At mayoral forum, candidates take shots at each other and Mayor Lightfoot slams moderator
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The nine candidates for Chicago mayor again exchanged cutting words at a mayoral forum Thursday evening – with Mayor Lori Lightfoot going after a moderator for the second time at a forum this week.
With about two and a half weeks until the election, various polls are showing candidates closing in.
All nine candidates – Kam Buckner, Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, Ja'Mal Green, Brandon Johnson, Sophia King, Mayor Lightfoot, Roderick Sawyer, Paul Vallas, and Willie Wilson – took part in Fox 32's Thursday evening forum, which was also sponsored by the Lincoln Forum and the Chicago Bar Association and held at the Union League Club of Chicago.
Fox 32 Political Editor Mike Flannery, formerly of CBS 2, moderated the debate along with Scott Schneider, co-anchor of the station's "Good Day Chicago" program.
Crime, education, and the state of the Chicago Transit Authority were among the issues addressed.
Mayor Lightfoot touted what she said was a record of improving crime over the past year, but conceded that more work needs to be done. She said homicides are down 14 percent this year, shootings 20 percent, and carjackings 10 percent – but people still do not feel safe and that needs to change. She emphasized working to make sure illegal handguns are taken off the street.
Garcia said people in the neighborhoods of Chicago say it has not been this bad in decades, and added, "I think they're right." He called for a new Chicago Police superintendent, enforcement of the federal consent decree mandating police reform, a data-driven approach to policing, and bringing more citywide units into neighborhoods for patrol.
Echoing comments he has made previously, Wilson said the handcuffs need to be taken off police officers and onto criminals.
"We will make crime illegal again," he said.
The moderators also singled out carjacking – one of the most significant public safety concerns in Chicago over the past couple of years – and asked how the candidates would fight to curb the carjacking epidemic. Buckner said the solution needs to involve investing in young people – which he said is not happening under Mayor Lightfoot's administration.
"It's a huge problem, and the truth of the matter is that the superintendent of the Chicago Police Department told us last summer that the most prolific – and I quote him – the most prolific carjacker in Chicago was an 11-year-old. An 11-year-old – a person who had multiple, multiple carjackings under his belt," he said. "And what this administration has done to wrap their arms around these young people is give them a curfew."
Vallas, who served as chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools – emphasized the need for schools to be involved in keeping young people on track. He cited a study by the University of Chicago Crime Lab a year ago that he said found almost 50 percent of carjackings were committed by school-age youth 15 years old and younger, and 95 percent of them were not in school.
"You have got to get the schools in the game," Vallas said.
But some of the candidates disagreed on whether more police officers on patrol was really the right solution to fighting crime.
"I wish our candidates would start to come into a new time to understand that police – throwing police at every issue – is not going to get us out of these crises," said Green.
Meanwhile, Johnson said, "We need public safety right now," and said it now takes a year to 18 months even to become a police officer. He called for a public safety investment plan.
Responding to a later question, Johnson said 50 percent of violent crime is happening in 6 percent of the city – including the city's West Side, where he himself is raising a family. The Cook County commissioner said hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested into violence prevention and the route causes of crime, along with the immediate need to fight crime. He emphasized the importance of youth employment.
"There's a direct correlation between youth employment and violence reduction," Johnson said.
Mayor Lightfoot then accused Johnson of supporting a plan to defund police as a county commissioner.
"I can't listen to Brandon Johnson talk about what he said, 'We need more public safety right now.' This is a man who said, 'Defunding is not a slogan – it's an actual political goal,'" the mayor said. "His goal is to destroy our police department by cutting our officers and making our communities less safe."
Johnson was quick to fire back.
"That's just not true. That's ridiculous. My public safety plan that I just released – we spend money on hiring rank-and-file members to become detectives; actually free up law enforcement to solve crime," he said.
King said police accountability and support do not have to be seen as a binary.
"We do have folks who want to defund the police. We've got folks who want law and order and want to chase people down like rabbits," she said, paraphrasing a remark Wilson has made repeatedly in the latter comment. "But the reality is that most people sit in the middle. We know that we can uplift the police and hold them accountable. We can have safety and justice. We can do his together. We can get to the immediacy of crime and the root causes. We are the city of big shoulders."
The CTA and safe transportation also prompted barbs between the candidates. They were each asked about how they could keep the CTA safe once federal COVID relief funding runs out.
