CHICAGO (AP) — A former federal prosecutor who has never held elected office was vying for Chicago mayor on Tuesday against a powerful official whose political career spans decades, providing voters a clear contrast in a historic runoff already assured of elevating a black woman to lead the nation’s third-largest city.
Lori Lightfoot, 56, who had served as an assistant U.S. attorney before entering private practice as an attorney, emerged as the surprising leader in the first round of voting in February when 14 candidates were on the ballot. She is matched up this time against Toni Preckwinkle, a former schoolteacher who served on the Chicago City Council for 19 years before becoming Cook County Board president in 2011.
The winner will join seven other black women currently serving as mayors in major U.S. cities, including Atlanta and New Orleans.
Lightfoot, who is openly gay, seized on outrage over a white police officer’s fatal shooting of a black teenager to launch her reformer campaign. That was even before Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced he wouldn’t seek a third term amid criticism for initially resisting calls to release video of the shooting.
“I’m not a person who decided I would climb the ladder of a corrupt political party,” Lightfoot said during a debate last month. “I don’t hold the title of committeeman, central committeeman, boss of the party.”
It’s a not-so-veiled reference to Preckwinkle, who also leads the county’s Democratic Party and has countered that her opponent lacks the necessary experience for the job.
“This is not an entry-level job,” Preckwinkle has said repeatedly during the campaign. “It’s easy to talk about change. It’s hard to actually do it. And that’s been my experience — being a change maker, a change agent, transforming institutions and communities.”
The campaign between the two women got off to a contentious start, with Preckwinkle’s advertising focusing on Lightfoot’s work as a partner at Mayer Brown, one of the nation’s largest law firms, and tagging her as a “wealthy corporate lawyer.”
Preckwinkle also tried to cast Lightfoot as an insider for working in police oversight posts under Emanuel and police oversight, procurement and emergency communications posts under Mayor Richard M. Daley.
In one ad, Preckwinkle criticizes Lightfoot’s oversight of the emergency communications in 2004 when a fire killed four children. A judge ordered Lightfoot to preserve 911 tapes after questions were raised how the emergency call was handled. The ad notes some of the tapes were destroyed, prompting the judge to rebuke Lightfoot. The ad sparked a backlash from the family of three of the children killed, with their sister accusing Preckwinkle of trying to take advantage of her family’s tragedy...
