By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
As Chicagoans evaluate their two choices for mayor, Paul Vallas and Bradon Johnson, it may help to look at outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s many missteps over her four years.
From the beginning, she was more interested in imposing a vast “equity” agenda on Chicago than enacting the many reforms the city needed. Her agenda needed to be followed, damn the consequences.
That’s left virtually everything in Chicago worse off under her watch: schools, crime, pensions, union powers, taxes, city services, and even basic political civility.
So here’s a trip down memory lane. We’ve selected 20 pieces of Wirepoints’ work over the last four years for a quick rundown of some of the mayor’s biggest policy failures:
Remember when Mayor Lightfoot demanded Gov. Pritzker bail out Chicago’s pensions, then immediately afterward offered the CTU a 5-year contract and 14% raises?
Remember when she offered the CTU the “most lucrative” contract in its history, then gave the union even more benefits when they went on strike?
Remember when she brushed off the threat of the covid pandemic, focusing more on calling Trump and others racist than on prepping the city for the coming health and fiscal crisis?
Remember when she tried to plug the $838 million shortfall of her first budget with one-off deals, nebulous “efficiencies” and tax hikes?
Remember when she said her COVID-19 Recovery Task Force would ‘eliminate inequalities’ and ‘expand opportunities’ for Chicago’s minorities, ignoring that broke cities have little-to-no chance of helping those most in need?
Remember her hypocritical claim that ‘I Have A Right To Make Sure That My Home Is Secure’ when using dozens of police officers for her own security while constantly attacking Chicago’s Police Department and Americans’ gun rights?
Remember when Lightfoot claimed “improved fiscal management” – the exact same line item as the previous year – would help close a $1.2 billion gap in her 2021 budget?
Remember when Lightfoot demanded teachers return to the classroom in Jan. 2021, then immediately backed down when the CTU refused to show up to school?
Remember when she caved to CTU demands, including forced mask, vaccinations and other draconian covid rules on Chicago’s children?
Remember when Lightfoot specifically called for Critical Race Theory to be taught in grade schools?
Remember when she celebrated an 84% graduation rate in 2021 when only 26% of CPS students could read or do math at grade level?
Remember when the CTU refused to show up to school AGAIN in Jan 2022 and Lightfoot backed down AGAIN?
Remember when she poured $400 million into anti-crime initiatives only to see crime in 2022 rise another 41 percent over last year?
Remember when Mayor Lightfoot tried to convince Texas businesses to move to Chicago because she supports “equity?”
Remember when she spent even more taxpayer dollars trying to convince businesses in Dallas, Orlando and Phoenix to relocate to Illinois, despite Chief Executive Magazine calling Illinois the third-worst state in the nation to do business that same month?
Remember when Lightfoot disgraced herself and her office by shouting to a crowd in Grant Park, “F*** Clarence Thomas” in response to the court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade?
Remember when McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski worried about Chicago’s crime wave and the city’s long-term viability, and how Lightfoot dismissed his concerns and told him to “educate himself?”
Remember when she released an ad claiming anyone who questioned her narrative on reducing crime was a “hater,” despite crime in 2022 rising 33 percent over 2019?
Remember when Lightfoot claimed “hard work” and “fiscal discipline” were responsible for the “magic” of the city’s latest budget – ignoring the billions in federal bailout dollars that made that “magic” possible?
And remember when Lightfoot claimed she put more cops on the street despite the fact that the number of beat cops have fallen 19% since she took office?
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Failed policies equals a perfect democrat
A city is a collection of various groups – residents, the business community and government – collaborating to make the City work. When the incumbent Mayor loses the trust and confidence of the business community, it doesn’t bode well for the city or the Mayor. It’s clear which candidate will build that collaborative effort to get Chicago out of the ruts and get it moving forward again.
Hmmmm…. I think there should be a law that would enable dragging an elected official into court for deliberate misrepresentation of their intentions. People would argue that without blanket indemnification you could get anyone to run! Maybe it would discourage malicious asswholes like Lori. I don’t see any down side
I like that idea. Proving it was deliberate may prove challenging
Dude agenda 21, agenda 2030, and build back better are official government policy. Wake up! WAKE UP! Wake up! Wake up! Chicago is owned by WEF. Wake up!
Wait a minute. I’m sensing a vibe here. You want me to… wake up?
No, stay in Illinois and slave away for the nwo and bitch about it. Someone has to pay for my 90 year old in-laws teachers pensions. Take your vax and pair it with your digital if passport so they can track your carbon footprint. Burn the constitution and hold your hand out like the rest. Go ahead. . .
I get your frustration, Aaron. I already left. I was a visitor of six years, owing to my wife being a Chicagoan. I still have a keen interest in where Chicago is heading. I have family there, who I love dearly. There are still a lot of things to love about Chicago, however politicians and race-baiters are not among them. I personally chose to not be vaccinated, once I learned that some people were losing their livelihood if they did not agree to have something injected in to them. That is just unacceptable. Also, the stats just don’t justify it… Read more »
Then why can’t you see “that means it’s working!”? That means it’s working is official policy of the us. It is the opposite of MAGA.
It would be easy. Do the Dem way; salt the jury with known haters. In Lori’s case you could have a million man jury pool.
Now take this list and double it as a forecast of what is in store for the city should Johnson be elected.
But at least the voters recognized all her blunders and threw the bum out. They could undermine their own good judgement by voting in this Johnson union hack.
If only people had known she was an irascible Negro Midget before voting her into office. Beware of anyone who likes to wear ridiculous costumes.
She care more about renaming LSD than crime!
She cared more about renaming LSD than crime!
