CHICAGO (CBS) —Only one day left for Chicago voters to cast their ballots in the mayor’s race – and a new poll suggests it couldn’t be tighter at the top. CBS 2 political reporter Derrick Blakley breaks down the last full day of campaigning. They’d been perceived as the two front-runners in Chicago’s mayoral race. Toni Preckwinkle worked the phones for votes. And Bill Daley stopped by popular black-owned, Lincoln Park restaurant. But like the escalator she rode at the UIC Student Center, a new independent poll shows Lori Lightfoot’s campaign is moving up. The surprising survey, taken over the weekend, shows Preckwinkle, Daley and Lightfoot tied at 14 percent. “I think our message of change and independence and someone who’s not tied to the broken political machine is resonating with people all over the city,” Lightfoot said. And close behind, in a second tier, Susana Mendoza at 10 percent, with Gery Chico and Willie Wilson each at nine percent. Chico greeted voters Monday near the Central Loop early voting center. “I had so many people tell me I already voted for you, at the Jefferson Park train station. That makes you feel good when you’re standing out there at five degrees, six degrees, whatever it was,” Chico said. With turnout expected to be low, campaigns getting their voters to the polls will be key. That’s where organization and money count. Bill Daley has raised almost nine million dollars. “The heart of it are the volunteers and the people who’ve engaged,” Daley said. “Some are doing phone calls, some going door-to-door and I’m really proud of that.” The other big organization is Preckwinkle’s, fuelled by 4.6 million in donations, mostly from unions, with big labor supplying foot soldiers as well. “We have a field operation and I think our campaign is pretty unique in that respect,” Preckwinkle said. Election officials are concerned that so few mail-in ballots have been returned. About 63,000 were sent out. Only 31,500 have come back. That’s about 50 percent. Still to be counted, mail ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday. Some see that as a sign of voters’ confusion about just who to support.<doc-sep>CHICAGO—Voters here will decide Tuesday on a mayor’s race the likes of which they haven’t seen in decades, one with no clear front-runner among more than a dozen candidates vying to govern the nation’s third-largest city. None of the 14 candidates has polled above 15%, and at least six have a shot of finishing in the top two spots, according to several local polls. The two top finishers will face off on April 2, unless one candidate gets more than 50% of the vote. The leadership toss-up was created by the unexpected decision of Mayor Rahm Emanuel to not seek re-election. Mr. Emanuel has served since 2011 and followed a 22-year tenure by Richard M. Daley, whose father had served for 21 years up until 1976. The next mayor will need solutions for problems ranging from high crime and population loss to troubled finances stemming from decades of overspending. Chicago’s pension deficit is among the worst nationally, with four pension funds having a combined shortfall of about $30 billion. “The biggest issue for many Chicagoans is, What are we doing to stabilize the finances?” said Laurence Msall, president of the business-funded Civic Federation. Mr. Emanuel brought a boom in downtown construction as corporate headquarters relocated to the city. He also addressed some of the city’s pension deficits by raising taxes and closing public schools. But those moves, combined with the high-profile coverup of a deadly 2014 shooting of an African-American teenager by a white police officer, damaged his political standing. The candidates with the strongest showings in polls include: Gery Chico, former chief of staff to Richard M. Daley; Bill Daley, former U.S. Commerce Secretary and brother of Richard M. Daley; Lori Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor; Susana Mendoza, the Illinois comptroller; and Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County Board president. The mayor’s race is nonpartisan, though the city government is dominated by Democrats. Ms. Mendoza said the biggest problem facing the city is violent crime. Chicago’s murder rate has fallen in recent years but remains among the highest in the nation. The city’s population has fallen three years in a row through 2017, according to the Census Bureau, and some have cited violent crime as a factor. In January, a federal judge approved a consent decree aimed at forcing a broad overhaul of the city’s police department. “Hands down it’s the No. 1 issue,” she said. “We’re going to have a difficult time attracting corporate headquarters or moving people here if kids are afraid to go to school or it’s not a safe place to be.” The candidates have attacked one another over their ties to Edward Burke, the city’s longest-serving alderman, who faces federal extortion allegations and has donated to several top-tier candidates. Ms. Lightfoot is airing an ad that takes direct aim at the political culture in the city. “Shady backroom deals haven’t served us,” she says in the ad. Last week, Robert Martwick, a state representative allied with Ms. Preckwinkle, one of the candidates Ms. Lightfoot named in that ad, accused Ms. Lightfoot at a news conference of campaigning like President Trump. “This sort of Trump-style, where you’re trying to draw attention to yourself without assessing the facts of a situation, shows exactly why you’re wholly unprepared to be mayor of the city of Chicago,” Mr. Martwick said. “People like you,” Ms. Lightfoot shot back, “are part of the broken political machine.” Write to Douglas Belkin at doug.belkin@wsj.com and Erin Ailworth at Erin.Ailworth@wsj.com<doc-sep>What You Really Want to Know About the Candidates for Chicago Mayor CHICAGO — No, Rahm Emanuel isn’t running. But practically every other power player in Chicago is on the ballot on Tuesday in a race that is perhaps the most unpredictable mayoral contest in a generation for the nation’s third-largest city. It’s a free-for-all with no clear front-runner. If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote — an extremely difficult bar, given that 14 candidates are on the ballot — the top two finishers will head to a runoff in April. The nine candidates who, according to some recent surveys, stand the best chance to be the next mayor stopped by our Chicago bureau, and we asked them some essential — and not so essential — questions. [The latest from Chicago as the votes are counted on Election Day.]<doc-sep>
Politics & Government Three-Way Tie In Mayor's Race On Eve Of Election Three front-runners are separated by fewer than 0.4 percentage points ahead of Tuesday's vote. Reply (Campaign photos) CHICAGO — On the eve of Tuesday's election, a new poll shows a dead heat for the top spot in the race for Chicago mayor. Bill Daley, Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle are in a three-way tie with 14 percent of the vote, according to a poll sponsored by 270 Strategies and conducted by Change Research during the final weekend of the campaign. The top two vote-getters will head into a runoff election in April if none of the 14 candidates manage to collect more than 50 percent of the vote. In addition to asking voters to name their first choice on this week's ballot, the poll presented participants with several hypothetical one-on-one match-ups. Among the three frontrunners, the poll shows Lightfoot narrowly ahead of Daley 40 percent to 35 percent and far ahead of Preckwinkle by 42 percent to 25 percent. Daley tops Preckwinkle in a potential runoff by 39 percent to 32 percent. Lightfoot had the support of 17 percent of male voters and 11 percent of female voters in the poll. Preckwinkle was the pick of 16 percent of female voters and 11 percent of male voters. Daley was favored by 14 percent of female voters and 13 percent of male voters. The top issue for voters is financial stability, which was cited by 18 percent of all respondents. Among female voters, 19 percent selected crime and gun violence as the most important issue. Among male voters, 23 percent identified city finances and 16 percent named property taxes, according to the poll. Among voters who said they were unsure of their vote and asked to determine who they would vote for if they had to decide: Preckwinkle had 17 percent, while Daley and Gery Chico each had 14 percent. When voters were asked to identify their second choice, 15 percent chose Daley, whose supporters were the most evenly split when asked about their second choice, with 19 percent choosing Chico and 14 percent picking Lightfoot. 270 Strategies is a Chicago-based public engagement firm founded by veterans of former President Barack Obama's political campaigns. The poll of likely voters was conducted online on Feb. 22 to Feb. 24 with a sample size of 706 and a margin of error of 3.7 percent, according to 270 strategies.