(The Center Square) – Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson remain close in recent polling for the April runoff election for Chicago mayor.
Polling reported by Fox 32 Chicago shows that Vallas holds a 5% lead over Johnson as of early March.
At a forum recently hosted by NBC Chicago, Vallas and Johnson were asked what they were doing to earn the support of those who did not vote for them in last month’s primary.
“First of all, by focusing on the issues that are critically important, like public safety, for example,” Vallas said. “Public safety is a human right. Everyone deserves to be able to live in a safe and secure neighborhood, quality schools. No one should be a prisoner of their zip code or their income.”
Johnson said he wants to bring people together.
“I have built a multi-cultural, multi-generational movement from one end of the city to the other,” Johnson said. “Bringing together people from all different communities, all different types of zip codes to bring in a better, stronger, safer Chicago.”
Vallas has drawn criticism from Democrats for a 2009 interview with Jeff Berkowitz on the show Public Affairs, in which he claimed to be “more of a Republican.”
“Well, I’ll probably register as a Republican,” Vallas said in 2009. “I am more of a Republican than a Democrat.”
Vallas has since walked back those comments.
“I am a lifelong Democrat. I worked for Dawn Clark Netsch and Phil Rock in the Senate and I actually ran for office as a Democrat in the Democratic primary against Rob Blagojevich,” Vallas said. “Of course, was Pat Quinn’s running mate in 2014, which was five years after that interview.”
Johnson has also been criticized for past comments about defunding the police, which he made on the Santita Jackson Show in 2020.
“The former president of the United States, Barrack Obama, took it one step further as well and basically said that the effort of the defund police movement lost an audience because of that slogan,” Johnson said. “I don’t look at it as a slogan, it is an actual real political goal.”
Johnson said his plan does the opposite of his past remarks.
This article First appeared in the center square