Lori Lightfoot has become mayor-elect of Chicago in an election confirming the waning power of the Chicago machine. Newscasters’ muted coverage of Lightfoot’s lopsided victory over her only remaining challenger, the comfortingly familiar Toni Preckwinkle, registered the unexpectedness of Lightfoot’s achievement and what it really portends for this troubled city. While the scope of the new mayor’s work is gargantuan, her mandate is alarmingly slight.
In a town of some 2,7 million souls, just under 1.6 million of its adults are registered voters, and, on April 2, only 504,123 (31.65%) of them cast a vote for mayor. Lightfoot received 73.7 percent of these votes to Preckwinkle’s 26.3, but the salient fact is that, given the low turnout, Lightfoot became mayor with just 371,529 votes, representing 23.3 percent of Chicago’s voters and 13.65 percent of its total population.
Most voters did not turn out, presumably out of apathy or because they did not like or approve of either of the two remaining mayoral candidates. Lightfoot and Preckwinkle beat out all the other candidates who had qualified for the first mayoral election on February 26, 2019, their first- and second-place showings putting them ahead of their thirteen rivals, including all whites and all men of color. One wonders how many black and Hispanic men stayed home from the polls this week, disdaining to choose between two gifted black women who had risen above the males in a wild competition. Several black women I spoke with reported meeting with angry silence from men in their workplaces when the subject of the mayoral race came up.
Thus, when, the day after the election, the Chicago Tribune blared, “Lightfoot In a Landslide,” the message it communicated was somewhat misleading. Support for Lori Lightfoot is intense, but it’s not particularly broad. The media’s emphasis on identity politics is likewise of little help in understanding what happened in this week’s momentous election. Voters did not turn out for Lori because of her race or sexual orientation; most turned out for her irregardless of these traits. She won the liberal white vote everywhere, racking up her biggest margins on the north and northwest sides.
Lightfoot won because she is extremely smart and deadly serious about waging war on corruption and the “Chicago way.” She won because she’s committed to equal treatment for Chicago’s neighborhoods and peoples. Yet given the slimness of her mandate and the legions of Chicagoans still loyal to the old patronage system, Lori will be sorely challenged to “Bring In the Light.”
Right you are about the mandate underlying Lori’s victory. The big businesses in the city are going to be very wary of her. She emphasized time and again she is going to push for “the smaller businesses– more neighborhood projects.” She didn’t/doesn’t talk much about pushing for bigger and better large projects. Over the last seven years, the city has attracted several thousand corporate jobs from big companies leasing huge office spaces or choosing Chicago as a corporate headquarters. Boeing, McDonald’s, Google: lots of jobs coming in, the list goes on. That is why she never received big money from big business. . . . My call: she’s gonna have a really tough first 12-18 months. Her learning curve will be steep. We must remember she is a total political novice.
It’s true she doesn’t have much of a economic vision for the city. But perhaps her confidence in the city’s people and investing in them will produce some dynamic change. She seems to be betting on removing obstacles that stymie growth (such as a constant threat of violence). It’s also possible that her election will attract new types of people to work in city government and redress Chicago’s problems.
She is a total political novice, and yet she won all 50 wards.
https://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/See-How-They-Voted-Stunning-Map-Shows-Lightfoot-Victory-in-All-50-Wards-508054151.html
Well, there is something to the old saying,”the right person at the right time.” Yes, she did come out the frontrunner, defeating all the other–what was it–12 candidates in the first round of voting Feb 26th, despite being the only person on that ballot with no political experience. The voters of Chicago wanted a totally new person to run their city. OK, now they have one, soundly winning over an experienced machine boss and head of the Democratic Party of Cook County (Toni). As you well know, this city has been corrupt for generations, soooo many of the city’s upper managers (appointed, not elected) remain in their jobs. They rose through the machine patronage system. I wonder if a “major slowdown, sluggishness, doing their jobs sloppy, telling those under them to slow down, don’t push the paper too fast,” etc., etc., will occur?? I guess a rebellion of some sort will take place once Lori begins/trys to institute change………I’m hopeful she can diss “the Chicago way” and, as you state, attract better, more virtuous folks to get on her wagon.
Lightfoot has held appointive political office. This page of her campaign website details her professional experience (scroll down).
https://lightfootforchicago.com/about-lori/