Here's Why Chicago Will Elect First Black Lesbian Mayor Tuesday

CHICAGO — Let me tell you in advance why Chicago voters will make history electing married African-American lesbian mother Lori Lightfoot as its next mayor on Tuesday.

It was the perfect political storm. The Democratic Machine imploded thanks to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s political failure and a wire worn by FBI mole Ald. Danny Solis that created conditions for Chicagoans — from conservative black pastors and Southwest Side cops to wealthy downtown elites and lakefront liberals — to live in a city without an omnipotent boss for the first time in generations.

Lightfoot’s opponent, Cook County Democratic Party boss Toni Preckwinkle, may have started her career as an independent progressive, but this election campaign exposed her umbilical connection to Chicago’s corrupt political status quo.

[COMMENTARY]

Preckwinkle, the former history teacher, morphed into a bitter, party boss who trades patronage jobs for campaign cash. The FBI made that perfectly clear when charging Ald. Ed Burke with shaking down a businessman for a $10,000 donation to Preckwinkle’s campaign.

The FBI bombshell uncovered other secrets about Preckwinkle. Chicagoans learned she accepted another $100,000 in donations rounded up at fundraiser hosted by Burke, and gave the powerful ward boss’s son a do-nothing, six-figure job in her administration.

Preckwinkle supported Joe Berrios, the former county assessor who oversaw property tax system rigged against poor minorities.

And there’s nothing more telling about how Preckwinkle’s place atop the Democratic Machine changed her than the three-word reason she gave for running for mayor shortly after being re-elected Cook County board president.

“Because I can,” she said.

Preckwinkle made that proclamation when Mayor Emanuel — who she never once challenged on anything — gave the Democratic Party boss de facto permission to put her name on the ballot by deciding not to seek a third term.

Lightfoot, unlike Preckwinkle, launched her mayoral campaign before Emanuel decided to lame-duck walk out of office.

She even stood up to Emanuel while she worked for him. In 2016, Lightfoot, who Emanuel tapped to lead the city’s police accountability task force, blindsided the mayor with a scathing report calling out the lack of "accountability" and respect for "humanity" in the Chicago Police Department without giving the boss a heads up.

For that, Lightfoot topped a field of 14 candidates setting the stage for Tuesday’s showdown against Preckwinkle, whose campaign resorted to — and got heavily criticized for — homophobic and racially charged rhetoric to win over conservative black voters.

During their first one-on-one debate, Preckwinkle congratulated Lightfoot for being openly gay, blowing a dog-whistle meant to signal to every conservative black pastor in Chicago that Lightfoot is the LESBIAN candidate.

Later, homophobic campaign flyers targeting Lightfoot mysteriously popped up on car windshields outside conservative black churches that (wink-wink) Preckwinkle’s campaign said they didn’t know anything about.

Preckwinkle showed even more desperation when she hugged Todd Stroger — the former rival she ousted as county board president and once called “inept” — with hope that he could help get support from African American voters on the South Side.

The Cook County Democratic Party boss stood by U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush who made a racially incendiary stump speech on her behalf, saying anybody who votes for Lightfoot has “blood on their hands.”

Preckwinkle refused to give straight answers to tough questions on TV debates so often that she sounded a lot like Mayor Emanuel getting grilled about City Hall’s attempt to cover up the video of Laquan McDonald’s murder.

After the votes are counted Tuesday night, when people ask how the heck Chicagoans elected Lightfoot — a former federal prosecutor, political outsider and lesbian mother — as their next mayor you can tell them it's simple: She offered them a chance to get out from under the thumb of Democratic Party bosses, Preckwinkle included, who for generations oversaw public policy that divided Chicago into two cities — one for the white, rich and powerful and another for the brown, poor and forgotten.

And they took it.

More Chicago Stories from Mark Konkol:

• Stolen Signs, Homophobic Slurs Caught On Video In 6th Ward Race
• Mayoral Forum Question-Dodger Toni Preckwinkle Might Be A Cyborg
• Bully Preckwinkle Backed By 'Inept' Stroger After Awkward Hug
• Chicago City Hall No Longer A Place For A Boss Like Preckwinkle
• Foster-Bonner Makes Run-Off Against Rubber Stamp 6th Ward Boss
• Preckwinkle Disses Voters By Ditching Sun-Times Mayoral Debate
• The Lori Lightfoot I Know Blindsided Mayor Emanuel With The Truth
• Chicago Election Results Confirm Referendum On Emanuel's Failure
• Want Change Chicago? Vote Out Absentee, Rubber-Stamp Aldermen
• A Vote For Daley, Preckwinkle, Mendoza, Chico Is A Vote For Rahm
• 'Empire' Actor Doesn't Fib As Well As Chicago's Clout Candidates
• Is Chicago Crazy Enough To Elect Bill Daley, The Rahm Candidate?
• Don't Believe CTU Hype: Undecideds Could Shock Mayoral Status Quo
• Mendoza Rapid-Fire Tweets Sling Mud On Clout Candidates, Herself
• Chicago Mayoral Race Is Absurd And Nightmare If You Don't Wake Up
• Did Rahm's Failure, Solis' FBI Wire Make Chicago GOP Relevant?
• Mayoral Candidate Susana Mendoza Can't Be Taken Seriously Anymore
• Facts About Pay-To-Play Preckwinkle Help To Voters To Form Opinion
• Chicago Needs To Elect Bunch Of Snitches To Kill Code Of Silence
• Rahm's Podcast Isn't Practice For TV Gig; He Stinks On TV (VIDEO)
• Are You For 'Cockroaches' Or Reformers In Chicago Mayoral Race?
• Cash Connects 'Independent' Preckwinkle To 'Good Ol' Boys Club'
• Hmm, Mayor Candidate Bill Daley Doesn't Want To Dis Rahm Anymore

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting and Emmy-nominated producer, was a producer, writer and narrator for the Chicagoland series on CNN, and a consulting producer on the forthcoming Showtime documentary about the murder of Laquan McDonald, who Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke shot 16 times until the black teenager was dead.