{"id":1051889,"date":"2023-04-05T16:12:29","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T16:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2023\/04\/brandon-johnson-mayoral-election-paul-vallas-austerity-agenda-left-victory\/"},"modified":"2023-04-07T15:13:19","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T15:13:19","slug":"brandon-johnson-defeated-paul-vallass-austerity-agenda-last-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/04\/05\/brandon-johnson-defeated-paul-vallass-austerity-agenda-last-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Brandon Johnson Defeated Paul Vallas\u2019s Austerity Agenda Last Night"},"content":{"rendered":"\n  \n\n\n\n<h3>In Chicago\u2019s mayoral runoff last night, Paul Vallas\u2019s vision of budget cuts and law and order lost to Brandon Johnson\u2019s promises to tax the rich and invest in social services.<\/h3>\n<hr\/>\n\n<figure>\n  <img alt src=\"https:\/\/images.jacobinmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/05154527\/GettyImages-1250058222-900x599.jpg\"\/>\n  <figcaption>\n    Progressive mayoral candidate Brandon Johnson during his Rally at Credit Union One Arena in Chicago on March 30, 2023. (Jacek Boczarski \/ Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)\n  <\/figcaption>   \n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n  \n  <p>On Tuesday night, Chicago\u2019s left scored its biggest victory in recent memory. Brandon Johnson, a former Chicago Public Schools teacher and union organizer, defeated Paul Vallas, a <a href=\"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2023\/03\/brandon-johnson-paul-vallas-chicago-mayor-race-runoff\">privatization zealot<\/a>, to become the city\u2019s next mayor.<\/p>\n<p>This outcome was far from presumed. Johnson started the race <a href=\"https:\/\/chicago.suntimes.com\/city-hall\/2022\/10\/31\/23433673\/chicago-mayor-election-2023-garcia-poll-lightfoot\">polling<\/a> at just 3 percent. In January, outgoing Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/daveweigel\/status\/1616891444580564993\">promised<\/a> that \u201cBrandon Johnson isn\u2019t going to be mayor of this city.\u201d She was proven wrong. Next month, he will be sworn in to lead the third-largest city in the nation, a watershed moment for the progressive movement that took Johnson over the finish line.<\/p>\n<p>A week ahead of the April 4 election, Johnson rallied alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders in Chicago, who <a href=\"https:\/\/blockclubchicago.org\/2023\/03\/30\/bernie-sanders-stumps-for-brandon-johnson-at-get-out-the-vote-rally-as-mayors-race-enters-final-stretch\/\">declared<\/a>, \u201cThe fundamental issue is: What side are you on? Are you on the side of working people or are you on the side of the speculators and the billionaires? And I know which side Brandon is on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At his victory party Tuesday night, Johnson echoed this sentiment saying, \u201cTonight is the beginning of a Chicago that truly invests in all of its people\u2026 a city where no one is too poor to live. There\u2019s more than enough for everyone in the city of Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pq pq--center\"><q>There\u2019s more than enough for everyone in the city of Chicago.<\/q><\/aside>\n<p>Such rhetoric is a reflection of the agenda that undergirded Johnson\u2019s campaign: investments in social spending programs such as affordable housing, year-round youth employment, mental health supports and other alternatives to traditional policing, fully funded public schools, and reduced public transit fares. To fund this suite of progressive policies, Johnson promised to tax the rich and large corporations.<\/p>\n<p>This platform is in line with the vision of downward wealth redistribution championed by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), which has become an influential player in city politics. One of the most militant and democratic teachers union locals in the country, CTU has run a series of successful electoral campaigns sending allies into office who share a left-wing platform, from the Chicago City Council to the Cook County Board of Commissioners. But Johnson\u2019s mayoral win represents the most significant feat yet, putting a former CTU organizer on City Hall\u2019s fifth floor.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson\u2019s stunning win was powered by an intensive ground game run by grassroots organizations in alliance with labor unions, especially CTU. United Working Families, a coalition of such groups, was instrumental in turning out the vote for Johnson, knocking on over half a million doors across every ward in the city and recruiting thousands of volunteers.<\/p>\n<p>CTU\u2019s central role in the campaign was recognized Tuesday as the union\u2019s president, Stacy Davis Gates, introduced Johnson before he spoke. Davis Gates <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ctulocal1.org\/posts\/statement-on-election-result\/\">honored<\/a> the legacy of the late former CTU president <a href=\"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2021\/02\/karen-lewis-chicago-teachers-union-ctu\">Karen Lewis<\/a>, who helped shape the union into the political powerhouse that it has become.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t have a Brandon Johnson without a Karen Lewis,\u201d Davis Gates said. \u201cShe transformed the political debate in our city. She showed Chicagoans how to stand up and demand what their schools and their city need and deserve. Tonight affirms Karen\u2019s dream of a city that works for us all, not just a privileged few.