The Feb. 26 mayoral election is fast approaching.  Everywhere I go, voters tell me they are dazed and confused by the 14-candidate field.

One refrain I hear: “Chicago doesn’t need another Daley.”

Yet, among the 14 candidates, William M. “Bill” Daley enjoys the strongest brand. Voters know what they are getting from Daley: History.

OPINION

Bill Daley would be third in a storied line of Chicago mayors. His father, Daley No. 1, was Richard J. Daley. Famously dubbed The American Pharaoh, Richard J. was the political boss of bosses who wielded power absolutely, for 21 years.

Daley No. 2, Richard M. Daley, continued his father’s legacy as a builder and boss and outlasted his tenure, serving 22 years.

Bill Daley would be No. 3.

While Richard M. led the city, Bill Daley served as a close advisor. In his campaign, Daley 3 chooses to tout other history, especially his stints as U.S. Commerce Secretary under President Bill Clinton, and White House chief of staff for President Barack Obama.

Daley also showcases his business resume, including his time as president of SBC Communications Inc.; Midwest Chairman at JPMorgan; and managing partner at the Swiss hedge fund, Argentiere Capital AG. All were lucrative opportunities boosted by the Daley name, jobs that likely made him a multi-millionaire.

Daley 3 is the business community’s guy. For one, well, because, Bill Daley’s a guy. A white guy.

His fellow millionaires, from corporate chieftains to investment titans, are flooding his campaign war chest with donations. Daley already has raised $7.2 million.

Daley 3 is the candidate of the big boys who run and own Chicago. Those big boys are terrified of losing power to progressives and people of color in this majority minority city. Bill Daley has captured endorsements from the mouthpieces of the business and wealthy elites, Crain’s Chicago Business and the Chicago Tribune.

Where else would the big boys go?

Daley’s history resonates with voters looking for a mayor who will be focused on the downtown and prioritize a portfolio of national and international relationships. He is the refuge of voters who are sorry to see Rahm “Mayor One Percent” Emanuel leave the scene.

There’s other history. Take Richard M. Daley’s disastrous policy decisions, like the city’s costly parking meter deal. Bill Daley’s opponents claim he supported and facilitated the deal while an executive at J.P Morgan. His campaign denies the charge.

No worries. Daley’s tour as a White House chief of staff prepared him well for a “Rose Garden” strategy.

Cultivate the Daley name, via millions of dollars in slick TV and internet ads. Ditch as many community forums and public appearances as possible, especially those that would query Daley on social issues and the concerns of people of color. Don’t alarm older and white ethnic voters and Republicans, crucial elements of the base.

Instead, distract with high-profile endorsements, like nods from former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore, and Howard Dean, former presidential candidate and National Democratic Committee chairman. Throw in former White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen for fun.

All “formers.” All ancient history.

It’s working. For weeks, Bill Daley has hovered near the top of every mayoral poll.

Political dynasties are embedded in the DNA of Chicago politics. Daley 3 would advance one of America’s best known dynasties. Voters love dynasties.

Do voters want to make that kind of history?

Send letters to: letters@suntimes.com.

Toni Preckwinkle and Bill Daley are likely combatants in a “very brutal runoff,” but don’t be surprised if Preckwinkle’s runoff opponent is still unknown, even after election night.

The biggest surprise — in a good way — of “the most unfathomable race for Chicago mayor” in 63 years has been Gery Chico. But it’s come at the expense of Susana Mendoza.

Welcome to a handicapping of the Chicago mayoral sweepstakes, Part II, courtesy of David Axelrod.

For the second time in two months, the former Obama presidential adviser now serving as the director and co-founder of the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics sat down with the Chicago Sun-Times to discuss the wide-open race to replace Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

The first time around, Axelrod predicted Preckwinkle’s runoff opponent would be Mendoza, provided she could survive a petition challenge.

Now, he believes Preckwinkle’s opponent will be Bill Daley, whose runaway lead in the fundraising sweepstakes “could be decisive.”

That’s particularly true because Daley was “less touched than others” by the City Hall corruption scandal that threatens to bring down Ald. Edward Burke (14th).

David Axelrod talks with Sun-Times reporter Fran Spielman Friday, February 15, 2019. | Rich Hein/Sun-Times

“Preckwinkle and Mendoza were engaged in back-and-forth for many, many weeks. And no one was taking shots at Bill Daley. He has benefited from this large field and run a pretty smart campaign,” Axelrod said.

