Black mayoral hopefuls start to turn against each other
The knives are out.
“WILSON BLASTS LIGHTFOOT OVER BOGUS POLL REPORT CALLS HER STORY TO THE PUBLIC, A FRAUD & SCAM,” the media advisory proclaimed.
Chicago businessman and 2019 mayoral candidate Willie Wilson has called a Monday morning news conference to excoriate Lori Lightfoot.
Wilson and Lightfoot are among six African-Americans vying in the February election. The others are Dorothy Brown, Cook County Circuit Court clerk; Troy LaRaviere, president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association; tech entrepreneur Neal SalesGriffin, and Ja’mal Green, a Black Lives Matter activist.
Former Police Supt. Garry McCarthy and former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas are also taking on Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
In 2011 and 2015, Emanuel was elected with a big hand from black voters. That base has deeply eroded.
Instead of going after Emanuel, some are gunning for Lightfoot. She’s a big target. The former president of the Chicago Police Board offers an extensive government and legal resume and has enjoyed early fund-raising success.
Last week, Lightfoot released a poll she commissioned to the Chicago Sun-Times. The survey, taken in April, reports that only 31 percent of “likely” Chicago voters said they would vote for Emanuel.
At that time, Lightfoot was polling “in the 2-3 percent range,” the Sun-Times reported.
Still, “I feel very confident that I am the only candidate who is running against Rahm that is going to be able to put together that coalition that’s going to get us to victory,” she told me last week.
The name-calling has commenced.
Wilson plans to attack “Lori Lightfoot’s fake news poll,” his news advisory read, “and release one of his own demonstrating that he is the most likely candidate to defeat Rahm Emmanuel (sic).”
Misspellings and typos aside, Wilson gives Lightfoot no quarter.
And LaRaviere noted that Lightfoot’s war chest, larded with contributions from attorneys and clout-heavy law firms, takes a page from Emanuel’s playbook.
“We want to make sure we put the person up against Rahm who is the biggest contrast,” he told ThinkProgress, a progressive news website. “Instead of the person who is able to raise almost as much as Rahm.”
Lightfoot reports raising more than a half-million dollars since May. Emanuel has about $9.1 million in his war chest, according to the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.
I asked Lightfoot: How do you get to victory with five other black candidates in the race?
“Everyone in this race who said, ‘I woke up this morning and I want to be mayor’ — that’s not happening, let’s be honest,” she replied. Other candidates don’t have a plan, a path, or the funds to compete, she argues.
Black voters have more at stake than ever. Dozens of our schools have been closed. Many other Chicago public schools are dirty, and CPS has allowed sexual abuse in the schools to go unchecked. In this booming economy, black youth suffer from high unemployment rates. Gun violence reigns in many black neighborhoods.
Only one Emanuel opponent will make the runoff. Will they duke it out like crabs in a barrel? Or unify to better the odds?
In the 2011 and 2015 campaigns, the cries for unity in the community went unheeded. It got ugly at times. During a 2011 mayoral debate, Carol Moseley-Braun, the former U.S. ambassador and U.S. senator, accused activist and fellow candidate Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins of being “strung out on crack.”
When black folks tear each other down, the wounds never heal.