Vallas & Ken Griffen

Brandon Johnson Hits Vallas Hard on Crime in NBC Mayoral Debate

By Jim Vail

This is billionaire Ken Griffen who hates unions and funds Vallas.

Crime was the big issue for voters and the reason former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas came out in front in the Feb. 28 Mayor Election.

But at the NBC Mayoral Debate in the runoff on Wednesday, March 8, Brandon Johnson hit Vallas hard on crime.

"Paul Vallas is funded by billionaire Ken Griffen who invests in gun manufacturers and puts the guns on our streets," Brandon said. "I want to take guns off of our streets."

Vallas constantly demanded rebuttals to Brandon Johnson's attacks on his record when it came to tax increases, defunded pensions and right-wing extremism, but after sticking the knife in the very essence of his platform - safety and more cops - he had nothing to say.

Johnson brilliantly played the dark billionaire Ken Griffen card to perfection. Why is a billionaire who left this state and cavorts with an extremist Florida governor who is openly calling to ban books in school libraries, funding his campaign? Most of the money he has collected has come from Mr. Griffen. What is his agenda?

Griffen was the villian of working people in Illinois when he used his enormous wealth to defeat a progressive tax that would have made the rich pay their fair share of Illionis taxes and help out the rest of the people of this state. He also told previous Mayor Rahm Emanuel to close 125 schools. Emanuel ended up closing 50 schools which rankles the city to this day.

Understandably, Willie Wilson a black millionaire businessman endorsed Vallas.

Understandly, the black politicians who are funded by the establishment with support from rich donors like Ken Griffen endorsed Vallas, including charter/developer Ald. Walter Burnett and Ald. Roderick Sawyer, who did legal work for a company that scammed an elderly person with dementia out of his home. 

Those are the type of black politicians and business people who line up behind their puppet Paul Vallas. They sold out to the ugly capitalists many years ago.

Brandon Johnson comes from the fighting CORE team who defeated the corrupt UPC party. CORE took up the fight the old company union refused to engage in - the fight against school closings, privatization, charter schools, attacks on public schools, corrupt crony contracts, etc.

Who is Paul Vallas? 

The Chicago Teachers Union has put out lots of literature about how he began the privatization frenzy and war against the public schools and the CTU and black educators by firing many black teachers and administrators because they worked in "failing schools."

Never matter that these people are really heroes dealing with overwhelming conditions in parts of the city racked by poverty, violence and despair.

Years ago my teacher friend on the South Side was with her students one morning shoveling snow outside a nursing home as part of a civic action. Suddenly out of nowhere a phalanx of dark sedans pulled up and out popped Paul Vallas. He grabbed her shovel amid flashing lights of the camera crews who were like flies buzzing around something rotten, smiled for a brief second, and then disappeared faster than a firefly in the night.

Win or lose - the fight against Paul Vallas and what he represents is the fight we working people in the city must fight now and forever more!