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Remembering Karen Lewis &amp; Chicago CTU Teachers vs Mayor Lori Lightfoot\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9bp11BMFfAE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The CTU was also one of Johnson\u2019s top funders, alongside its parent union the American Federation of Teachers. Across the city, the progressive wing of organized labor got behind Johnson, an acknowledgement of the ardently pro-union campaign he ran and his long background supporting workers\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n<p>Vallas\u2019s campaign, meanwhile, was bankrolled by many of the right-wing forces that have long sought to crush labor unions and strengthen corporate power. In addition to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagobusiness.com\/politics\/brandon-johnson-targets-gop-donors-backing-paul-vallas-mayoral-race\">receiving<\/a> over $1 million in donations from Donald Trump donors, Vallas also had the backing of a PAC founded by <a href=\"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2021\/09\/betsy-devos-public-education-privatization-los-angeles\">Betsy DeVos<\/a>, Trump\u2019s education secretary who pursued an <a href=\"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2017\/01\/betsy-devos-public-schools-teachers-unions-charters-privatizations-democrats\">anti\u2013public school<\/a> agenda in office. He was similarly funded by employees of the hedge fund Citadel, whose CEO, Ken Griffin, has been a longtime GOP donor and came out strongly for Vallas during the race.<\/p>\n<p>The level of big business financing allowed Vallas to <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2023\/04\/04\/chicago-mayor-paul-vallas-republican\/\">outspend<\/a> Johnson two-to-one, blanketing the airwaves with ads painting his opponent as a dangerous threat who would compromise public safety.<\/p>\n<p>None of this is surprising. When Vallas was CEO of the school system in Chicago in the 1990s, he pushed a corporate reform approach to education, privatizing services, opening the door to charters replacing public schools, and undermining teachers\u2019 unions. He did the same when running school districts in Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Bridgeport, Connecticut.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to ushering in privatization schemes in Chicago, Vallas also introduced new standardized testing mandates which were later used as a pretext to close underperforming schools and replace them with charters. He targeted the CTU and fired educators across the city \u2014 actions which would later be repeated by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the 2010s.<\/p>\n<p>Vallas ran for mayor on a conservative \u201claw and order\u201d platform, pledging to \u201ctake the handcuffs\u201d off of cops, instituting a crackdown while <a href=\"https:\/\/inthesetimes.com\/article\/chicago-mayor-election-brandon-johnson-paul-vallas-lori-lightfoot\">pushing<\/a> to criminalize dissent. He has close ties to the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), which endorsed him and whose president, John Catanzara, is a vocal supporter of former president Trump and backs the January 6 rioters. Last month, Catanzara <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcchicago.com\/chicago-mayoral-election-2023\/chicago-police-union-leader-warns-of-resignations-blood-in-the-streets-if-brandon-johnson-is-elected-mayor\/3106162\/\">predicted<\/a> mass resignations of police officers and \u201cblood in the streets\u201d if Vallas lost, an indication of the challenges Mayor Johnson will likely face when dealing with law enforcement union leadership.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, Vallas cozied up to the far right, <a href=\"https:\/\/chicagoreader.com\/news-politics\/paul-vallas-rubs-shoulders-with-the-far-right\/\">speaking<\/a> at a fundraiser for Awake Illinois, which pushes homophobic and transphobic policies and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/waldens_block\/status\/1628428471650160641\">calling<\/a> Critical Race Theory \u201cdangerous.\u201d This right turn wasn\u2019t all that new: in 2009 after Barack Obama won the presidency, Vallas publicly <a href=\"https:\/\/abc7chicago.com\/chicago-mayor-election-2023-paul-vallas-republican\/12783713\/\">claimed<\/a>, \u201cI\u2019m more of a Republican than a Democrat now\u2026 if I ran for public office, then I would be running as a Republican.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But while Vallas courted the Right in the mayoral race, much of his record and agenda fits comfortably with the pro-corporate Democratic politics that has dominated the party for decades. It\u2019s this neoliberal, Third Way doctrine that suffered the clearest defeat on Tuesday. Voters rejected a candidate in Vallas who represented tepid centrism and instead chose Johnson, a Bernie Sanders\u2013style left challenger who argued for soaking the ultra wealthy to lift up the working class.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson will face significant challenges in office as he seeks to implement policies that the business interests that have long controlled decision making in the city will find disagreeable. Corporations will use their lobbying power to resist taxation plans, and some could threaten to leave Chicago altogether. And as the FOP\u2019s Catanzara\u2019s warning implies, the police union could take steps to undermine the Johnson administration.<\/p>\n<p>But despite deep-pocketed interests throwing everything they had at Johnson to prevent him and the social movements he\u2019s backed by from taking power, it didn\u2019t work. He will be the next mayor. As Johnson said Tuesday night, &#8220;Tonight is just the beginning. We have ushered in a new chapter in the history of our city\u2026 Let\u2019s take this bold progressive vision throughout these United States of America.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n  \n\n    \n           \n    \n\n   \n  <hr\/>\n  \n\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2023\/04\/brandon-johnson-mayoral-election-paul-vallas-austerity-agenda-left-victory\/\">Jacobin<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Tuesday night, Chicago\u2019s left scored its biggest victory in recent memory. Brandon Johnson, a former Chicago Public Schools teacher and union organizer, defeated Paul Vallas, a privatization zealot, to become the city\u2019s next mayor. This outcome was far from presumed. Johnson started the race polling at just 3 percent. In January, outgoing Chicago mayor [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":541,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051889"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/541"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1051889"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1054600,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051889\/revisions\/1054600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1051889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1051889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1051889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}