Last month, Mendoza purged herself of $141,550 in campaign contributions received over the years from Ald. Danny Solis (25th) and from a debt collection firm founded by Solis’ sister and an attorney with close ties to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Mendoza’s quick about-face came one day after the Sun-Times reported that Solis, retiring former chairman of the City Council’s Zoning Committee, has spent the last two years wired up to help federal investigators build their corruption case against Burke.

Susana Mendoza | Rich Hein/Sun-Times file

On Friday, Axelrod called Mendoza one of the biggest disappointments of the mayoral campaign — and not simply because her political allies have been implicated in the burgeoning scandal.

“Part of it is Gery Chico. Gery Chico has run a stronger campaign than people anticipated. He’s raised money and he’s run some very effective ads. He is, to some degree, carving into her base,” he said.

Axelrod said Mendoza remains “in the hunt” after being “fairly effective in these debates and forums.”

Mayoral candidate Gery Chico is interviewed by reporter Fran Spielman  | Rich Hein/Sun-Times

But he questioned her media strategy.

“I wonder sometimes if in her advertising how she comes across in the ads suggests executive….The ads were mostly about personality and projecting her as an energetic, new generation candidate. And it could be that they over-shot the runway….They’re not substantive enough,” he said.

“For whatever reason, they haven’t connected in the way that Chico’s ads have connected. He came from low single-digits to become a contender. Those ads have been more effective.”

Axelrod served as political strategist for six of Richard M. Daley’s mayoral campaigns. He “likes and respects” Bill Daley and considers him a longtime friend.

“When I saw you last time, I said that the Daley name was a blessing and a burden. I’m sure that there are some voters who will gravitate to him because the Daley name represents a certain solidity in their minds. With older voters, it’ll be a big advantage,” Axelrod said Friday.

If Daley makes it to the runoff, he will be much harder pressed to convince Chicago voters that his administration would be a break from the corruption scandals, contract cronyism and financial mismanagement that plagued his brother’s administration, Axelrod said.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, left, and former Commerce Secretary Bill Daley, right. Sun-Times file photos Ashlee Rezin and Rich Hein.

Same goes for Preckwinkle. She will be hammered for the ill-fated tax on sweetened beverages, the $116,000 she raised at Burke’s house, the promotion she gave to Burke’s son and for her ties to former Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios.

“When you have fourteen candidates, no one gets the scrutiny that they deserve. And when you get down to two, it gets much more difficult,” Axelrod said.

But there’s also the nightmare scenario that nobody wants to entertain.

What if Preckwinkle manages to secure a spot in the runoff, but the race for second place is so close, we don’t know who her opponent is until 56,000 mail-in ballots are counted days after the election?

Mail-in ballots can be counted later, so long as they are postmarked on Feb. 26 or even the following day, if they were mailed on Election Day.

“If you have a few thousand votes separating the top four or five candidates, then we’re gonna have to wait,” Axelrod said.

“It is not a remote possibility that we won’t know…for some time who is in the runoff.”

Neal Sales-Griffin is fully aware that he’s “kinda been a ghost” in the Chicago mayoral race, including in the weeks since he beat a petition challenge and sealed a spot on the ballot.

Most candidates would have pounced on that opportunity for free publicity.

But the 31-year-old tech entrepreneur has held no news conferences and issued no press releases. He’s rarely at any of the mayor forums and hasn’t filled out many issue questionnaires for newspapers or interest groups.

“The forums are scatter shot, and most people aren’t going or aren’t paying attention,” Sales-Griffin said. “There are 14 candidates and, from what I can tell … a lot of people are undecided, or overwhelmed, with their options or disappointed with the options they have.”

But Sales-Griffin insists it was his decision to run and no one else’s. He said there is no truth to the speculation that he jumped into the race last April as part of some ploy to help Mayor Rahm Emanuel by splitting the opposition vote.

Emanuel has since announced he has no interest in another term.

But Sales-Griffin says he’s still serious about the election even though he’s not banking on winning.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel speaks with Neal Sales-Griffin of Code Academy before a news conference at 1871, a space for digital startup compaines, in 2012. File Photo. I Brian Jackson~Sun-Times

“I’ve been focused on building resources and tools to elevate this conversation to a level of greater substance in the final days,” Sales-Griffin said. “I started going to forums and events this week … but it didn’t make sense to play catch up and try to be the 14th horse in this race. I wanted to build the Model-T.”

