A New Mayor is Coming to Chicago in History-Making Election

Sounds lovely. "Just 17% of murders in Chicago were solved in 2017 — an all-time low, down from 41% in 2000". Murder at will. https://www.axios.com/chicago-gun-violence-murder-rate-statistics-4addeeec-d8d8-4ce7-a26b-81d428c14836.html

Congratulations, Chicago, on your "historic" mayoral election. In our brave new world, identity politics trumps competency. A woman mayor? Great! A black woman mayor? OMG FANTASTIC! Can she do the job? Who cares? She's a black woman and, of course, a Democrat. That's change we can believe in!

Shameful that no mention was made in the article regarding Toni Preckwinkle's negative involment in the Smollett's case. Toni Preckwinkle is a big part of the problem in Chicago. I predict Lightfoot will be a great mayor

I always get a kick out of the doomsayers in places like NYC and California who post about Chicago's imminent doom. My guess is that such people have never even visited the city, and mostly get their information from Fox News or WSJ. Reality is that Chicago has its challenges but is a vibrant city with reinvigorated neighborhoods, a solid downtown business base, forward-thinking infrastructure (deep tunnel, etc.), and a world class public transportation system. I lived in the Chicago area for twenty some years, working downtown in much of the 1980's and 90's. Though I have since lived in Dallas and Denver, I get back to Chicago often. I'm amazed at the upgrades in downtown Chicago since I worked there, the riverwalk and Navy Pier and Millennium Park as examples. Last time I checked it was also HQ to Boeing, United, Allstate, ADM, Exelon and others. Chicago's demise is greatly exaggerated. Maybe some of the naysayers should check it out.

Just curious, When was the last time the city of Chicago had a republican mayor? It seems "politics as usual" in Chicago needs a change.

the more important question...when do the accountants say it goes bankrupt. As democrats have already run it into the ground and people and businesses are fleeing?

In the first round of the mayoral election Lori Lightfoot came in first with her base of support in the predominantly progressive white neighborhoods on the North Side. Toni Preckwinkle came in second with her base of support in the predominantly black and affluent neighborhoods of Hyde Park and South Shore. Since then the city’s major newspapers have endorsed Lightfoot and she has expanded into the Latino and the conservative white neighborhoods on the Northwest and Southwest side. In the meantime Preckwinkle’s support base hasn’t moved an inch. The impoverished black neighborhoods on the West Side and the South Side overwhelmingly supported businessman Willie Wilson for mayor. Now it remains to be seen who these voters will support. Will they support Preckwinkle or will they follow Wilson who now endorses Lightfoot? Right now Lightfoot has the momentum and a more broader coalition than Preckwinkle who is divisive and can’t think beyond her base. Lightfoot represents the future and Preckwinkle represents the past which voters are trying to get away from. If elected mayor, the challenge for Lightfoot is how to keep this coalition of blacks and whites, conservative and progressive together.

Toni Preckwinkle is the right choice for our city and she has the background to lead the third largest city in US.

I feel sorry for the winner. What an incredible mess. Chicago is proof that no matter how bad something is, it can always be made worse.

Has anyone else noticed that from certain angles Lori's face looks a lot like Rahm's. The article's pic of her getting set up for the debate session is an example.

The closest race in Chicago's electoral history--only two consonants apart. And few details on the other things that separate them.... I've been trying to get details on their respective positions on property taxes--one of the most debated issues in this city --and neither is saying much on the topic.... God save Chicago

If ever there was a need for an outsider -- Chicago's the place. My spidey sense -- nope. Maybe AI will come earlier than we think -- can we vote for a computer?

Either winner's job should be a cakewalk right? Surely decades of Democrat rule means the city is a high functioning enterprise, not another socialist failure. I'm sure Rahm Emanuel cleaned everything up and Obama can't wait to move back.

Some thirty five years after his sudden death, I still am sad when I think about Harold Washington and what might have been. After spending a sixty plus years in a city governed chiefly by the two Daley's, a couple of nincompoops, and Rahm who was somehow anointed by the powers that be, I am hopeful for another mayor who, like Harold, might care about all this city's people and neighborhoods. I have long admired Toni Preckwinkle and her outspokenness on our jails and the damage marijuana arrests have done in the black community but I am hoping that either candidate will be a fine successor to Mayor Washington.

