Paul Vallas enters Chicago mayor's race
Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas is running for mayor, he announced Wednesday.
The longtime Chicagoan has been well-known in government circles since the 1990s, when Mayor Richard M. Daley selected him as budget director and then schools chief. Vallas later ran schools in Philadelphia and New Orleans.
“I’m running because the city is in crisis. The crisis is worsening,” Vallas told the Tribune in an interview. “I believe I have the skills and the experience as well as the courage to provide the leadership the city desperately needs.”
The city experienced major crime spikes in 2020 and 2021, with last year being the most violent in decades. Vallas, 68, points to the city losing large numbers of police officers and the school system’s shrinking student population as key issues facing the city. Vallas said he would fire police superintendent David Brown and his top deputy, Eric Carter, and promote a new top cop “from within” to improve morale.
“Our police department is being degraded. We’re offering fewer educational choices. Yet we continue to have this cycle of raising taxes and fees,” said Vallas, who endorsed Lightfoot in the 2019 runoff election against Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. “I think the mayor has proven to be incapable of dealing with these crises. I submit to you that under her tenure things have gotten significantly worse.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/elections/ct-chicago-mayor-election-paul-vallas-20220601-pvcb5nidejdnbfi42njtpmvvuy-story.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Breaking%20News&utm_content=861654088065
Mayor Lightfoot has very low approval ratings. Vallas is the strongest candidate to enter the race at this point.
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