Lightfoot defends using PAC to incite political backlash against aldermen who voted against her budget

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday defiantly defended her decision to use money from her newly created political action committee to shame the 11 aldermen who dared to vote against her $11.6 billion budget.

“Since when is letting voters and residents know how aldermen voted bullying? That’s just silly,” the mayor said, responding to a Chicago Sun-Times editorial taking her to task for her chicagobudgetvotes.com website.

“We have an absolute right to make sure that people really understand who voted, why they voted, what they voted for. A lot of people can’t attend City Council meetings. They may not have access to livestreaming. ... We’re providing an important service. And I stand by it.”

The City Council approved the mayor’s budget by a vote of 39 to 11. Why, then, does she feel the need to incite a political backlash against the dissenters?

“It’s not about winning the vote. It’s about making sure that people in this city have access to basic information about how their government functions. This is not a political exercise for me. This is about educating the public about what happened,” she said.

Ald. Ray Lopez (15^th), one of the 11 dissenters, has argued the mayor’s website belittles legitimate concerns about the shaky nature of the mayor’s budget and “shines the light on the true nature of her character: being petty and vindictive.”

Rookie Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25^th), another “no” vote, has used the website to urge his campaign contributors to help him stand up to a mayor whom, he claims, is “stifling independent voices.”

Although Finance Committee Chairman Scott Waguespack (32nd) urged aldermen to vote their conscience without fear, Sigcho-Lopez wrote, “It is now clear that political retaliation is on the menu for aldermen” who dared to oppose a budget that “woefully underfunds mental health services, relies on property taxes and gives the wealthiest corporations a pass.”

On Thursday, Lightfoot said she is “not worried” about further straining her relationship with a City Council pushing back against her decision to strip aldermen of their control over licensing and permitting in their wards and her threat to do the same with aldermanic prerogative over zoning.

“I am putting out information about how they voted. Pure and simple. ... If they’re upset about how they voted and that people know about it, that’s on them. That’s not on me,” she said.