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No, Lori Lightfoot did not blame her loss on racism and gender bias
Thursday, Mar 2, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller * Fox News and its fellow travelers have been pushing this falsehood…
NY Post headline…
Wall St. Journal…
It’s all over Twitter, but the story is false. * The quote was lifted from an AP story…
Feeling like she’d been treated unfairly because of her race and gender and directly attributing her election loss to race and gender are two very different things. So, the AP did not report that she blamed her loss on race and gender. More importantly, Sarah Burnett of the Associated Press told me that the Lightfoot quote was from “a few days before the election.” And two people at the Lightfoot campaign told me the mayor did not say that on election night. * Let’s move on to a NY Times columnist writing about Lightfoot’s loss…
Lightfoot’s job approval rating has been a nuclear dumpster fire for months and months. * Speaking of which…
* Willie Wilson’s electoral history in Chicago…
2019 Chicago mayoral campaign: 10.61% 2020 U.S. Senate campaign (Chicago results): 9.37% 2023 Chicago mayoral campaign: 9.6% It’s probably time to find a different vanity project. * State Senator and a staunch Brandon Johnson supporter…
* Isabel’s Chicago roundup… * NBC Chicago | ‘He’s Got a Lot of Things to Answer’: Paul Vallas Questions Johnson For His Previous Remarks: What started out as a hotly contested race between nine candidates to unseat Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is now down to two, as former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson will battle it out in a head-to-head race on April 4. * Block Club | Ald. Jim Gardiner Inches Toward Victory But May Still Face A Runoff In 45th As Mail-In Ballots Are Counted: Gardiner has 49.97 percent of the vote as of Thursday morning after he received 462 votes from his home precinct, which had a tech issue and delayed the vote count, according to the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. * WBEZ | Three things to know about Chicago’s City Council races: Unlike incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot, nearly two-thirds of the City Council will remain unchanged as voters reelected their current incumbent aldermen — allowing them to avoid a runoff election and hold onto their seats. * Triibe | Lightfoot won majority-Black wards, but it wasn’t enough to make the runoff: In all of the city’s Black wards, which are on the South and West sides, Lightfoot performed better than the seven other Black mayoral candidates. For example, Lightfoot won the 20th Ward with 1,832 votes, Johnson came in second with 1,386 votes, and Wilson in third place with 1,266 votes. And in the 37th Ward, Lightfoot received 2,977 votes over Johnson’s 1,134 votes and Wilson’s 1,573 votes. * Politico | Chicago’s messy election will only get nasty in the runoff: “It’s going to be nasty,” Democratic state Rep. Kam Buckner, who also ran for mayor, said in an interview. “People will pick sides — people with a history when it comes to racial sensitivity. There will be a lot of talk about race and class and schools and crime.” * WTTW | Incumbent Chicago City Council Members Hang On, as 14 Races Likely Headed to Runoffs : In fact, none of the City Council members appointed by Lightfoot, who lost her bid for a second term as mayor on Tuesday, won their seats outright. Instead, Ald. Nicole Lee will face Anthony Ciaravino to hang on to the 11th Ward seat; 24th Ward Ald. Monique Scott will face Creative Scott in a runoff to represent North Lawndale; and 43rd Ward Ald. Timmy Knudsen will face Brian Comer for the right to represent Lincoln Park on the City Council. * Block Club | Will Ald. Daniel La Spata Face A Runoff In 1st Ward? It’s Too Close To Call With Mail-In Ballots Out: With all precincts reporting, La Spata had 49.1 percent of the vote Thursday to closest challenger Sam Royko’s 24.1 percent. * Crain’s | How Johnson, Vallas answered 10 important education questions: Whoever wins will take office in late May and will get to appoint a school district CEO and seven school board members to oversee the nation’s fourth largest school district, its $9.5 billion budget, 635 schools, and the education of 322,000 children. They will also be the last mayor to have control of Chicago Public Schools before the district transitions to being governed by an elected school board. * WGN | Chicago area law enforcement sees rise in machine gun conversion device recoveries: In early February, the ATF released a 700-page report, its first in 20 years, on gun crimes in the United States. In it, the agency said the number of illegal machine gun conversion devices recovered by law enforcement agencies jumped 570% during a period of 2017 to 2021, compared to the previous five years. * Crain’s | Fritz Kaegi picks another assessment fight with Chicago landlords: After trying unsuccessfully to push through big commercial assessment hikes in Chicago last year, the Cook County assessor is trying again with more than 200 major downtown buildings, including the Aon Center, Prudential Plaza and the Old Post Office. If Kaegi succeeds, many downtown office landlords could face steep property tax hikes at an especially bad time, as they grapple with the worst office market in decades.
