Tag: Chicago

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot concedes

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“I’ve called Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas to congratulate them on their victories in advancing,” Lightfoot told supporters at the Carpenter’s Local 1 Hall. “We were fierce competitors. … But I will be reading and praying for our next mayor to deliver for the people for years to come.”
Two runoff competitors could hardly be more different among Lightfoot’s leading challengers.
Vallas ran to the right of Lightfoot and has focused primarily on public safety. He won the endorsement of Chicago’s conservative Fraternal Order of Police and faced accusations from his rivals of being a Republican despite declaring himself a Democrat.
And although Johnson, a progressive with the backing of the Chicago Teachers Union, doesn’t use “defund the police” rhetoric, he has argued for police resources to be redirected to the city’s social service agencies.
None of the nine candidates on the ballot came close to securing the 50 percent needed to win the nonpartisan election outright Tuesday.
“I haven’t been this happy since my son returned from Afghanistan,” Vallas, who was projected to make the runoff less than 45 minutes after polls closed on Election Day, told supporters at an event space called City Hall.
Lightfoot took the stage to concede less than two hours after the polls closed.
With her wife at her side and her daughter in the hall, Lightfoot said she would be “rooting and praying” for the next mayor. “We didn’t win the election today, but I stand here with my head held high and heart full of gratitude.”

Vallas has also been a school administrator in New Orleans and Philadelphia, and unsuccessfully campaigned for Illinois governor in 2002. When he didn’t qualify for the Chicago mayoral runoff in 2019, he endorsed Lightfoot.
Before Vallas took the lead, it was Democratic Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who pushed then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel into a runoff in 2015, who was expected to be Lightfoot’s biggest threat. But Garcia started his campaign late so he could first win reelection to Congress in the November midterms. That delayed his fundraising and put him weeks behind with getting on TV.
This is the city’s third runoff in the 24 years since Chicago started holding nonpartisan elections.
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#Chicago #Mayor #Lori #Lightfoot #concedes
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 1, 2023
The 9-person stage drama in Chicago that won’t end on Election Day

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Rahm Emanuel couldn’t escape a runoff either when he ran for reelection in 2015 in a four-man mayor’s race.
So without clearing the field before Election Day, Lightfoot is facing three main threats: former public schools CEO Paul Vallas to her right, Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson to her left, and Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García fuzzily bouncing around in between with Lightfoot.
One new wrinkle this year is that voters are coming out stronger: 193,076 people have voted early, as of Saturday — outpacing the 113,398 who turned out at that point in the race four years ago.
But this is Chicago, so race is another key factor. And it’s a complex one for Lightfoot, whose base among Black voters — particularly Black women — may splinter unevenly among the five other Black candidates. Vallas is white, and García is Latino. All the candidates declared themselves as Democrats.
“Chicago is the epicenter of racial politics. Any political contest in Chicago is driven by turnout, especially turnout among racial demographics,” said Collin Corbett, a center-right political strategist who isn’t aligned with any of the mayoral candidates but whose firm is polling the race. “Lightfoot needs a really strong turnout among Black voters.”
Vallas is believed to have secured another key voting bloc — white residents on the city’s North Side, an area Lightfoot dominated four years ago.
A former school administrator in Chicago, New Orleans and Philadelphia, Vallas has run unsuccessfully for other public offices over the years, including mayor and governor. His campaign theme this time, focusing on public safety, has resonated with voters who dismissed Vallas in previous elections, including in the 2019 mayor’s race.
“This isn’t the race anyone expected,” said Corbett, noting how García was considered a frontrunner a few months ago.

The congressman, who took Emanuel to a runoff in 2015, started campaigning late, waiting until he won reelection to Congress before launching his second bid for mayor.
Lightfoot didn’t waste time airing TV ads attacking García’s connections to Chicago machine politicians and for accepting a donation from indicted crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried.
The broadsides seemed to work. But in shifting support away from García, fellow progressive Johnson gained momentum. Now Johnson is getting hit from Lightfoot and other candidates over his past comments about his support for “defunding” police.
Amid this tussle, Vallas, who has the backing of the city’s Fraternal Order of Police, surged with his message about crime being out of control. Lightfoot sees it as stoking fears.
García has a long history of helping build a bench of Latino candidates in Illinois. And Johnson is backed by the Chicago Teachers Union, both in endorsements and financially. He also works for the union.
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#9person #stage #drama #Chicago #wont #Election #Day
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 26, 2023
Chicago shooting: Father of injured Indian student seeks government help

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Hyderabad: A student from Telangana studying in Chicago was critically injured by some armed miscreants during a robbery on Sunday night in Princeton Park.
After the incident, the father of the victim Sai Charan, on Tuesday, said that he got the information Monday night regarding the attack.
The father of the victim, Srinivas said, “The incident happened when Charan and another person along with him were coming back home from Walmart. They were stopped at the parking lot. After they were stopped at gunpoint, Charan and the other man gave all the money to them. After going a little far, the armed man fired at two people.”
Charan was injured and the other person with him died in the shooting incident.
“At present, Charan is in ICU but in what condition we don’t know. So we urge the government to do the needful with the reports and visa process to see our son. We are in shock, the whole family is in shock, and everything has changed in a day,” Srinivas said.
“We request the government to help us seek reports of the incident,” he added.
Earlier, Sunday night, one of the two people, was shot during an armed robbery in Princeton Park on the South Side has died, Chicago police said Tuesday morning.
Devsish Nandepu Hyderabad, 23, of Chicago died just after 4 am on Monday morning at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. He had been shot in the armpit and taken to the hospital in critical condition during the incident.
According to the abc7, Devsish Nandepu and a 22-year-old man were near a parking lot about 6:55 pm Sunday in the 8400-block of South Holland Road when a dark-coloured vehicle approached and two occupants exited before demanding the pair’s property at gunpoint, Chicago police said.
Another incident was witnessed on Friday, where an Indian-origin man from Gujarat named Pinalkumar Patel was shot and killed in his driveway on Thoroughbred Lane, American web portal AOL reported.

According to the officials, a group of masked gunmen assaulted Patel’s family including his wife, Rupalben, and his daughter, Bhakti. They were also shot, as per Bibb County Sheriff’s Office said was an assault by a group of masked gunmen.
Bibb County sheriff officials said deputies responded to reports of a shooting on Thoroughbred Lane at 11:01 pm Friday.
When deputies arrived, they found 52-year-old Pimalkumar Patel, his wife and their child all with gunshot wounds in the driveway of their home, according to AOL.
Deputies were told that Patel began shouting at the assailants before they shot him and his family and rode away in a car that was waiting across the street.
Patel was shot multiple times. His wife and daughter were shot in their legs and as of Friday were said to be in stable condition.
It was unclear in the report whether the masked group intended to rob the family, though the assailants were not said to have taken anything from the victims.
The investigation is ongoing. Deputies asked for help identifying a car seen on a surveillance camera across the street from the shooting, as per the report in AOL.
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#Chicago #shooting #Father #injured #Indian #student #seeks #government
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 26, 2023