I lived in Chicago for eighteen years and consequently am concerned about other matters. For example... 1. Chicago currently pays each member of its three-man garbage truck crews an average of $60,000+ plus per year to perform a job that can be done by a driver and a mechanical arm. If benefits are added in, each of these people will cost the city more than a million dollars over the course of a thirty-year career. Will either candidate start to reform this system so that there will be enough monet to replace the eighty-eight year old building in which I attended elementary school. 2. Will either candidate abolish the Aldermans' Exception procedure by which zoning laws can be overridden if the ward alderman approves the builders' requests? This is an invitation to bribery. 3. Will the million dollars office expense accounts assigned to each alderman be abolished.? 4. Will the police department be subject to civilian review? 5. Do you have plan reduce the frightfully high murder rate of your city? And yes, I think that the answers to these questions are more important than the gender, sexual orientation, and race of the candidates.

I am always leery of lifelong politicians, especially in such a such a corrupted town like Chicago. I think the trick is to elect people to two terms max that way they wont set up roots. My aldermans father ruled the roost for over 30 years now she wants to do the same. Tomorrow I will vote for lightfoot and a new alderman. It's time to let them know who has the real power- the voters. I wish more people felt the same and voted.

The author writes Lori Lightfoot "is more of an unknown," yet here in Illinois it's well-known that Ms. Lightfoot is a lesbian and, if elected, would become Chicago's first openly gay mayor. And, curiously, THE TIMES includes a photo of Ms. Lightfoot with her daughter, but crops out the face of Ms. Lightfoot's wife standing right behind them...

I am tired of black prosecutors dominating the leadership class of we African Americans. For too long we've let these agents of criminalization rule the roost. Go Ms. Preckwinkle!

The Times could only manage to muster a six short paragraphs about the mayor's race in the third largest city in the country? And apparently the Times has been unable to discern anything at all that readers should know about this election except that the two candidates are black women? That's some great reporting.

As a lifelong Chicagoan, I was shocked and pleasantly surprised by the first elections outcome. We have been under the machine enfluence for far too long. Either candidate will be a huge change, so lets get out there and vote and let your voice be heard.

As a Chicagoan for well over 30+ years who has never NOT voted, I am equally excited as I am nervous about tomorrow. Change will most definitely come. Just nervous in which direction it will come. May the passion both ladies have for this city today always remain with them, regardless of wins or loses. I hope they never forget about us citizens and will do what is best for us and not them or their political careers. Good luck ladies. I hope my candidate wins. She is fantastic!

I cannot vote in Chicago's upcoming mayoral election but I wish I could. I would vote for Lori Lightfoot. Chicago voters have an opportunity to give Chicago a chance at a new path forward. Toni Preckwinkle represents, and will continue to represent, the old guard. The old, entrenched Cook County Democratic Machine with its controls extending all the way to the state capitol in Springfield. A great example of this was her support for Joseph Berrios, the former Cook County Assessor. A quick perusal of the articles available regarding his stewardship of that office show a shining example of the old guard's operations in Cook County and Chicago. Ms. Lightfoot wants to end this old, entrenched system of control. No one can say for certain that she can or will be able to accomplish this. She will face incredibly stiff opposition and roadblocks. Chicago must be a city that works for and supports all of its residents, not just for a select group that is connected politically or by family. It is time for the Cook County Democratic Machine to go.

The New York Times couldn't make the effort to do literally any reporting on these two candidates and how they might differ in their politics? One sentence that claims "the mayoral hopefuls are not far apart ideologically" is all we get? I have been paying close attention to progressive voices in Chicago such as the Black Youth Project and the Chicago Teachers Union, and they seem to have found a position in the race (against Lightfoot). Representation for women of color is just tokenism if news outlets continue to treat all black women as interchangeable. Assess them as full human beings with distinct coalitions, just as you would any other politician.

What took you so long to write about this historic event that actually began during Black History Month? The lack of coverage by the media and that includes everybody from MSNBC to FOX have done a lousy job of covering this. Gayle King had time to ask two of Kelly's girl friends if they had engaged in a menage a trois. But she did not have the time to interview Perckwinkle and Lightfoot. These are two African women with interesting, yet entirely different "backstories." An interview with the two of them would have been a "living lesson in diversity." Could we use the lack of coverage as an "aha" moment and start covering the important as opposed to the trivial yet entertaining.

This entire election has given me new hope for Chicago. I wish them all the best!