Political Endorsements

CTU endorsed mayoral candidate?

By Jim Vail

CTU endorsed Toni Preckwinkle for mayor

Now let me get this straight.

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) endorsed Toni Preckwinkle for mayor. She is the president of the Cook County Board.

She has promised the union to place a moratorium on school closings and charter schools, and favors an elected school board.

We hear from her advertisements that she was a teacher before she entered politics.

But then a strange thing happened, or didn't?

The CTU darling and heavily endorsed and encouraged to run against Rahm Emanuel in the last election in 2015 - Jesus 'Chuy' Garcia - has endorsed Lori Lightfoot, her opponent.

I was scratching my head on that one.

It made sense when explained - Preckwinkle did not endorse Garcia when he ran for mayor.

Why?

Preckwinkle is part of the city's Democratic Party machine. She was polling higher numbers and they say she could have beaten Rahm Emanuel in the last election, but chose to not run.

But not only not run, she chose to not back his challenger.

The CTU is now sending email blasts to its members to vote for Toni, but not Lori. They say Lightfoot is a corporate attorney and wants to turn the closed schools into police academies.

It appears a lot of big corporate money is now filling her coffers. And she appears to leading in the polls.

But Preckwinkle is a strong candidate who can win.

One teacher union insider speculated that the CTU political strategy, which is heavily invested in city elections, is to help make Preckwinkle the mayor, and Brandon Johnson, who then spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to be elected Cook County Commissioner, would then become the president.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens in this crazy world of politics.