encourage businesses to be a part of the resurgence of Chicago, and he shares his action plan to create a safer city.

* NBC Chicago | Chicago mayoral candidate Chuy García wants to make history — and unite a city divided over crime: Three years before he was elected to Congress, García, 66, waged a 2015 mayoral run that galvanized a cross-cultural coalition of voters, many excited about the possibility of the city’s first Latino mayor. He forced then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel into a runoff. He lost, but his grassroots campaign energized progressives and Latinos. Now, he’s trying to woo a pandemic-battered city where residents uneasy about crime are forcing him to reassure them he can keep them safe while not rolling back reforms brought about by violence against Black and brown residents.

* Sun-Times | Nine candidates between two neighboring South Side wards look to build businesses to reduce crime: Though the field of candidates for the 21st Ward office has been cut in half, seven still remain, pushing alternatives to conventional policing, while in the nearby 18th Ward, only one candidate is challenging incumbent Ald. Derrick Curtis.

* WGN | City agrees to settle 1 of 3 lawsuits brought by CPD officers against lieutenant: CPD officer Xavier Chism filed a federal lawsuit in March 2022 against the city and Lt. Jason Brown. Chism, who worked under Brown in the CPD’s Narcotics Division, alleged that Brown and another supervisor conducted an unwarranted search of public records that were tied Chism and then retaliated against him after he refused to lie about what happened.

* Chicago Reader | Julian ‘Jumpin’ Perez makes the leap into Chicago politics: I’m a music journalist, and that’s why I’ve come to Humboldt Park to talk to Perez in the middle of December. We’re sitting in the spartan offices on Augusta Boulevard that serve as his satellite campaign headquarters. In July, Perez formally announced a run for alderperson of Chicago’s 26th Ward, whose sawtoothed borders enclose parts of Humboldt Park and Ukrainian Village, along with slivers of Logan Square and Hermosa. I wanted to know: Why does he want this office?