Is it possible for the mayoral candidates to stop pandering to voters?
Both men are dueling to be the circus ringmaster
It certainly looks like Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson and former CPS CEO Paul Vallas are hellbent on providing Chicago voters with the worst mayoral campaign possible. Let’s skip over the name-calling in lieu of discussions on issues that have dominated the last couple of months of campaigning. We also, for purposes of this discussion, give a pass to the fact neither has presented a remotely reasonable plan of how they will deal with the city’s budget deficit, pension crisis and Federal consent decree looming over the police department.
Let’s focus on this week when the candidates appeared together on a Fox News TV show and were asked about their plans for their first 100 days in office. Granted, the question comes up in just about every local, state and federal election. The reality though it is about the most pointless question a potential mayor can be asked, but Fox was right there asking it. It is pointless on the local level because there are so many moving parts and unpredictable possibilities outside of any mayor’s control.
Many, if not most of us know that attention to the first 100 days in office was introduced in the early 1930s when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected POTUS after the thrashing he gave incumbent President Herbert Hoover. How bad did Hoover lose? He garnered 59 electoral votes to FDR’s 472.
FDR took office when the country was facing unprecedented challenges revolving around the Great Depression. A gifted speaker, the new President tried to assuage Americans’ fears by outlining what he would do his first 100 days in office-something also unprecedented. In the ensuing decades, just about every President as well as many governors, have used that period as a benchmark. Its significance was best summed up by political mastermind David Axelrod who described the first 100 days as “Hallmark Holiday” meaning it got a lot of attention but has no significance.
That is exactly what it is, so why would Johnson and Vallas even agree to answer or attempt to answer the question about what they would do their first 100 days? Neither man provided any semblance of a reasonable answer. Both men should have explained to the show’s host hollow and meaningless the question was and refused to answer. What was incredibly disheartening is neither said he would take al of those days or a good portion of them and listen to the concerns and ideas of people in all neighborhoods. The answers from both men showed that despite never having been in the mayor’s seat, they have all of the answers. Those of us who watched the Fox interview witness that on April 4, Chicagoans will vote for one of two men-both with a plan to get elected; however neither with a plan to govern. There is no adequate description for the utter failures of Johnson and Vallas failing to even hint at Chicago’s $128 million budget deficit, or the fact that the city is without a permanent police superintendent while still under a consent decree. Yet, somehow both of them tossed out ideas for new programs without giving viewers any idea of how to cover the costs of said programs.
Unlike FDR who entered the presidency with the majority of Congress from the same party and being imbued with the power of the bully pulpit; Chicago’s mayor, especially in the first 100 days will still be sorting out who his allies will be in the city council, the level of support he will have from Springfield and a litany of reasonable and unreasonable demands from the citizenry. In short, the next mayor really has no idea what he can do the first 100 days. Throughout the campaign, the candidates repeatedly inferred they could enact enormous changes on their own. Why they offered such policies without acknowledging the city council would play a decisive role in most of what they were proposing is worrisome. What a new mayor can do the first 100 days hinges largely on the city council. We can be pretty sure that relationship will be a rocky one if Vallas is elected. He has promised, as the incumbent mayor attempted, to remove aldermanic prerogative -such a move will likely torpedo Vallas first 200 days in office, at least.
Johnson’s gaffe surrounding the first 100 days is attempting to explain how he would bring local Fortune 500 CEOs, small business owners, and everyday people together, and can do so successfully because he is “an organizer.” It is pitiable he doesn’t understand that is not a skill set that instills confidence in CEOs or cause them to be at his beck and call. We are at time when the city desperately needs a capable leader and that isn’t synonymous with organizer.