CHICAGO (WLS) — The race for Chicago mayor is intensifying in the new year as more candidates are starting to put ads over the airwaves – and along with those ads come new attacks.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot went on the attack for the first time in her reelection fight with an animated ad targeting Congressman Chuy Garcia on multiple fronts.
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“What do we really know about Chuy Garcia? Chuy secretly talked with this crypto crook who stole his customers life savings,” Lightfoot’s ad says.
“She’s switching now to the campaign ads that are the most effective, the negative ads,” ABC7 political analyst Laura Washington said. “She’s going after the person that she sees as her chief opponent, her most dangerous opponent – that would be Chuy Garcia.”
Garcia, who is in Washington for the House Speaker vote, was unavailable for comment. His campaign issuing a statement calling the Lightfoot ad a desperate attack, adding: “She can lie all she wants to try and turn around her losing campaign, but Chicagoans will hold her accountable for failing to keep them safe as mayor.”
“Crime is out of control and combative leadership is failing us,” an ad for Paul Vallas says.
Vallas is out with his first two TV ads focused on the cornerstone of his campaign: public safety.
“You either need to define yourself or your opponent’s going to define you,” Vallas said. “And plus, you really need to identify what the core, more critical issue is, and [that’s]obviously public safety.”
And Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson also launching his first ad, promoting himself as “better for Chicago” and having “a plan to make Chicago safer.”
“The city of Chicago deserves better and people see my plan to keep our communities safe and strong, or schools fully funded and making sure that we have actually have economic security,” Johnson said. “People believe that I’m better for Chicago.”
Also on Wednesday, former mayoral candidate Alderman Ray Lopez throwing his support to Willie Wilson.
“This endorsement means a lot because it show us bringing people together,” Wilson said.
“If he can add voters from a demographic that he has not been successful attracting before, he can move up his votes, he can maybe get into the runoff,” Washington said.
The election is now less than two months away. As this campaign heats up, more ads will be hitting the airwaves, and in particular, more of the attack ads as candidates battle to make it into the runoff in April.
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