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- Three Dimensional Checkers - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 1:49 pm:
I’d just say you can’t be mean to everyone who tries to help you is the lesson.
- Wowie - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 1:51 pm:
Peters tweet not particularly clever. Hope there’s better messaging to come
- Riversidian - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 1:51 pm:
Re: Greg Pratt’s tweet quoting a Lightfoot aide…those are “lessons”? Like…those are things that Lightfoot & Co. weren’t aware of? I understand those are exactly the things Lori did, but it can’t have come as surprise to them that it impacted re-electability, can it?
- low level - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 1:54 pm:
Sen Peters, I love you but you clearly dont remember the dumpster fire the Chicago Public Schools were before Paul Vallas took over.
Granted there still are challenges but the CPS turnaround almost propelled Vallas to the Dem nomination for Governor in 2002 and probable victory had he gotten that nomination.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 1:56 pm:
The right wing media were going to use that lede regardless of the truth. It’s their raison d’ etre, it’s how they keep their readers/viewers glued to them. T’was ever thus.
- DuPage Saint - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 1:56 pm:
In a way Lightfoot’s actions remind me of Jane Byrne ran against powers then braces Burke and Vrdolyac then screws over minorities with her school board picks
- Jockey - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 1:59 pm:
Rich, I hazily remember a Friday afternoon CapFax posing in late-May/June ‘19 and LL’s team not get back to you about a story. My very first impression was that the team was a bunch of amateurs and didn’t realize who you were.
I thought it was a bad sign of things to come.
Cheers!
- The Truth - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 2:02 pm:
I believe sports-talk radio would call many of these posts and articles “out-of-town stupid”.
- Roadrager - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 2:03 pm:
Fox News, the New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal ran the same false story? Weird. Wonder if there’s some sort of common, underlying thread between the three. Ah well, best to not speculate.
- Amalia - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 2:03 pm:
well, parse the comments of Lightfoot, but the idea of racism and sexism has been blasted in my ears for weeks from very very dedicated volunteers. and after, they are more blistering with the notion that that is why she lost. there are many stories of racism encountered in phone calls along the lakefront. I don’t think those who told me are making those up. so it’s being said, just not by her.
- Jockey - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 2:07 pm:
I found it…
“ Hi Rich, sorry I thought I hit send on this. Yes, the Mayor still supports this proposal. Thx!”
https://capitolfax.com/2019/06/29/zero-details-after-pritzker-lightfoot-meet/
- Chicago Cynic - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 2:07 pm:
“Politics is the Art of Subtraction” the Lori Lightfoot story.
- Ducky LaMoore - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 2:11 pm:
“Paul Vallas has never seen a budget he couldn’t mismanage.”
As much hay is being made of Vallas’s social media likes and his connections to the odd far-right folks, this is the reason that he should not be mayor. Paul Vallas is a Democrat, and he is a R.M. Daley/Blago Democrat. He will spend you into oblivion and will then leave.
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 2:17 pm:
I don’t know how much stock people should put in the April results in these races anymore. It just means people prefer you over the other person. MLL got 97,667 votes in February 2019 and 87,395 in February 2023. It’s not as big a fall from grace looking at the numbers.
- Big Dipper - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 2:21 pm:
Maybe the right has a point about the mainstream media sometimes being clueless and/or agenda-focused. It obviously cuts both ways.
- Jerry - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 2:22 pm:
And Jane Byrne likely would have never won if the previous Mayor had done something, anything about the Blizzard.
- levivotedforjudy - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 2:30 pm:
Maybe I am remembering the situation poorly, but I thought that, led by Pate Phillip and Lee Daniels, CPS was a mess and dumped in Daley’s lap and Gery Chico and Vallas were charged with cleaning said mess up and compared to what it was, they did.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 2:32 pm:
===and compared to what it was, they did. ===
Yeah, but fiscal times were good in that period. He set up a system that failed when the economy tanked after 9/11. He built his budgets around not making pension payments.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 2:43 pm:
Willie Wilson’s campaign was a resounding success for all the consultants that got paid off creating and placing the ads, and those smart enough to grift… sorry, work… with monies paid upfront.
