{"id":1910124,"date":"2023-04-05T09:11:13","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T13:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/chicago-mayoral-runoff-paul-vallas-brandon-johnson-make-final-push-as-voters-head-to-polls\/"},"modified":"2023-04-05T09:17:01","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T13:17:01","slug":"chicago-mayoral-runoff-paul-vallas-brandon-johnson-make-final-push-as-voters-head-to-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/chicago-mayoral-runoff-paul-vallas-brandon-johnson-make-final-push-as-voters-head-to-polls\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Mayoral Runoff: Paul Vallas, Brandon Johnson Make Final Push as Voters Head to Polls"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fchicago-mayoral-runoff-paul-vallas-brandon-johnson-make-final-push-as-voters-head-to-polls%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1910124&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<div class=\"post_content\">\n<div class=\"aplayer_app\" data-source=\"https:\/\/vs1.youmaker.com\/assets\/2023\/0404\/1cff4059-7cc2-4b62-97f6-417afb6d2d79\/audio.mp3?length=5158989&#038;duration=430\"><\/div>\n<p>The April 4 Chicago Mayoral runoff is seeing Paul Vallas, a moderate Democrat, and Brandon Johnson, a progressive Democrat, trying to get last-minute votes ahead of polls closing.<\/p>\n<p>The winner will succeed Lori Lightfoot who lost in the Feb. 28 primary following years of coming under fire regarding issues like COVID and public safety.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson, 47, serves as a commissioner on the Cook County Board of Commissioners governing the county where Chicago is located.<\/p>\n<p>Vallas, 69, was the CEO of Chicago Public Schools and has held numerous educational leadership positions in Philadelphia, Louisiana, and Bridgeport, Louisiana.<\/p>\n<p>Vallas is shown ahead in the polls by a slight margin.<\/p>\n<p>One of the major issues surrounding the election, which has drawn nationwide attention, is public safety given the overall increase in crime in 2023 compared to last year.<\/p>\n<p>While murders this year, compared to 2022, have gone down by 15 percent, according to the Chicago Police Department, criminal sexual assaults have increased by 6 percent, robberies are up by 15 percent, aggravated batteries by 6 percent, burglaries by 8 percent, thefts by 23 percent, and motor vehicle thefts have skyrocketed by 133 percent. Overall, crime has gone up by 46 percent.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5172371\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript> Chicago mayoral candidate Brandon Johnson leaves after campaigning at Manny\u2019s Cafeteria and Delicatessen during the mayoral runoff election at Robert Healy Elementary School on April 4, 2023, in Chicago, Illinois. (Alex Wroblewski\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Johnson: \u2018I Expect to Lead the City of Chicago for Everyone\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Johnson\u2019s coalition has mainly consisted of fellow progressives, typically those in the 18 to 35 age group. However, in response to a question from The Epoch Times after casting his early-morning ballot at a public housing building, Johnson said that he would be a mayor for not just progressives, but for everyone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI expect to lead the city of Chicago for everyone,\u201d he said just prior to leaving the polling location.<\/p>\n<p>Bill Lowry, one of Johnson\u2019s fellow commissioners on the Cook County Board of Commissioners, remarked that Johnson seeks to work for all people and that he has a \u201ccommitment to communication\u201d and is \u201caction-oriented after he first listens and collaborates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know he has certainly tried to appeal to all of Chicago. All 77 communities and all of the facets of those 77 communities,\u201d he told The Epoch Times. \u201cThat\u2019s all you can ask of a candidate. He has tried to do so. I think he\u2019s done it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vallas has run on a moderate platform, including school choice and calling for more police officers. After casting his ballot later in the morning at an elementary school, he told The Epoch Times that he has tried to appeal to everyone.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5172379\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript> Chicago mayoral candidate Paul Vallas prepares to cast his ballot during the mayoral runoff election at Robert Healy Elementary School on April 4, 2023, in Chicago, Illinois. (Alex Wroblewski\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Vallas: I\u2019m \u2018as Progressive as Anybody\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>He touted his \u201cprogressive agenda on investing on the south and west sides, on returning schools to the control of the community so that they can be centers of community activities \u2026 my stand on protecting women\u2019s reproductive rights and obviously supporting, early on before many did, the issues important to the LGBTQ community \u2026 makes me as progressive as anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vallas ran on a pro-police platform, while Johnson has come under fire, including from Vallas, for his past support of the \u201cDefund the Police\u201d movement, which he called an \u201cactual, real political goal\u201d in 2020. Johnson has since sought to distance himself from that cause.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson told Laura Washington, a political analyst for ABC\u2019s Chicago affiliate, in March, that he \u201csaid it was a political goal. I never said it was mine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs far as my vision for public safety, I\u2019m not going to defund the police,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Lowry told The Epoch Times that Johnson would look to use public safety resources judiciously.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor a fact, he wants to look at the resources that we have, that we can commit for public safety and he\u2019s gonna commit those resources,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s not going to detract any of the funding. He just wants to make sure that we\u2019re utilizing it to the best of our ability to solve the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Top Issues Include Crime, T<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CHICAGO, Ill.\u2014Paul Vallas, a moderate Democrat, and Brandon Johnson, a progressive Democrat, have been trying to get last-minute votes ahead of polls closing in the April 4 Chicago Mayoral runoff. The winner will succeed Lori Lightfoot, who lost in the Feb. 28 primary following years of coming under fire on issues ranging from COVID to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1797,"featured_media":1910125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[10259,4387,8762,5639,4162,19080,5531,15638,3688,9062,21476,4223],"class_list":["post-1910124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-brandon","tag-chicago","tag-final","tag-head","tag-johnson","tag-mayoral","tag-paul","tag-polls","tag-push","tag-runoff","tag-vallas","tag-voters"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1910124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1797"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1910124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1910124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1910125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1910124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1910124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1910124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}