Critics want Mayor Lightfoot gone, but you can’t beat somebody with nobody

Last Thursday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot told the Chicago Sun-Times she is all-in for her reelection campaign.

I wasn’t there when she gave the scoop to Lynn Sweet, the Sun-Times Washington bureau chief. But I’ll bet the mayor was sporting her signature wry grin.

Lightfoot is saying “yes” to a second mayoral run.

Yet, it’s the “noes” that are giving Chicago’s power class a hissy fit.

The bigwigs are disappointed that, earlier that same day, U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley announced he would not challenge Lightfoot in the Feb. 28, 2023, mayoral election.

Weeks earlier, former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, another supposedly formidable contender, demurred.

Chicago’s downtown business and civic leaders want her gone. Chicago is in crisis, they argue, and they need a champion who can “save” the city.

Yet they cannot lure a credible contender to replace her.

Lightfoot should be smiling. The established and prominent figures who can attract endorsements and cash from business, politics and labor are not interested, so far.

You can’t beat somebody with nobody, and nobody is stepping up.

And time is running out. The 2023 mayoral election is less than 10 months away. Mayoral aspirants must compete for cash, endorsements and media attention with the multitudes running in 2022 for statewide, legislative, county and congressional offices.

The talk in Chicago’s boardrooms, private clubs and swanky spas around town: If we don’t find a new mayor, the city will go down the tubes.

Right now, Lightfoot has only two declared challengers: Ald. Ray Lopez, (15th), the outspoken Lightfoot critic, and the millionaire businessman and perennial candidate Willie Wilson.

There’s a lot of chatter about how vulnerable Lightfoot is, and all those insider polls that show she has meager support among voters.

But the fact that no big shot is stepping up is telling. Being the mayor of Chicago is an extremely tough job at a very tough time.

There is also one, undeniable fact about Lori E. Lightfoot: She is very tough, and tougher than the I-don’t-have-the-fire-in-the-belly wannabes.

During Lightfoot’s first term, Chicago has been besieged by turmoil, much of it not her making.

The COVID-19 pandemic that has in many ways changed life as we knew it forever. High rates of violent crime, from murders and shootings to organized retail theft and carjackings. The looting and civil unrest spawned by the police murder of George Floyd. A police department plagued by massive retirements, plummeting morale and dysfunctional leadership.

Lightfoot’s policy agenda has been hamstrung by City Council members who deeply resent her well-placed crusade to reform the Council.

She’s still standing and gearing up for the fight.

She has made mistakes and still has much to learn. But what stands out for me is not the obstacles, but the Lightfoot administration’s transformative work to ensure equity across Chicago.

Last week, Richard Townsell, executive director of the Lawndale Christian Development Corp., praised Lightfoot’s Invest South/West initiative in a talk at the City Club of Chicago.

“Never has such attention and focus been paid to the communities like ours that have been left for dead, ravaged, exploited, abused and picked apart” by disinvestment and neglect, he said.

Lightfoot “inherited a mess, and it’s up to all of us to work to pursue the common good, over selfishness and self-centeredness.”

Instead of demonizing the mayor, the big shots who claim to care about Chicago (at least their Chicago) should seek more ways to work with City Hall.

Follow Laura Washington on Twitter @mediadervish

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