While the 13 other candidates have sent out mailers or posted new ads or launched full scale efforts to replace Emanuel, Sales-Griffin and his team have set about creating three tools for Chicago voters — two were released Thursday.

“This is my form of campaigning,” Sales-Griffin said. “I can use the final two weeks to share this information with voters. … I think everyone’s doing their best, but the 14 candidate model for forums is broken, and I want to fix it.”

Neal Sales-Griffin | Sun-Times file photo

One of his tools will let voters see the breakdown of Chicago’s budget and offer users the chance to get a hypothetical “receipt” — if you give the city $100, how will it be used, where will that money go?

The tool will eventually be a calculator, so users can enter whatever amount of money they want and see how the money could be used, but for now it’ll be a “receipt” showing how that $100 breaks down into the line items of the city budget.

The other tool is a database of all the questions and answers the candidates have fielded in a format similar to a Google search — interested in transit or taxes or schools or whatever else, voters will be able search by those keywords and see candidate’s answers pop up.

The third is more of a framework, Sales-Griffin said. It’ll be released later on his website, and will be his campaign’s plan for delivering on all of their campaign promises, starting with government accountability and transparency.

He hopes it’ll “compel other candidates to show their work and break down specifically how they’ll fulfill their promises.”

He sees the tools he’s making as a way to “leverage technology to get people out there” to cast their ballots — even if it’s not for him.

Whether he’s elected — and whether he’s a viable candidate — is “less important to me than building a framework to hold people accountable for what they promise,” Sales-Griffin said.

Please.

There are good days … and bad days.

And then there was Wednesday night.

OMG!

At precisely 7:34 p.m., as the curtain rose on the debut of the Joffrey Ballet’s stunning world premiere of the Russian classic “Anna Karenina” at the Auditorium Theatre, my “disarmed” cellphone dinged. Blinked. Flashed.

It lit up like an over-served reporter’s nose at Billy Goat Tavern.

As glittering gowns swirled amid composer Ilya Demutsky’s amazing overture to Leo Tolstoy’s epic Russian love story gone wrong, a text containing the word “scoop” began singing in Sneed’s ear.

Four seats into Row P — and in the midst of darkness, a text message alerted:

“Call me. A major scoop. It’s big. It’s yours alone. Jason Van Dyke [who shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times] was assaulted by inmates in his cell after reporting to federal prison in Connecticut.”

Yikes!

Ya gotta be kidding?

OPINION

It was my day off, but in this 24/7 job it was obviously time to go to work.

So what’s a Sneedling to do?

Curtains were up. Lights were off. House was quiet. Seat mates were already transfixed and glued to their seats.

The ballet had begun.

Do I exit and cause a scene by insulting the artistry of the performers?

Will my usually unflappable boss, Chris Fusco, have a cow if we get scooped?

Why am I worrying when my column isn’t due until Sunday?

Why am I not drinking a dirty martini?

Why do I feel so guilty?

So I did what a 75-year-old woman who has been a reporter for 52 years would do. I alerted my boss, who said: “Mike, we gotta get this up soon!”

Natch.

I quickly thanked my host, Joffrey President and CEO Greg Cameron, who graciously stated, “Oh, Mike. Understood.”

Bolting the auditorium, I raced to my car parked two blocks away at the Chicago Club ratcheting up two-knee-replacement speed one notch.

Only then did I discover that I had lost my wallet somewhere along the way. No way to pay Victor the valet.

Now minus a driver’s license, I zipped carefully to my West Loop office only to discover I was also minus card access to get into the Sun-Times building!

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Ex-Chicago cop Jason Van Dyke beaten in prison in Connecticut, his wife says

Did I also mention I was interviewing my source in the car via pen on my theater ticket en route to my office?

• The upshot: Thanks to the patience of Sun-Times reporter par excellence Nader Issa, editor Candi Meriwether, copy editor Jeff Britt, front page editor Bryan Barker and designer Eric White, we were able to get the story up hours ahead of the Chicago Tribune and had the first interview quoting Van Dyke’s wife, Tiffany.

• The buckshot: However, minutes before we moved the story online, WGN tipped Van Dyke had been assaulted in federal prison … even though it was minus the details and quotes from Tiffany.

Bummer.

Around 10 p.m., I left the office, sped back to the Auditorium Theatre in search of the missing wallet — only to find the doors locked.

Then I gingerly drove to the Chicago Club only to find no wallet had been found.

At 11:30 p.m. I hit home to find my wallet on the kitchen table.

Natch.

