* Gregory Pratt, Alice Yin and A.D. Quig at the Tribune…
(A) Tribune review of his social media found his Twitter account @paulvallas liked a series of tweets that used racist language, supported controversial police tactics like “stop and frisk” or insulted the mayor in personal terms.
In a statement Thursday, Vallas said he does not “personally manage” the account and was “shocked when this was brought to my attention because this kind of abhorrent and vile rhetoric does not represent me or my views.” […]
Back in April 2022, the Vallas account liked a tweet insinuating Chicago police superintendent David Brown was a diversity hire and calling the mayor a racist.
“He was hired for one reason and one reason only. He was black,” the tweet said. “Other candidates were more qualified, but they weren’t black. Lightfoot is a racist, big news flash.”
Oh, there’s so much more.
Didn’t know anything about Awake Illinois even after appearing with the group twice. Owns a house in the suburbs and says he lives in a Chicago rental unit. And somebody else close enough to him to have access to his personal Twitter account must’ve liked all those nasty tweets because it most certainly wasn’t him. Nope.
* And check out his likes now…
Clean-up on Aisle 5!
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 5:01 pm:
Personnel is policy.
I’m sure Vallas will get rid of whomever likes all the bad tweetering.
Yep.
Vallas kinda/sorta reminds me of Rauner, ya got this crowded field, folks still trying to secure whatever base they think the have, meanwhile Vallas is unchecked and has no one to answer to with real red flags in a primary where the base is a bunch of folks who merely are aggrieved
- Dotnonymous - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 5:03 pm:
Another self-shocked politician…shocking…but no ways surprising.
- John Lopez - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 5:06 pm:
=== “In a statement Thursday, Vallas said he does not ‘personally manage’ the account…” ===
That’s what they all say when caught liking/retweeting questionable tweets.
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 5:08 pm:
===Vallas kinda/sorta reminds me of Rauner===
Remember “take back Illinois”?
- Roadrager - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 5:10 pm:
No way he liked those tweets that aligned perfectly with the base he was trying to rile up and the political platform he was working to build ahead of his announced candidacy. Why, it’s just unthinkable.
- ArchPundit - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 5:11 pm:
I just cannot figure out why the FOP loves this guy so much.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 5:15 pm:
Maybe Catanzara borrowed his phone?
- ArchPundit - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 5:16 pm:
And 47th Ward makes the better joke again.
- Lincoln Lad - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 5:17 pm:
So the takeaway is that Vallas empowered a racist to manage his twitter account and therefore isn’t responsible for what his person says and does under his name. So the good news is that he hires horribly, yet we should make him mayor of Chicago. Running the city is so much easier to run than a single hire to oversee your Twitter account. During an election campaign… got it, he’s the victim here. Sure.
- low level - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 5:27 pm:
Ive often said about elected officials or those running for office, if you cant stop yourself from doing dumb stuff on social media, stay off of it.
How many times do we hear someone lost or took a hit because of a tweet or post? On the flip side, we never hear anyone who won because of their social media presence do we?
As for Vallas and the FOP, it didnt hurt that Paul is unique in one way in comparison to the rest of the field…
- Big Dipper - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 5:31 pm:
So either he is a clueless, befuddled poor judge of character or a liar. Not sure which would be worse in a mayor. Also, some of the likes predate his candidacy so blaming an operative strains credulity.
- New Day - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 5:38 pm:
“Vallas kinda/sorta reminds me of Rauner, ya got this crowded field, folks still trying to secure whatever base they think the have, meanwhile Vallas is unchecked and has no one to answer to with real red flags in a primary where the base is a bunch of folks who merely are aggrieved”
This. Exactly this. Vallas is going to be the top vote getter by far because nobody has the kind of $$$ necessary to use things like this to define him in the first round. And whomever emerges with him (my money is on Brandon Johnson) is going to face such an onslaught from day one that it’s going to be hard to get in clean shots.
Gird your loins, folks. Mayor Rauner, errr, I mean Mayor Vallas is coming your way.
- Union Thug Gramma - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 5:38 pm:
It’s very interesting that he, like others that have been caught tweeting racist, offensive posts always blame someone on staff and never apologize. Sure Paul, it was the very young staffer wearing a Nazi symbol.
- Dotnonymous - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 5:44 pm:
Social media strikes back…shoulda named Twitter Boomerang.
- Frumpy White Guy - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 6:00 pm:
Vallas hires racists to manage his political twitter account?
- northsider (the original) - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 6:04 pm:
Silly Paul. He skipped part of the instruction book. He was supposed to start out by saying he was hacked. You’re not supposed to blame the staffer until day 2.
- Senator Clay Davis - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 6:11 pm:
I bet it was the same dude that hacked Anthony Weiner’s twitter
- Anon324 - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 6:22 pm:
It’s pretty sad that the son-in-law of a JFK Profile in Courage Award winner is playing to the basest fear and cowardice to try to win an election.
- MisterJayEm - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 6:37 pm:
tl;dr- Man who wants to run the city can’t control his own Twitter account.
– MrJM
- West Sub Ladi - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 7:12 pm:
==…Man who wants to run the city…==
A majority minority city at that. Note to campaign managers: jump on this, stat.
