Black woman mayor a first

Chicago chooses gay African-American to shake up city hall

CHICAGO: Chicago became the biggest US city to elect a black woman its mayor, as voters put their faith in an openly-gay political novice to tackle difficult problems of economic inequality and gun violence.

Lori Lightfoot (pic), a 56-year-old former federal prosecutor and practising lawyer who has never before held elected office, won the Midwestern city’s mayoral race in a lopsided victory.

She beat out Toni Preckwinkle, a career politician who is also black, by a wide margin of 74% to 26% with most ballots counted.

“We were up against powerful interests,” Lightfoot said in a victory speech, with her wife and young daughter by her side.

“Today, you did more than make history, you created a movement for change,” she told a cheering crowd.

Lightfoot will be Chicago’s first openly gay mayor as well as the first African American woman to hold the post.

Since 1837, Chicago voters have elected only one black mayor and one female mayor.

Her ascendancy to the top of Chicago government was a stunning development in a city where insider deals and entrenched party politics held sway for decades.

“It is a city-wide rejection of the Chicago political establishment at the mayoral level,” Evan McKenzie, political science professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago said.

Preckwinkle, the chief executive of Cook County in which Chicago is located, has for decades held various local elected offices, which analysts said hurt her in an election in which voters were looking to shake up city hall.

Among the top issues were high levels of gun violence that claims more lives than in any other major American cities, and years of political corruption in the Democratic stronghold.

The initial field in the mayoral race consisted of 14 contenders, but Lightfoot managed an upset, effectively side-lining moderates and establishment figures by promising to clean up city government and reduce economic inequality.

She and Preckwinkle were the final two left competing in Tuesday’s run-off election.

Voters left little doubt they wanted the next mayor to tackle the major issues vexing the city of 2.7 million people – including economic disparities and gun violence.

“The message is that (voters) want new ideas and cleaner government,” McKenzie said.

Community groups have for years complained about disparities in living conditions among the sprawling city’s diverse communities.

Gun violence, fuelled by gangs and the drug trade, plagues economically-depressed neighbourhoods in the south and west of the city, which are populated by an African American majority.