Hispanic ministers rally behind Vallas

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Paul Vallas’ own strategists have described his path to victory as relying, in part, on getting 60% of the Latino vote and boosting anemic turnout in Hispanic-majority wards.

If that’s the mission, Vallas set out to accomplish it Thursday, gathering more than 100 Latino ministers at New Life Family Center, 2910 N. Central Ave.

Speaking in Spanish through an interpreter, the ministers took turns asking Vallas friendly questions about improving school safety and fighting violent crime on the CTA and in neighborhoods.

That allowed Vallas to reiterate his oft-repeated plans to “restore police officers to the high school campuses to deter active shooters,” open school campuses “through the dinner hour, on weekends and holidays,” and hold night and day classes at the police academy to more quickly fill 1,700 police vacancies.

He also talked about “bypassing” State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, going “directly to judges when the state’s attorney refuses to prosecute” and using the city’s Law Department to “bring charges themselves, which the Law Department has the capacity to do.”

The ministers then took turns touting Vallas as the candidate with the most experience and the “best plans” to resolve the crime and education problems plaguing Hispanic neighborhoods.

“New York City has a lower crime rate than Chicago. That can’t be so. I’ve listened to Paul’s strategy. He wants to cover the whole city. He wants to protect all our children. He wants to protect all our businesses and protect all our communities. That’s the kind of mayor we need,” one minister said.

“I am so sure that you are tired of hearing that young people and innocent children are being killed every day in our city. So, why would you even consider defunding Chicago police? Who’s gonna protect our children?” the minister asked. “Who’s gonna protect our communities? If we’re tired of families leaving Chicago, leaving CPS, Paul is our better choice.”

Yet another minister said area residents are “terrorized to take our little ones” to playgrounds. “Even the parks are not secure,” he said.

“We need to encourage our people to come out and vote. ... We need to motivate our congregations, our people, to come out and vote as well,” the minister said. “We pray often a great deal. But we’re tired to go out and vote? As leaders in our congregations, it is our responsibility to motivate our people to vote.”

Vallas thanked the ministers and millionaire businessman Willie Wilson, the former mayoral challenger who has endorsed him and attended Thursday’s event.

The Hispanic vote is expected to pay a pivotal role in determining the outcome of Tuesday’s runoff. Can the ministers make a difference?

“It’s part of the election puzzle, so to speak,” Vallas said.