Well if she really has the biggest D her wife has something mine doesn’t have!
Lori and Biden won for the same reason and it wasn’t their brilliant vision.
And I fear that if Brandon Johnson is elected (God forbid) you will have even more than 20 failures to list in four years time. Imagine that !
What about when she told street merchants to take credit cards, not cash, to prevent robberies? Or told some stores, like drugstores, to hire their own security?
Ah yes, the old ‘let them eat cake’ ploy. Marie Antoinette tried that. See where it got her.
And the revolutionaries who executed Marie Antoinette themselves got executed not too longer after. And then those people got guillotined too or chained to barges lit afire in the rivers. And so on, and so on. It finally degenerated into two sociopaths trying to execute every remaining faction, before they themselves were put their own deaths. Thank goodness our political situation is not violent like the French Revolution. Democracy means that it never has to be because power comes at the ballot box and not from the sword. Brandon Johnson is merely the next Jacobin or Cordelier in line, before… Read more »
The Thermidorian backlash can’t start soon enough to suit me.
In 2020 Lightfoot told her supporters that they have a right to protest peacefully. I didn’t count the number of times she reportedly said this type of thing, all while the City and surrounding communities were experiencing post George Floyd rioting.
Lori’s biggest campaign booster was she wasn’t Tammy Preckwinkle. Things could have possibly been worse than Lori.
It’s Toni Riverbender
Shucks and thank you for the correction. To think I am the one usually squawking about the voters lack of knowledge of current issues I don’t even get the names right. LOL shows why my thoughts are not worth listening to…thanks for the heads up!
SO GLAD SHE’S GONE……HOW WILL SHE SURVIVE WITHOUT HER 70 UNIFORM POLICE AROUND HER HOUSE??? SHE NEVER REALLY WAS THAT IMPORTANT!!
I don’t blame Lori for any of this. In 2019, Chicago didn’t really elect Lori. Chicago elected a Progressive Identity. The name of the mayor seemed almost irrelevant at the time because Lori was a placeholder. Nearly every candidate was aligned with some identity in that election. All that mattered in 2019, the Trump era, were identities, and Lori had the most in a crowded field: progressive, black, short, female, same-sex married, lesbian. Lori’s failure as mayor wasn’t really her fault: it is the failure of her identities. Chicago should never, ever, under any circumstance, elect another progressive, black, short,… Read more »
And she wasn’t Preckwinkle
That’s not enough. She failed the city at least 20 times or more when dealing with Jussie Smollett. She was shameless.
I realize the list had to be limited but here’s a good one – Taxpayers spent nearly $66 million fashioning McCormick Place into an emergency coronavirus hospital with 2,750 beds, McCormick Place hospital’s cost to taxpayers? $1.7 million per patient
Great article – I would add
— Despite a crime crisis, Lightfoot rejected help from the federal government, in order to portray herself as the face of opposition to President Trump
https://www.yahoo.com/video/lightfoot-asks-biden-help-amid-152200479.html
— Even though she promised to end crooked, corrupt, predatory, regressive, revenue robbery ripoff rackets involving red light/speed cameras, Lightfoot doubled down on them instead
https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/ct-lori-lightfoot-martin-sandoval-red-lights-20200131-62dxnatnnzf6rd4y5phemiibm4-story.html
https://reason.com/2022/10/05/chicagos-red-light-cameras-keep-fueling-corruption-scandals/
— In the middle of the pandemic, Lightfoot barricaded church parking lots, towed cars of church goers, for daring to pray in defiance of her lockdown lunacy
https://www.foxnews.com/us/coronavirus-illinois-church-chicago-service-reopen
Remember when Chicago’s voters jubilantly elected this moron? Will they be more discerning this time, or will they dig a deeper hole?
It was her or Toni – I admit I was glad when she won. If it was her and Johnson in the runoff, I’d probably be pulling for her again 🤷♂️ Although none of that changes that she has been a train wreck.
It seems most times those who want the job shouldn’t have it. Those we wish were candidates, but don’t want the job, are too smart to subject themselves to the evil awaiting them. What a despicable endeavor, politics.
Spot on JJ. My grandmother told me in the sixties that I could be a Catholic or a pol but not both!
Yup, like so many times, i held my nose and voted for her because she wasn’t toni/ctu. I think she entered as a sincere progressive but a horrible politician. But got swift boated from the get go by the fake progressive machine. And got real bitter…Chicago aint got no use for any naive libtards they can’t use..and she got used bigtime. I don’t blame everything on her. It will be interesting to see if she endorses or remains silent and just goes away
Lori only had 17.54% of the vote – less than 100,000 votes – during the election. Preckwinkle only had 16.04%. Between the two of them, they had only 33.58% of the votes, a few hundred votes more than a third of the votes between them. It was a complete fluke she made the run off and was elected. I think we all want to forget this woman’s tenure. She alone caused more destruction of the city than any other mayor in modern history. And sadly, all of it was intentional.
There is an argument she was nowhere near as destructive as a Brandon Johnson mayoral stint would be. He stands a good chance of being elected as identity politics matter so much.
I can’t find the quote but heard on the radio Brandon calling for all the black and brown to vote for him. Substitute another color and imagine the outrage
That’s really the core issue. They are not very discerning and are easily convinced by identity racist politics and in Chicago its an art form. Elections typically have low voter turnout (people think their vote doesn’t matter). The machine has contributed to this problem because there really is no opposition. Calling Vallas a closet republican and conservative is all the low information IQ electorate needs to hear. Let’s hope on April 4 it’s people who really vote like their life depends on it. No room for mistakes or second guessing. It’s really between a seasoned public servant and leader or… Read more »