Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson are Democrats, but that’s where the similarity ends.
Democratic mayors have run Chicago exclusively since 1931. That streak will continue no matter who wins the runoff election on April 4 because the candidates, Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson, are both Democrats.
The good news for voters in the nation’s third-largest city is that they nevertheless have two clear choices on the ballot. Party affiliation is about the only thing the candidates have in common. Mr. Vallas is a white moderate backed by the police union. Mr. Johnson is a black progressive backed by the teachers union. Mr. Vallas has run hard on restoring public safety in a city that saw crime continue to rise in 2022 and that has long been the poster child for big-city mayhem. He also wants to expand school choice for low-income families. Mr. Johnson opposes the creation of additional charter schools and has called for cutting the police budget.
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Jason L. Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and a Fox News commentator. Follow him on Twitter here.
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