Crime concerns are ‘front and center’ in Chicago mayor’s race
CHICAGO — For years, Republicans have sought to win over voters by depicting Democratic-led cities as lawless centers of violence that need tough-on-crime policies. In Chicago, some of the Democrats running for mayor are deploying the same strategy as they debate how to make the city safer.
One leading candidate, who touts his endorsement from the Chicago police union, says that “crime is out of control,” and the city needs hundreds more officers patrolling its streets. Another hopeful says that if suspects flee a crime scene, officers should be able to “hunt them down like a rabbit.”
Even incumbent Lori Lightfoot, the first Black woman and first out gay person to serve as Chicago mayor, has used language right out of the GOP playbook, saying a top rival in her reelection bid wants to defund the police.
The shift in rhetoric reflects the degree to which concerns about crime have dominated Tuesday’s mayoral election in Chicago and threatened Lightfoot’s reelection bid. Far from being an outlier, the nation’s thirdlargest city is just the latest Democratic stronghold where public safety has become a top election issue.
In San Francisco, progressive Dist. Atty. Chesa Boudin was ousted in a recall election last year that was fueled by frustration over public safety. In New York City, voters elected Eric Adams as mayor, elevating a former city police captain who pledged to fix the department and invest more in crime prevention. And in Philadelphia, candidates running for mayor this year are debating how to curb gun violence.
The increased attention on public safety follows a spike in crime rates in many communities that coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. High-profile incidents of police misconduct drew more scrutiny of policing, and there has been disagreement even among Democrats about so-called progressive public safety policies such as ending cash bail or providing safe injection sites for drug users.
Jaime Domínguez, a political science professor at Northwestern University, said it’s the first time in 20 years that he’s seen public safety be “front and center” in a Chicago mayoral election.
The difference, he said, is that crime is no longer largely isolated to some predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods. As more crime is occurring in other parts of the highly segregated city, including downtown and other areas frequented by tourists, public safety is also top of mind for white voters.
“Historically, it was primarily a pocketed matter. It was still pernicious and candidates spoke to it, but it didn’t really affect areas where you see crime occurring now,” Domínguez said. “That has been blown up. It’s just, it’s everywhere.”
Chicago has a higher percapita homicide rate than New York or Los Angeles, but it’s lower than other Midwestern cities, such as St. Louis and Detroit. Still, the number of homicides in Chicago hit a 25-year high in 2021 with 797, according to the Chicago Police Department.
That number decreased last year but is still higher than when Lightfoot took office in 2019. Other crimes, such as carjackings and robberies, have increased in recent years.
Nine candidates are running in Tuesday’s officially nonpartisan mayoral election. With no candidate expected to get over 50% of the vote, an April 4 runoff between the top two vote-getters is likely.
Randall Fearnow, a 67year-old healthcare attorney who is white and lives near Wrigley Field on the city’s North Side, experienced the crime problem firsthand when he and his wife discovered burglars inside their home in October. The criminals stole thousands of dollars’ worth of jewelry and money before running out the front door, he said. Police didn’t catch the perpetrators.
“It happened in the broad daylight,” Fearnow said. “You’re not immune anywhere from crime in the city.”
Fearnow cast an early ballot for Paul Vallas, who was endorsed by the Chicago police union.
As Lightfoot fights to land a spot in the April runoff, she has taken on opponents she sees as a threat — among them Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson. In a recent ad, Lightfoot accuses Johnson of wanting to defund police, using video from a 2020 radio interview in which he said reducing the amount of money spent on policing isn’t a slogan but “an actual real political goal.”
His statements came after nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
Lightfoot said Johnson, who avoids the word “defund” while campaigning, isn’t being candid.
Johnson, a former teacher and union organizer endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union, says he wants to invest more in areas such as mental health treatment. In a statement responding to Lightfoot, his campaign said that doesn’t mean cuts to the Chicago Police Department. Johnson also notes that Chicago still has a violence problem even though the police budget grows every year.
“Lori Lightfoot hasn’t made Chicago safer, but I will,” Johnson says in a new ad. “It’s time to get smart, not just tough.”
All of Lightfoot’s opponents want to fire the police superintendent she hired, saying that the former Dallas police chief has been ineffective. Lightfoot has defended the superintendent, David Brown, and says that though the city faced unforeseen challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, its strategies are working and some crimes are falling.
Businessman Willie Wilson, another mayoral candidate, has doubled down on his comment that suspects in violent crimes should be hunted down like rabbits. Wilson says he lost a son to gun violence, and he believes police officers are being prevented from doing their jobs.
The other candidates are Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Chicago City Councilmembers Sophia King and Roderick Sawyer, activist Ja’Mal Green and state Rep. Kambium “Kam” Buckner.