Lori Lightfoot Runs For Chicago Mayor; Vows To Help Neighborhoods

CHICAGO, IL — Add another line to February's Chicago mayoral ballot. Lori Lightfoot, who stepped down as president of the Chicago Police Board earlier this week, announced she was running for the city's top office Thursday, expanding an already packed field of candidates looking to take down incumbent Mayor Rahm Emanuel next year.

Lightfoot officially threw her hat into the ring during a news conference at the Hyatt Regency Chicago and promised to set a new course for Chicago by strengthening the city's neighborhoods.

"My focus will be on building up the small business base in the neighborhoods," she said while also criticizing the lack of transparency surrounding the current administration's bid to bring Amazon's second headquarters to Chicago.

A former assistant U.S. attorney, Lightfoot also vowed that her administration would continue to implement reform measures for the Chicago Police Department. That means giving the city's police officers the tools to succeed, as well, she added.

"One of the things we need to do is to get to a place where we can actually rebuild trust," Lightfoot said about re-establishing a better relationship between law enforcement and the public.

Police reform has been an area of focus for Lightfoot, and her mayoral opponent is partially responsible for that for the past few years. Emanuel appointed her in 2015 to lead Chicago's civilian board handling police discipline. Following the release of the Laquan McDonald shooting video, Lightfoot headed up the Police Accountability Task Force, which took CPD to task in a blistering, highly critical 2016 report that blamed racism and a systematic breakdown of accountability in the department for its poor relations with residents, particularly communities of color.

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Some have been critical of Lightfoot's acceptance of those mayoral appointments in light of her candidacy. Last summer, she was reappointed to the police board and had told Emanuel that she had no plans to run for mayor at the time, according to the Chicago Tribune. She announced her resignation from the board

"To take that platform [Emanuel] offered, use that platform to raise her own profile by criticizing him on police issues and then basically turn around and leverage it to launch her own political career is unconscionable," Ald. Nick Sposato (38th Ward) told the Tribune.

But Lightfoot contends her decisions to run for mayor are about doing what's best for Chicago and its residents.

"It's not about turning on anybody," she said at the Thursday's news conference. "It's about saying our city is going in the wrong direction."

Lightfoot is the ninth candidate to enter the 2019 Chicago mayoral. The ballot currently includes:

• Dorothy Brown, Cook County Circuit Court Clerk
• Ja'Mal Green, community activist
• John Kozlar, 11th Ward alderman candidate in 2015
• Troy LaRaviere, Chicago Principals & Administrators Association president
• Garry McCarthy, former Chicago police superintendent
• Neal Sales-Griffin, 30-year-old tech entrepreneur
• Paul Vallas, former Chicago Public Schools CEO
• Willie Wilson, businessman and 2015 mayoral candidate

Chicago would have its first black female mayor if either Lightfoot or Brown is elected. Lightfoot also would become the city's first openly gay mayor if she wins.

Along with her time as a federal prosecutor from 1996 to 2002, Lightfoot worked for the city in various roles under Mayor Richard M. Daley during the early 2000s.

More via the Chicago Tribune

Lori Lightfoot (Photo via Patch archive)