[VIDEO] Perhaps you may not know Ron DeSantis - he is in his second term as Governor of Florida. He will be in the Chicago area to speak with the Fraternal Order of Police. And now he's another quick bullet point in this race.
The leader of Chicago's FOP is named John Catanzara who's made many appearances on FOX News Channel especially after the issues of 2020. He's made some appearances for mayoral candidate Paul Vallas. And as a result the visit to this state by DeSantis has become a point of contention in this race.
Vallas was forced to quickly denounce DeSantis as you will see in the above story by our local FOX affiliate. You can read more about this from the Sun-Times.
So far I haven't received any flyers from Cameron Barnes - whom I could call a very young upstart in this race. However I have two from Cleopatra Draper and three from incumbent Alderman Anthony Beale.
Let's start with Draper. She's hitting the incumbent Alderman Beale over a lack of grocery stores in the area. And I'm sure Beale will note the new grocery store coming to the Altgeld Gardens area and then let's not forget about Walmart which has a grocery section.
[VIDEO] This forum was streamed on YouTube Saturday morning. You will see Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. speak to the audience although you mostly can't hear what he is saying in the beginning. You will also see the absence of Mayor Lightfoot though the other eight seven candidates for mayor were on the stage this morning.
CORRECTION 10:23 PM - another no show to this event was Willie Wilson.
And I must add Jesse Jackson retweeted this post. I had no idea he even uses twitter.
[VIDEO] This aired earlier this week two days before the recent FOX 32 forum on Thursday night. This quick clip is probably a taste of what you will see later on. The bickering between candidates especially the shots Willie Wilson took at the Mayor. One notable absense, Congressman Chuy Garcia had been in Washington, DC for President Joe Biden's state of the union address.
If you didn't see the WTTW forum check it out below. [VIDEO]
I'd say this is more significant in this mayoral race than Paul Vallas' positions on abortion or even whether or not he's a Republican as opposed to being a Democrat. As Rich Miller says in this morning's post on his blog, "Vallas has been registered to vote in Chicago since 2018. These candidate residency requirements are not difficult to skirt. But he has some more explaining to do."
I suppose the question is from what I have already read, he moved into an apartment in Bridgeport perhaps about a year before running for mayor. The story is that his residence is in Palos Heights, Illinois although his wife currently resides in Palos Heights to care for her parents and mother-in-law.
Come to think of it, after his service as a congressman and White House chief-of-staff in Washington, DC didn't Rahm Emanuel have to face questions about his residency. Although in his case the home he owned in the city was rented out so that was the story back then. Many tried to keep him from even being on the ballot because of this back then.
Did anyone check on this before Vallas turned in his petitions?
[VIDEO] There have been other mayoral forums this week which I have yet to share with you, however, this was the one that occurred on Thursday. All nine mayoral candidates including the incumbent Lori Lightfoot facing off against Mike Flannery and Scott Schneider. The duration is over an hour.
I must say there have been a number of mayoral forums which involve the incumbent. I feel as if that's a first, however, I'm starting to wonder if this shows how weak Mayor Lightfoot is. Did Rahm Emanuel face this much pressure in 2015 as he sought re-election?
[VIDEO] I wanted to share this ad you probably have seen somewhere - perhaps on TV or perhaps while watching YouTube. This ad touting Mayor Lori Lightfoot's accomplishments on policing and crime. I can believe that she has been taking a beating on the crime issue at least since 2020.
I like to save videos like this to a playlist, however, I can't save this one because this ad has been set to content made for kids. Interesting....
Then I found this article from April 2020 - at the time David Brown had just become police superintendent - via Block Club Chicago. I didn't know this, however, some detective areas had been closed down. In 2020 two of those areas that had been shut down had been re-opened.
That structure was slashed to three Areas — referred to as Areas North, South and Central — under Emanuel.
But Lightfoot revamped the former map, adding back Areas at 5101 S. Wentworth Ave. and 3151 W. Harrison Ave. All five of the old Areas return to their former names: Areas 1-5.
The three Police Areas were “too big” and weren’t “functionally working … as effectively as [they] could be,” Lightfoot said.
The restructuring had been in the works for months. The city rehabbed the two re-opened Area buildings that were closed and redrew their boundaries as part of the project.
With the changes, parts of the city hit hard by crime now no longer have to share resources and officers with as many other neighborhoods.
For example, the newly created Area 4 will focus solely on crime in the 10th, 11th and 15th police districts, which are in parts of the West Side that struggle with gun violence.
Now, detectives working out of the Police Areas will be closer to the neighborhoods where they work, which means it will be easier for them to work with witnesses and victims and they’ll be able to get to crime scenes quicker, Lightfoot said. She said it also means detectives will be able to collaborate more often with officers.
Anyone out there thinks this reorganization has been helpful?
Meanwhile almost three years later during the mayoral race, it seems the latest news about David Brown is that he is on the verge of leaving. Lightfoot running for re-election had pledged to keep Brown as Superintendent if she wins another term. Polls seem to suggest it's not likely that she will win another term, however, if she does time to start looking again for another police chief.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s reelection battle is clouded in uncertainty, her chances of beating either U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” GarcÃa or former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas in a run-off appearing slim — and her prospects for even making it to the April election up in the air.
With the election less than three weeks away, three out of five voters disapprove of the job the mayor has done in her first term, more than half hold an unfavorable opinion of her and 71% think the city is on the wrong track.
Those are among the key findings of a WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times/Telemundo Chicago/NBC5 Poll conducted last week.
All falling within the poll’s margin of error, Lightfoot, GarcÃa and Vallas were essentially locked in a statistical dead heat when respondents were asked whom they would vote for if the Feb. 28 election were held today.
GarcÃa led with 20%, followed by Vallas with 18% and Lightfoot with 17%. Businessman Willie Wilson trailed closely with 12% and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson with 11%. Just 2% said they’d vote for activist Ja’Mal Green, and 1% chose either Ald. Sophia King, 4th Ward, or state Rep. Kam Buckner. Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th Ward, drew no support. Another 18% said they were still undecided.
