“Every time I hear her speak, I want to wring her neck,” a neighbor confided the other day.
“She is confrontational and divisive. Look at how she looks,” said a guy at the bar at my favorite restaurant.
“She is not qualified to be mayor,” the waiter chimed in.
Karen Lewis. Three vocal opinions from Chicago voters. Three steep hills to climb.
Her looks. Her style. Her resume. It’s a triple threat to her potential mayoral run.
Lewis, 61, has made an extraordinary journey. In four years, she evolved from an obscure teacher to the One Who Could Challenge Rahm Emanuel.
The Chicago Teachers Union president went nose-to-nose with Emanuel over the city’s historic school closings and teachers’ strike. She more than held her own.
Now she is faring well in polls. In a recent Chicago Tribune survey, Lewis prevailed over Emanuel, 43 percent to 39 percent. She says she’s “seriously considering” a run and has mounted an exploratory effort. She had better seriously consider that triple threat.
