By John Kass

January 10, 2023

 Paul Vallas, the Chicago mayoral candidate, had an eventful week on the campaign trail.

He won the endorsement of the police union, Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police, which is always important but most especially now, with the city overwhelmed by street crime and incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot demonstrating again and again that she has no ideas on how to stop the violence against Chicagoans.

He is becoming the inevitable candidate and now there is a question as to whether Mayor Lori Lightfoot even makes the runoff.

And he crushed it in an appearance on The Chicago Way podcast that I co-host with Jeff Carlin. His answers are quick and sometimes sarcastically dry. You can see the confidence in him.

“Were not going to have a war on cops when I’m mayor. We’re not going talking about abandoning accountability…I will back them and support them.  I will hold them accountable when somebody violates the rules,” Vallas said.

There has been a war on cops in Chicago, from the political and government classes, for years. It has been corrosive. And who is hurt? The people with no power are hurt. Those who seek protection from the lawless predators are hurt.

“The city is in serious crisis,” Vallas told The Chicago Way. “Its potential is being crushed by crime, by a school system, cycle that has Chicago paying the highest taxes fines and fees in the country. You’re seeing a crisis of leadership. The key to the city’s survival and prosperity is growth. The city used to be 50 percent middle class, today it is 15 percent middle class. You’ve got to grow the city, that’s how you grow the tax base. You grow it by making sure every community is safe and secure, by making sure there are quality school options.”

I get it. You get it. The Illinois political class gets it, even if they refuse to acknowledge it.  But do enough of the people of Chicago get it? Or are they content to just sit there, passively, with Chicago running out of time?

(Copyright 2023 John Kass)

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