- Friendly Bob Adams - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 7:22 pm:
Villas seems determined to rid himself of any remaining shreds of integrity. He wants people to believe he’s a “lifelong Democrat” that just happens to hang out with terrible people. And somehow runs a Twitter account with bad habits.
- Grandson of Man - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 7:31 pm:
Terrible oppo, like who Vallas is or has become when his guard is down. Can’t blame Proft and Awake IL for feeling angry and betrayed. Supporting them on one hand and totally opposing them on the other. Has nothing to do with ideology. That kind of politics breeds contempt.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 7:50 pm:
This all seems consistent with who Vallas is.
- Lurker - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 8:25 pm:
I’m sorry Big Dipper but your “So either he is a clueless, befuddled poor judge of character or a liar.” I think the “either, or” in that sentence should be changed to an “and.”
- Amalia - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 10:51 pm:
If you’ve been around government and or politics in Chicago and Illinois, you know Paul, some people know him back to the ’80s. You know the people he worked for, bosses, living, and dead. What would they do with you, Paul, if you were working for them now? A person who says he cannot control his own Twitter account and whose account likes abhorrent things that reflect poorly on you, and would reflect poorly on them. What would those bosses do?
- Amalia - Thursday, Feb 23, 23 @ 10:56 pm:
Commercial. “I’m Paul Vallas and I want to be the next Mayor of Chicago. I only hang around with people who say racist things or like racist tweets, I don’t say or do that. You can count on me to bring good people to my staff and run your City well.” oh the hell…..
- Stuck in Celliniland - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 8:36 am:
==Vallas kinda/sorta reminds me of Rauner==
And yet he was Quinn’s running mate in 2014. As devastating as Rauner was to the state and state employees and agencies, I don’t think Quinn/Vallas would have been all rosy had Soy Boy actually prevailed (perhaps even a “Rauner Lite” especially after the ILSC shot down pension reform).
- H-W - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 8:39 am:
== “We are working on identifying who is responsible for liking these tweets.” == (real quotes in article).
Pretty simple. The candidate and the campaign manager(s) are responsible. End of story.
The fact that hate speech was posted and/or liked, and not immediately erased by the candidate and manager speaks volumes about the quality of the campaign staff and the candidate. Pretty sloppy if Vallas it being truthful. Pandering, otherwise.
Fortunately for Vallas, this story and the Philadelphia Inquirer story have probably appeared too late to influence the outcome.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 8:50 am:
===As devastating as Rauner was to the state and state employees and agencies, I don’t think Quinn/Vallas would have been all rosy===
Illinois was without a budget for an entire General Assembly, Crain’s stated by nearly every measure Illinois was worse off with Rauner.
Quinn would’ve had budgets, and it seems you learned ZERO about unions and Quinn and Rauner as well.
- Arsenal - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 9:35 am:
==As devastating as Rauner was to the state and state employees and agencies, I don’t think Quinn/Vallas would have been all rosy had Soy Boy actually prevailed (perhaps even a “Rauner Lite” especially after the ILSC shot down pension reform).==
While we know for a fact that Illinois state government under Quinn wasn’t pretty, it was still better than what we got under Rauner.
- Pundent - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 9:45 am:
It seems that Paul’s excuse here is tantamount to “the dog ate my homework.” He should acknowledge what the rest of us plainly see here. And if you’ve been so irresponsible to outsource your Twitter account to a staffer (which I hardly believe) you have no business being on Twitter.
- Beaverbrook - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 10:54 am:
Much to do about not much. This talk about Vallas as a republican is from the Left. It would be similar to calling Richie Daley a ‘republican’ today. And the comparison to Rauner is not serious. Rauner was in his own category as a failed governor.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 10:58 am:
===And the comparison to Rauner is not serious. Rauner was in his own category as a failed governor.===
Let’s look at that comparison I made;
Vallas kinda/sorta reminds me of Rauner, ya got this crowded field, folks still trying to secure whatever base they think the have, meanwhile Vallas is unchecked and has no one to answer to with real red flags in a primary where the base is a bunch of folks who merely are aggrieved
If you’d like to disagree, please be specific for that discussion to what I wrote.
Also… Vallas… FOP… even the angst by “Proft and Amy”… if you can’t grasp where the Vallas pandering is aimed, that’s actually the point. Vallas, like Rauner, wants to fool the aggrieved to mask who is supporting and what they were/are in hypocrisy
- Big Dipper - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 11:01 am:
==Much to do about not much.==
Calling it not much suggests you hold equally vile opinions.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 11:01 am:
===And the comparison to Rauner is not serious. Rauner was in his own category as a failed governor.===
If the intent was the Quinn/Rauner, yeah, Rauner was next level fail, as Crain’s stated.
If so, my sincere apologies.
- Last Bull Moose - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 1:38 pm:
Vallas should shut down his twitter account. The risks of participation in online discussion outweigh the gains.
- Beaverbrook - Friday, Feb 24, 23 @ 1:55 pm:
Sorry, I was in a business meeting. If I offended anyone, my apologies. As a voter, my main concern is meaningful change for Chicago. I believe that a Vallas vs. Chuy or Johnson would be a good platform for discussions about specific policy changes needed for the city. I like Lightfoot, but she will not change her normal confrontational management approach, which does not work well. Chicago has enormous problems. I would consider a Barack Obama write-in as well. Or Michelle ?