This is everything…
“…You can’t run on a platform and then completely abandon it. You can’t run against the status quo, and then fill your administration with the status quo. And you can’t be mean to everyone who tries to help you.”
Candidate Lightfoot was only seen once in 4 years… when Mayor Lightfoot conceded
Fact checking a wanted narrative to help the paper is so discouraging to looking for real coverage… but they ain’t from Chicago…
- JP Altgeld - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 2:55 pm:
RM - there is a lot of revisionist history there.
To my knowledge, CPS did not ever miss any legally required payments.
He gets hammered by people for directing more than that but people need to remember how dire the district was, how much repair work was needed, etc.
People rarely pay more on their mortgage every month than they have to *when* they have other things they have to pay for.
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 2:59 pm:
Adding, savage:
https://www.theonion.com/lori-lightfoot-can-t-believe-city-she-hates-wouldn-t-vo-1850174256
- Google Is Your Friend - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 2:59 pm:
- low level - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 1:54 pm:
Pension Payment Skipper Paul is not a solution for anything fiscal. His supposed fiscal wizardry is closer to the wizard of lies Bernie Madoff than it is to anything responsible.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 3:02 pm:
=== Willie Wilson’s electoral history in Chicago…
2015 Chicago mayoral campaign: 10.66%
2019 Chicago mayoral campaign: 10.61%
2020 U.S. Senate campaign (Chicago results): 9.37%
2023 Chicago mayoral campaign: 9.6% ===
That’s a “solid 10″ in my book.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 3:07 pm:
===CPS did not ever miss any legally required payments===
lol
Such careful wording. His budgets were padded by not making pension payments.
- Tood Aloo - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 3:18 pm:
I’ve made campaign contributions to senator Peters in the past. Never again.
- Lucky Pierre - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 3:19 pm:
They were just following the lead of of the State of Illinois budgets that did the same thing for decades
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 3:24 pm:
===They were just following the lead===
lol
Whataboutism instead of argument. You can’t say he’s a fiscal wizard and then say he was just like the people who drove the state into a fiscal ditch.
- Shytown - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 3:29 pm:
First, Lori’s campaign was a disaster. They can never explain their way out of the mess that was that campaign.
Second, Sen. Peters is a smart, talented person who may be farther left than I prefer, but I respect him. however, he should learn the history of Vallas’ time at CPS and the circumstances before pushing hitting send on political spin like this.
- cover - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 3:33 pm:
= His budgets were padded by not making pension payments. =
A gift to Mayor Rich Daley from the GOP-controlled 89th General Assembly, diverting $ from the Chicago teacher pension fund to support CPS operations. The pension fund went from well funded to less than 50% in just a few years. IMHO, “borrow and spend” is worse than “tax and spend”.
- Lucky Pierre - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 3:43 pm:
Agreed but I didn’t claim he was a fiscal wizard
He presided over a massive school construction and modernization during his tenure when enrollment was 400,000 (60,000 more than today)
Chicago Public Schools accountability program was lauded by President Clinton during in his 1998 State of the Union address
The track record during his six year term as CEO of CPS had plenty of wins and some setbacks too
https://www.chicagoreporter.com/cps-history/
- Left of what - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 3:48 pm:
I saw that fox story making the rounds and my immediate thought was that is a fake story. It did not even sound like something she would have said. You have to remember that being a conservative on social media is about making up a person to be mad at and everything will make sense.
- Ducky LaMoore - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 3:55 pm:
“Chicago Public Schools accountability program was lauded by President Clinton during in his 1998 State of the Union address”
You know all of the wrong people to bring up in a discussion. Bill Clinton is the one that needs the accountability program.
- DuPage Saint - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 4:31 pm:
I thought Daley wanted control of CPS and Pate let him have it because he wanted out of it or something. I am old but I thought they both wanted that deal and nothing got dumped on Daley
- Candy Dogood - Thursday, Mar 2, 23 @ 4:42 pm:
===It was a stunning rebuke.===
This is the nicest thing anyone has said about Lori Lightfoot in the last 3 and a half years.