Different visions, different tactics as mayoral hopefuls debate
Greg Hinz
The nine candidates for Chicago's mayoral race participated in WLS-TV/Channel 7's debate on Jan. 19.
They agreed that crime has become a huge problem, but disagreed over how huge and what the solution is. They all deplored high taxes and, in general, promised that they would not raise them further.
And with one exception, the candidates asserted that incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot has done a bad job—that exception being Lightfoot herself, who gave back as good as she got.
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That was the story Thursday evening as the nine candidates for mayor met in a debate hosted by WLS-TV/Channel 7 just 5 1/2 weeks before Election Day, in what now appears to be a wide-open contest.
The jostling among the candidates began with press releases before the debate, continued during and then resumed after. That will make the headlines. But amid the jostling, some key differences emerged on policy issues.
For instance, when asked what he would do about rising apartment rents, former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas said he'd start by capping tax hikes on individual properties, because that's what drives higher rents. Businessman Willie Wilson said he'd cut taxes. But Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson suggested he'd raise them, because more money is needed to invest in things such as finding places to live for 65,000 homeless Chicagoans.
Lightfoot said she's already come up with $1 billion to build more affordable housing, but Ald. Rod Sawyer, 6th, said that money would be better spent in low-income areas where property is cheap rather than in the hot Fulton Market neighborhood.
The same kind of clear division came about regarding the city's business climate.
"We're bleeding business," said state Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago. "We need leadership that can inspire people."
Chicago has to solve its crime problem, said U.S. Rep. Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, D-Chicago.
The departure of firms like Citadel and Boeing proves Lightfoot "doesn't have a clue," said Wilson.
But Lightfoot was having none of it. "I don't know what city these people live in, but the one I live in is attracting international business," said the mayor, pointing to, among other things, Google's decision to buy and revamp the old Thompson Center and Kellogg's move to locate one of its new business units in River North.
The sharpest clashes came on crime.
At one point, after Lightfoot went into one of her frequent talking points that the number of homicides dropped by a double-digit percentage last year, activist Ja'Mal Green upbraided her on the debate stage. "Why do we allow the mayor to lie about the numbers?" he asked, adding that by a considerable margin, "we're not down compared to before she took office."
Ald. Sophia King, 4th, said fighting crime needs to be the next mayor's top priority, and more police and more investment in rundown neighborhoods will be needed.
Vallas said the Chicago Police Department is down 1,700 officers and police, not just private K-9 units with dogs, need to patrol the Chicago Transit Authority. Wilson said the city needs to "take the handcuffs off" police and "let them do their job."
Garcia said the city needs both a fully staffed police department and an investment strategy that protects downtown while helping outlying neighborhoods.
But Green and Johnson urged a softer approach, with Green saying minority youth need to be brought into city planning and Johnson urging a major focus on boosting mental health services. "We spend more per capita on police than anywhere in the country," he said.
Here's what you'll be hearing more about in the coming days as the campaigns kick into higher gear:
Lightfoot seemed to suggest that she balanced her budgets without new taxes. In fact, while the mayor skipped a previously scheduled inflation hike in the 2023 property tax, her budgets raised property taxes $94 million in 2021 and $77 million in 2022, Crain's political reporter Justin Laurence tells me.
Both Wilson and Vallas shared sad personal tales. Both men have lost sons, one to crime and the other to drug abuse, and both mentioned those episodes in arguing for their policies.
On one of the hottest topics in Chicago and the northwest suburbs, Garcia suggested the city make an offer to the Bears that would involve building a new stadium somewhere else, rather than retrofitting Soldier Field. Let the speculation begin.
And there was some nastiness, with King saying Chicago "need(s) a mayor who will attack Chicago's problems and not its people." Before the event even began, Lightfoot accused Garcia of "cashing in on hundreds of thousands of dollars of support" from indicted crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried and "backroom deals" with indicted former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan.
It was that kind of night, Chicago. Lots of fire, and maybe a little light, too, for those who cared to carefully listen.