So would it have been wiser to spend my night off at home sipping vodka, eating Chicken Kiev, and watching Anna Karenina throw herself under a train for love on TV … rather than answer the cellphone?

Not on your life.

I’d be a damned fool not to see the rest of the ballet which snagged rave reviews; and where choreographer Yuri Possokhov shines in the Joffrey’s brand new production under the artistic direction of the amazing Ashley Wheater — before it heads elsewhere February 24.

But know this: there is nothing more exciting to a print journalist who earned her chops in the golden age of journalism decades ago … than a front-page scoop!

Daley schmooze . . .

Memo to Billy “Big Boy Pants” Daley.

Your slip is showing.

Or did you dump your garters after ditching a recent mayoral TV debate at the last minute claiming you’d rather be with “normal people” before heading to a Plumbers Local 130 endorsement in the wake of getting trashed in an old newspaper story?

So Sneed’s been meaning to ask.

Normal people?

Who they?

Sneedlings . . .

A big Sneed shout-out to my old pal, retiring WVON Radio legend Cliff Kelley, an alderman I shared a few chuckles with during my early years as a Chicago Tribune reporter decades ago. A big hug, Cliff. . . . I spy: Bulls legend Scottie Pippen spotted dining with a group of friends at TAO recently. . . Ditto for actress Jessica “Gossip Girl” Szohr. . . . Saturday’s birthdays: The Weeknd, 29; Ice T, 61; and Lupe Fiasco, 38. . . . Sunday’s birthdays: Michael Jordan, 56; Ed Sheeran, 28; Vicente Fernandez, 79; and a belated birthday wish to Tom Grusecki, priceless.

In her bid for Chicago mayor, Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza is quick to highlight the battles she waged against former Gov. Bruce Rauner during the state’s historic budget impasse.

Now, she’s out with an interactive ad attacking rival Bill Daley for not taking a similar stand during the two years when Illinois operated without a budget after he served on the Republican governor’s transition team following the 2014 election.

The ad, a website in the style of the game show “Jeopardy!,” invites viewers to play “The Daley Trouble” and “learn more about Bill’s background.” The answer to all the categories is, of course, “Who is Bill Daley?”

One of them, titled “Rauner Budget Crisis,” offers a description that invited deeper scrutiny.

“After co-chairing Bruce Rauner’s transition team and writing the blueprint for the governor’s four years of crisis and destruction, he stood by and remained silent,” it reads, simultaneously chiding Daley for failing to protest Rauner’s actions in office and accusing him of charting the course for the now departed Republican.

That head-spinning logic aside, Mendoza’s claim made us wonder what recommendations Daley and other co-chairs of Rauner’s transition team had made in their report.

There’s no need to relitigate the budget crisis here. As we’ve pointed out in previous fact-checks, both Rauner and Democrats share responsibility for bringing it about.

But we were curious whether the transition report itself could be considered a “blueprint” for the policies Rauner late pushed. The short answer is no.

“Generic campaign themes”

 Mendoza’s ad links Daley, son of one former Chicago mayor and brother of another, to Rauner, who was defeated after one term by now Gov. J.B. Pritzker. In another “Jeopardy!”-style tile, she highlights a $1 million dollar donation Daley recently received from hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin, a big financial backer of Rauner and outgoing Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, left, and former Commerce Secretary Bill Daley, right.| Sun-Times file photos by Rich Hein.

The Griffin connection provides a foil for Mendoza’s own well-documented confrontations with Rauner over how the state pays its bills, around which she nurtured a statewide reputation as a savvy administrator of the state’s finances who could work across the aisle in Springfield to get things done.

But her claim that Daley somehow paved the way for the role Rauner played in the state’s protracted budget impasse lacks substance.

Daley did not single-handedly draft the transition team’s report, as Mendoza’s ad suggests. Instead, he was among a bipartisan group of 28 co-chairs who signed off on the document after consulting with business and community leaders across the state. Fellow Chicago mayoral candidate Willie Wilson was also a co-chair, along with former Gov. Jim Edgar, a Republican who more recently served on Democrat Pritzker’s transition team.

What’s more, there is no evidence the contents of the report guided Rauner’s decision to engage in a two-year squabble with the Democrat-controlled General Assembly that stymied the state’s ability to pay vendors and jeopardized funding for everything from social services to higher education.

A news article published just before Rauner was sworn into office described his transition team’s report as little more than a reproduction of the Republican’s “largely generic campaign themes.” Indeed, the report itself notes the team was “not in a position to provide specific recommendations to budgetary solutions.”