Sawyer said the city needs to focus on increasing CTA ridership – which he called both responsible and environmentally correct. He also said the current security setup with unarmed security guards is not sufficient.
"We want to make sure trains are clean, safe, and reliable," Sawyer said. "Obviously, cleanliness speaks for itself. We want to replace non-police officers; non-law enforcement officer on there with sworn officers, and make sure that when you look at your phone and the Bus Tracker say that the bus or the train is going to be there, it actually will be there."
Lightfoot took issue with the claim that the CTA would run into trouble when federal COVID relief ran out.
"The CTA, understanding that this infusion of federal dollars is short-term, has budgeted in the out years to make sure that there's sufficient funds," she said.
But other candidates were quick to say the mayor's claim that the CTA is not facing any fiscal cliff is not true.
"There is a fiscal cliff," Vallas said. "Right now, the farebox is 18 percent of the operating cost. It's down from 46 percent. That's a fiscal cliff. When COVID money runs out, the system's going to be broke."
Vallas emphasized a need for improved public safety on the CTA – noting that WBEZ had recently reported half of CTA riders feel unsafe on the transit system.
Johnson also said a fiscal cliff actually is looming.
"By the year 2025, there is a $700 million fiscal cliff that we already know is pending," he said.
On education, the moderators asked the candidates about underutilized school buildings and graduation rates. But it was a question about absence rates that set Mayor Lightfoot off. Flannery asked the candidates what would should be done with regard to 45 percent of Chicago Public Schools students who are chronically absent.
Sawyer first suggested reestablishing a truancy department.
"We need to find out where these kids are, what they're doing, and if necessary, get them back in schools," he said.
But Lightfoot took issue with the very premise of Flannery's question.
"I'm listening to your questions. I'm listening to the answers of the colleagues. This may be the Fox News perspective on the city of Chicago and CPS. It's not the reality I live in every single day," the mayor said. "You are characterizing our kids that are exceeding all odds, working hard every day – and yes, the graduation rates are up despite the pandemic – yes, they're getting scholarships at an amazing level – you're describing them as if they're dumb, lazy, and not doing anything gin school."
"That's absolutely false," Flannery said, returning to the question of why so many students have been absent.
"The reality, and I invite you to come with me sometime at an elementary school or a high school – and here's what you would see. Building principals doing everything they can to knock on doors literally to bring those kids back," Lightfoot said. "Yeah, we lost some kids during remote learning, but we have gotten them back."
Mayor Lightfoot also took issue with moderator Paris Schutz's questions at a WTTW-Channel 11 mayoral forum earlier this week, though on a different topic and with less invective. In that case, the subject was Chicago Police Officer Robert Bakker, who was investigated for having ties to the Proud Boys and was not fired.
"A lot of your questions are laden with premises that just are belied by the facts," Mayor Lightfoot told Schutz during the Tuesday night forum.
Back at the Fox 32 forum Thursday night, other candidates with the lack of investment in CPS is the greatest crisis.
"CPS doesn't have the proper investment that it needs, which is why the state needs to change the formula from an enrollment-based formula to a need-based formula," said Green.
"When you see empty buildings and you see these empty promises, it's indicative of our proclivity to leave Black children behind, to leave brown children behind, and to leave poor children behind. That should not be the way that the city operates," Buckner said, "Listen, I've talked a lot about making sure we have a librarian, a social worker in each and every school - and a nurse; stopping the privatization and the corporatization of CPS. It is not a business conglomerate. It is a school district for our young people."
Keeping illegal guns from being brought into the city, fostering a better environment for small businesses, and a long-term plan for migrants in Chicago were also all topics touched on Thursday night.
Sawyer addressed the transformation of the old Wadsworth Elementary School in the Woodlawn neighborhood into a shelter for migrants. CBS 2's Lauren Victory has been covering that issue extensively, and has reported on how it has drawn consternation from some neighbors who say they were not consulted in the process before the plan was called a done deal.
Sawyer said he has talked with residents, who want to help, but feel they are not being engaged themselves.
"It's not that they don't want to help the migrants," he said. "It's that they just feel they're being left out and they're being helped.
Lightfoot said the main issue is that migrants have to be able to work.
"I can put every single one of these able-bodied adults to work today, if the federal government gave them the authorization to work," she said.
The election is Tuesday, Feb. 28.