With three weeks to go until the 2023 Chicago mayoral runoff election, Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson are both hitting the airwaves with new attack ads.
Johnson’s new ad focuses on going after Vallas’ performance as CEO of Chicago Public Schools, as well as controversial tweets that were liked by his Twitter account, while Vallas is returning fire by going after Johnson’s comments on policing in the city.
Tom Bowen, a Democratic strategist, says that the switch to attack ads isn’t surprising as the candidates seek to draw clear distinctions from each other.
“What a negative campaign advertisement shows those of us watching is that those campaigns think that negative advertisement draws that issue that they want front and center in front of voters, and that’s going to give them the best advantage,” he said.
Johnson has been criticized multiple times for a 2020 interview he gave, during which he said that the slogan “defund the police” was not just empty rhetoric, but rather a philosophy for candidates to follow.
“I don’t look at it as a slogan. I look at it as a political goal,” he said.
Johnson, who has trailed Vallas by several points in recently-released polls, says that his remarks were taken out of context.
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“I never said defund the police. I want to clarify this,” he said. “What I said repeatedly is that we need to do what safe American cities do across this country.”
The Cook County commissioner also rolled out endorsements from members of the new Chicago police oversight council, with 36 out of the 66 newly-elected councilors backing his candidacy.
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“He is the only candidate that truly understands us,” Panchito Moore, recently elected to the Chicago Police Council, said. “And he sees us, because he is us.”
As for Vallas, he has continued to paint himself as a “lifelong Democrat” in television ads, and has continued to rack up endorsements, with Chicago Alds. Matthew O’Shea and Ray Lopez throwing their support behind his candidacy this week.
“I know there are individuals trying to pit us against our own families, against our own neighbors, against what we know is true. They’re going to fail miserably come April 4,” Lopez said.
Vallas has said that hackers are behind the homophobic and racist tweets liked by his account, but he is still coming under fire for his performance as the head of CPS, with a Johnson attack ad arguing that Vallas’ performance in the job led to higher property taxes.
According to NBC News, Vallas pushed back on the claims, rolling out endorsements from educators and releasing an ad featuring a clip of former President Bill Clinton praising the performance of the city’s school system under his watch.