Transition reports such as Rauner’s typically lack specifics, rendering Daley’s role in the process largely ceremonial.

“You read into it what you want to read into it if the details aren’t there,” said Charles N. Wheeler III, who directs the Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois-Springfield and covered state politics for decades.

We asked Mendoza’s campaign to show us where the report proposed controversial policies Rauner later sought to implement in a way that contributed to gridlock. A spokeswoman pointed us to several passages that highlighted the need to improve the state’s business climate under the new administration, only one of which proposed the governor take any form of concrete action.

That passage urged Rauner to look into lowering workers’ compensation rates, but the only specifics mentioned were suggestions to review existing legislation to ensure Illinois aligned with similar states and appoint “highly capable workers’ compensation commissioners and arbitrators.”

Rauner did push for major changes to the state’s workers’ compensation system after he took office, but little of what he sought — and did not get from a Democratic Legislature — was telegraphed in the transition report tied to Daley. Among the controversial pieces of what Rauner called his Turnaround Agenda that were not included in the report: freezing property taxes, imposing term limits on lawmakers, capping the prevailing wage and establishing local “right-to-work” zones.

Even the vague mention in the report of reducing workers’ compensation rates wasn’t an automatic non-starter with legislative Democrats, who in 2011 approved a bill aimed at reducing those costs. What Democrats later took issue with was Rauner’s demand for sweeping change before giving that measure a chance to work.

Asked to explain how Mendoza was connecting the dots between the report’s loosely-defined priorities and Rauner’s later decisions as the state’s chief executive, her spokeswoman sent us a response that essentially repeated the ad’s original claim.

Our ruling

Susana Mendoza’s ad says that as part of the governor’s transition team, Bill Daley wrote “the blueprint” for what she calls Rauner’s “four years of crisis and destruction.”

Daley helped produce a report that outlined general priorities for Rauner’s incoming administration on a long list of issues. But there is no evidence that document, heavy on generalities but light on concrete policy recommendations, guided Rauner’s later actions that contributed to two years of gridlock with the Democrat-controlled General Assembly.

Mendoza’s claim that Daley laid the framework for Rauner’s role in the state’s protracted budget impasse boils down to a broad accusation of guilt by association. We rate it False.

The Better Government Association runs PolitiFact Illinois, the local arm of the nationally renowned, Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking enterprise that rates the truthfulness of statements made by governmental leaders and politicians. BGA’s fact-checking service has teamed up weekly with the Sun-Times, in print and online. You can find all of the PolitiFact Illinois stories we’ve reported together here.

Sources

 Campaign ad: “The Daley Trouble,” Susana Mendoza for Mayor, Feb. 13, 2019

“Did Rauner really pour $1 billion ‘down the drain’?” PolitiFact Illinois, June 25, 2018

“Pritzker’s flimsy claim that Rauner delayed school funding,” PolitiFact Illinois, Sept. 30, 2018

“Illinois’ wealthiest man giving $1 million to Chicago mayoral candidate Bill Daley,” Chicago Tribune, Feb. 13, 2019

“Rauner shouldn’t delay borrowing money to pay Illinois’ bills, comptroller says,” Chicago Tribune, Aug. 7, 2017

“Endorsement: Susana A. Mendoza for Illinois comptroller,” Chicago Sun-Times, Oct. 8, 2018

“Endorsement: Susana Mendoza for Illinois comptroller,” State Journal-Register, Oct. 15, 2018

“Endorsement: Re-elect Susana Mendoza for comptroller and Mike Frerichs for treasurer,” Chicago Tribune, Oct. 12, 2018

“House unanimously votes to override Rauner’s objection to Debt Transparency Act,” Belleville News-Democrat, Oct. 25, 2017

“Bipartisan override of debt transparency veto clouds Rauner’s view,” Chicago Sun-Times, Nov. 8, 2017

Report: Transition Co-chairs to the Governor-elect, January 2015

“Bruce Rauner becomes Illinois governor Monday, but honeymoon likely short,” Chicago Tribune, Jan. 9, 2015

Phone interview: Charles N. Wheeler III, director of the Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois-Springfield, Feb. 13, 2019

Email interview: Rebecca Evans, Mendoza spokeswoman, Feb. 14, 2019

“Bruce Rauner unveils broad agenda in Illinois State of State address,” Northwest Herald, Feb. 4, 2015

“Workers’ comp changes cut costs,” Illinois Times, Nov. 5, 2015

Susana Mendoza lit into rival mayoral hopeful Bill Daley on Monday for the city’s leasing of parking meters, accusing him of lying about his role in the unpopular privatization deal.

