We are a little over a week away from the general election for mayor of Chicago. There is a crowded field, which almost guarantees a runoff election that would be held on April 4th. And the current mayor, Lori Lightfoot, looks like she might not make it to that runoff election.

We have truly come to a turning point in Democrat politics when the most intersectional of candidates – the black lesbian woman – might be booted out of office because Chicago is actually fed up with her incompetence and her arrogance.

In Chicago’s municipal election, if a candidate fails to win a majority, then the top two vote-getters face off against each other in a second round of voting in April.”

But with less than two weeks to the Feb. 28 election, the firecracker Democratic first-term mayor — who quickly brandished a national hate-hate relationship with conservatives — faces credible threats from at least three opponents in the nine-person race. Her unfavorables have soared with Chicagoans fed up with gun violence. In recent polling, she’s failed to break into the top two.”

All that adds up to the stunning prospect that a sitting big-city mayor could be eliminated from re-election contention in the first round of voting.”

“It’s looking harder and harder for her,” one of her competitors, Rep. Jesús “Chuy” Garcia, said in an interview. “It’s a hell of a front to be fighting on, from her vantage point.”

One recent poll has Lightfoot in a statistical dead heat with two others — Paul Vallas, a former CEO of Chicago Public Schools who has won the backing of Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police, and Garcia, who has high name identification and who, in 2015, forced then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel into a runoff. Garcia lost but went on to get elected to Congress.”

“I love people thinking of me as the underdog,” Lightfoot said. “I’ve been an underdog my whole life. And I’ve always proven people wrong, so I’m OK in that lane.”

It turns out that Chicagoans are very, very, very tired of all the crime in the city. Lightfoot has been mayor since 2019. Has Chicago gotten better or worse in these last four years?

One recent poll showed 63% of Chicagoans didn’t feel safe.”

And one of those was Eddie Pulliam, who traveled from the city’s South Side to listen to Lightfoot that afternoon, and spoke of the deterioration of his neighborhood over time.”

“I just wish that she would make more of an emphasis to see what’s happening in well-established neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago,” said Pulliam. “I’m very upset with the crime in the city of Chicago. The thing that frustrates me is now crime started happening on the North Side, and now it’s a big deal.”

In an interview, Lightfoot said Chicago’s persistent crime is different from that of other cities. The generational poverty in parts of Chicago combines with fractured gangs, she explained, and all of that is exacerbated by the steady flow of illegal weapons.”

“The biggest issue and the existential threat for us in the city is a proliferation of illegal guns,” she said. She then hit Vallas, her opponent, saying he’s oversimplifying the problem to believe that hiring more police officers will fix the issue.”

Remember when Lightfoot said she was going to sue the gangs in order to stop crime? That was back in September of 2021. Can’t say that it worked, huh?

All that big talk about being “okay” with being the “underdog” in the race? Well, when you try and recruit the teachers’ union to find students to volunteer for her campaign for school credit, that doesn’t look like an “underdog” move. Underhanded, yes. But it smacks more of an abuse of power than anything else. Lightfoot herself had to go apologize for that one (while blaming a staffer).

And now Lightfoot is truly getting desperate. Sounding like an echo of Joe “if you don’t vote for me, you ain’t black” Biden, the mayor got up in front of a crowd and said if the South Side wasn’t going to vote for her, then they shouldn’t vote at all.

At South Side rally ft. Bobby Rush, Mayor Lightfoot reiterates, “Any vote coming from the South Side for somebody not named Lightfoot is a vote for Chuy Garcia or Paul Vallas. … If you want them controlling your destiny, then stay home. Then don't vote.” pic.twitter.com/3mQXta1Pvt

— Alice Yin (@byaliceyin) February 18, 2023

One day and a lot of backlash later, here comes the Emily Litella moment.

After a swift social media backlash, Lightfoot’s campaign released a statement Sunday evening declaring that she “urges every Chicagoan to exercise their rights and get out to vote,” a reversal from her prior statement.”

These are not incidents and statements coming from a campaign and candidate who feels comfortable with her position heading into the general election. Given the current circumstances, I would say Mayor Lightfoot is about to become a one-term mayor, and her administration can’t come to an end soon enough.

Featured image: Brand X Studio; used by permission