East Central Reporter

Former state senator Darren Bailey is celebrating Chicago Mayor Lori Lighfoot’s loss in the Feb. 28 election.

Lighfoot finished third in the vote, failing to make the April 4 runoff.

“God Bless Chicago! You are finally figuring it out!!!” Bailey said on Twitter.

With 88% of votes counted, former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas made the runoff along with Cook County commissioner for the 1st District Brandon Johnson.

Vallas notched 34.9% of the vote with 164,610 votes to Johnson’s 20.2% with 96,260 votes. Lightfoot finished third with 16.6% of the vote and 78,865 votes.

Bailey was highly critical of Lightfoot after relocating to Chicago during his 2022 gubernatorial bid.

At the time he vowed to rein in Lighfoot’s lax attitude towards crime.

“I am not going to sit on the sidelines and let her continue to destroy the City of Chicago with her terrible policies,” Bailey said last fall.

“She won’t be able to continue to maintain the status quo. Lori Lightfoot knows I will use the power of state government to do what she simply is incapable of doing which is to protect the citizens of Chicago."

Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara said Chicago has been diminished due to crime problems under Lightfoot.

That group opted to endorse front-runner Vallas.

“If people don't understand that, that drives everything that goes on in this city," Catanzara said on Chicago’s Morning Answer.

"Tax revenue, people fleeing the city, everything around it comes from public safety and perception. You know, there's this terrorism nonsense about we're going to get back to 24 by 2024, that are our all-time high to get the violence under control. You lost downtown more than it's ever been lost before. And I'm not sure what you do to get it back at this point without a wholesale change at the top of the police department and the political structure in the city.”