“It was good business for your family, but it was terrible business for Chicagoans,” Mendoza said, criticizing Daley for writing an op-ed defending the deal a year ago. “That’s about as big of a lie as you telling Chicagoans right now that you were not a key advisor to your brother during his key caretaker years as mayor. Of course you were.”

Daley fired back: “I obviously helped my brother get elected, I was his political advisor. …  I had my own life, I went off and did a lot of things that had nothing to do with my brother and this administration.”

Daley took his own dig at Mendoza, criticizing the state comptroller for double-dipping, hold a city job in former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s administration while serving in the Legislature.

“So [for] Susana to say this, who worked for Rich while she was also a state rep … I never heard her complain,” Bill Daley said.

The fireworks came during a debate featuring five of the mayoral candidates on WTTW-TV.

Coming just over a week before voters get the first crack at picking a replacement for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the forum also included Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, businessman Willie Wilson and former CPS CEO Paul Vallas.

Mayoral candidates, left to right, Paul Vallas, Willie Wilson, Toni Preckwinkle, Bill Daley and Susana Mendoza prepare for a debate at WTTW-Channel 11 on Monday. Photo by Rachel Hinton.

The candidates fielded questions on public safety, transportation, infrastructure and education in the second of three mayoral forums hosted by Chicago Tonight.

After Wilson answered no on all questions relating to implementing taxes, moderator Phil Ponce asked if the businessman, who supported President Donald Trump and Gov. Bruce Rauner, was a Republican.

Preckwinkle chimed in “yes.”

“Let me tell you this here, if Republicans are for lowering taxes on the citizens, I’m Republican, if Democrats are for lowering prices on the citizens I’m a Democrat,” Wilson said. “Republicans have good ideas, Democrats have good ideas, all must be included.”

But the most spirited exchanges were between Mendoza and Daley.

Daley has denied accusations from Mendoza and Vallas that he made money off the parking meter deal. Vallas held a news conference last week, arguing Daley was heavily involved in the 2008 deal as midwest chairman of JP Morgan Chase.

Despite writing an op-ed piece last year arguing that the parking meter deal made good business sense, Daley said he didn’t advise his brother to go for the deal.

Mendoza also took a dig at Daley for questions surrounding a state exam to sell insurance that the former Commerce secretary took nearly half a century ago. Daley flunked on his first try, and passed in 1973, facing accusations that friends of his father pulled strings.

Bill Daley denied any allegations of cheating.

“He said he didn’t cheat on his test, he let someone else cheat for his test,” Mendoza said. “This is how it works when you have the privilege and the name of a Daley, you don’t have to do things yourself, other people can do them for you.”

Ponce asked a series of rapid-fire yes-no questions.

A casino would have the support of all the candidates, though Vallas is the only one who said he wouldn’t use the revenue for the city’s pension obligations, choosing instead to use the money for community infrastructure projects and using revenue from legalizing pot for mental health centers.

A corporate head tax? All were a no. Daley says a commuter tax isn’t off the table if he’s elected.

All agreed on banning outside employment and giving the city’s inspector general subpoena powers but Preckwinkle differed from the group, saying she didn’t agree with term limits for the city’s top political office or others. She said the real issue, in indicted 14th Ward Ald. Ed Burke’s case and others, was dual employment.

“I think the first thing to know is I served with Ald. Ed Burke for almost 20 years, he was neither a friend nor an ally,” Preckwinkle said. “We were on divided votes, we were on opposite sides, I think the critical issue about Ed Burke is the dual employment issue. It’s critically important that people understand our elected officials are serving them, their constituents and not their clients, so I’ve taken a strong position against dual employment.”

When asked if their voices could have appeared on recordings with Ald. Danny Solis, all answered no, though Mendoza said if she was recorded, “it would be nothing that I would need to worry about.”

The state comptroller also had to defend why she got married at Burke’s home in a small civil service officiated by Anne Burke, who she called a “role model of mine for many, many, many years.”

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s successor should not be saddled with his appointees, nor should beleaguered Chicago taxpayers be “forced to pay” nearly $1 million to get rid of them, Bill Daley said Tuesday.

Daley branded contracts awarded to heads of the Chicago Park District, the Chicago Housing Authority, the Chicago Public Schools and the City Colleges of Chicago a “blatant abuse of taxpayers’ money.”

“Rich Daley never said to Rahm Emanuel, `If you don’t want these people that I had, you’re gonna have to pay `em off to get `em outta here.’ That’s not right,” Bill Daley, whose father and brother reigned over Chicago for a combined 43 years, told the Sun-Times.

“There were no big pay-outs or golden parachutes. That’s something you get in business. That’s shareholders’ money. This is taxpayers’ money. Big difference.”

When a new mayor takes office, city department heads and agency chiefs who serve at the pleasure of the mayor traditionally submit their resignations as a courtesy. That gives the new chief executive carte blanche to assemble his or her own team of loyalists.

Emanuel should follow that same courtesy and tradition, Daley said.

“This is not Hollywood here. This is not a baseball team giving golden parachutes. This is public service,” Daley said Tuesday.

“What this presents to the next mayor is, `If I change this person, I’ve got to give `em all of this money. So, maybe I won’t fire `em because it’s gonna cost the taxpayers even more. That’s putting the new mayor at a disadvantage.”

Without explaining how, Daley demanded that Emanuel “immediately suspend any employment contracts extending into the new administration.”

Instead, those contracts should terminate on May 20, the day the new mayor is sworn in, with “month-to-month extensions” during the transition, Daley said.

If Emanuel’s successor ultimately decides to retain his appointees, new contracts could then be negotiated, Daley said.

“The City Council oughtta take a look at this and try to undo it. This is ridiculous not to run this by the public and talk about it,” Daley said.

“This isn’t Amazon. This isn’t J.P. Morgan. This isn’t some bank or company. This is Chicago. You don’t give people golden parachutes. Who the hell do these people think they are? I don’t care how good of a job they’re doing. It’s not like they don’t get paid well. Over a third of the people at City Hall make over $100,000. Not too many companies have that ratio.”

Emanuel is in London and Paris this week on city business. The mayor’s office had no immediate comment on Daley’s demand.

Mayoral candidate Susana Mendoza agreed with Daley that golden parachutes are an “abuse of power” and a “waste of taxpayer dollars.”

“Locking the next mayor into long-term contracts, some of which last through most of the first term, essentially guarantees a Shadow Mayor. That’s unacceptable,” Mendoza said in a statement.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported this week that Emanuel has tied the new mayor’s hands with contracts for the heads of the park district, City Colleges, CPS and CHA that would cost $820,000 plus benefits to undo. That’s in addition to the annual salaries for their replacements.

The most egregious example is Park District Supt. Mike Kelly, who had served without a contract since 2011.

Kelly’s contract was rushed through in December — nearly four months after Emanuel’s surprise exit from the mayor’s race — at the last park board meeting before now-former Park Board President Jesse Ruiz joined the administration of newly elected Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Kelly’s contract could roll over into 2025.

If at least four board members vote to get rid of Kelly — as his contract requires, if he’s done nothing wrong — taxpayers would owe Kelly eight months of his salary, plus health insurance for his family; currently, he makes $222,003 a year, but that would rise to $230,000 in 2020.

Ruiz has said he offered Kelly a written deal like other agency heads to make sure Kelly wasn’t replaced “cavalierly” by a mere “political supporter” of the new mayor.

The move was an apparent attempt to make certain that the $500 million Obama Presidential Center and a companion plan to merge the Jackson Park and South Shore golf courses goes smoothly long after Emanuel, the project’s No. 1 cheerleader, leaves office.

Kelly’s buyback clause is hardly the most generous among Emanuel’s agency chiefs, according to contracts obtained and analyzed by the Sun-Times:

• City Colleges Chancellor Juan Salgado would be entitled to a full year’s salary of at least $256,250, plus health insurance for himself and his family for the duration of the contract ending June 30, 2020 — until he finds a new job with similar benefits.

• Also guaranteed a full year’s pay — $291,500 — is Chicago Housing Authority CEO Eugene Jones Jr., who’d also get six months of health insurance for himself and his family, if he’s fired without cause. Jones’ contract lasts until Dec. 31, 2020.

• Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson is entitled to six months of pay on her $260,000-a-year salary if she’s terminated without cause, plus six months of health insurance for herself and her family.

Contributing: Lauren Fitzpatrick

Organized labor almost never walks in political lockstep. But it’s truly marching to the beat of different drummers in the crowded race to replace Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

The Chicago Federation of Labor, the Fraternal Order of Police, the Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 have all taken a pass on the mayor’s race.

“We have unions who’ve come out for different candidates, for one. But, also because there [is] more than one candidate [who] has a solid reputation with labor,” said Robert Reiter, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor.

“It didn’t seem like now is the time to pick sides with this many people in the race. Anything could literally happen.”

Robert Reiter, president of Chicago Federation of Labor, speaks at a news conference in December. File Photo. | Colin Boyle/Sun-Times

The Chicago Teachers Union, Service Employees International Union Locals 1 and 73 and SEIU Health Care have lined up behind Toni Preckwinkle. So has the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 881.

The SEIU endorsements alone have translated into roughly $2 million in cash and in-kind contributions to Preckwinkle, nearly two dozen full-time campaign workers and upwards of 500 part-time volunteers.

Chicago Public Schools parents, activists and union members rally in support of the Chicago Teachers Union in front of the Mayor’s Office in 2016. File Photo. | James Foster/For the Sun-Times

Trade unions are largely backing Susana Mendoza.

Together, political action committees for the carpenters, painters, bricklayers, laborers and finishing trades have pumped $885,000 into Mendoza’s campaign.

The Chicago Federation of Musicians, the Illinois Nurses Association, UFCW Local 1546 and labor leader Dolores Huerta have also endorsed Mendoza.

Bill Daley’s labor spigot is more like a trickle — from the Plumbers Union. The union’s endorsement event gave Daley an excuse to skip out on a recent televised debate with the top-tier candidates.

But, a dark money PAC with ties to Operating Engineers Local 150 is spending $714,000 in the campaign’s final days to blanket the television airwaves with an ad blasting Daley as a “Wall Street banker who got rich off working people.”

Bill Daley’s father, former Mayor Richard J. Daley, had a close working relationship with organized labor in the pre-collective bargaining days of handshake agreements.

The once rock-solid relationship turned sour under Bill Daley’s brother, former Mayor Richard M. Daley.

In a 2007 mayoral election that turned out to be Richard M. Daley’s last, the Chicago Federation of Labor did not endorse the incumbent mayor of Chicago for the first time in its modern history.

7-24-06 mayor Daley’s big box press conference. photo by Jim Frost sun-times

The CFL exacted its political revenge four months after Richard M. Daley used his first and only veto to kill a big-box minimum wage ordinance that would have required retailing giants to pay employees at least $13 an hour in wages and benefits by 2010.

The big-box veto might have been forgiven if it had been organized labor’s only beef with Daley. But it was more like the straw that broke the camel’s back.

It set the stage for labor to be a major player in the 2007 aldermanic election with an impressive scorecard: Five wins, two losses and seven aldermen forced into runoffs.

This time around, labor is either playing or sitting on the sidelines on a field of fourteen mayoral candidates. It’s almost certain to be a low-turnout election.

“The ability to put members on the street talking to their neighbors and fellow workers about a candidate is a pretty powerful force,” said Jerry Morrison, assistant to the president of SEIU Local 1.

“Whoever gets in second place, it could be by a few votes. In a race divided in as many different ways as this one is, you could argue that it could be the deciding factor.”

Bill Daley’s famous name and his $7.4 million campaign warchest — nearly double Preckwinkle’s take — has allowed him to take his message directly to Chicago voters.

But, he’s realistic about the potential impact of labor support and the political foot soldiers unions can provide to help get out the vote on election day.

“The bulk of Preckwinkle’s money is labor. That’s helped her be where she’s at. And Mendoza’s money— transferred from her comptroller’s race and the money she’s raised so far — is probably $1 million-plus from labor,” Daley said.

“That’ll have a big impact on them. It’s keeping ‘em both alive and well financially. I’ll find out Tuesday” whether or not labor support is decisive.

State Comptroller Susana Mendoza, right, with Ken Raskin, left, owner of Manny’s Deli on Election day, March 20th, 2018. File Photo. | James Foster/For the Sun-Times

As for the 11th-hour blitz aimed at portraying him as a Darth Vader to working people, Bill Daley characterized it as a gutless sneak attack.

“It pisses me off,” Daley said of the dark money the operating engineers are secretly spending on behalf of Mendoza.

“People are tired of throwing dirt and not saying who’s behind it,” Bill Daley said.

“If they gave $750,000 to her campaign and said, ‘Go out and tout yourself,’ great. But, all they do is try to hide and whack me with some phony name of the organization instead of the union. They’re not even proud to put the union name on it.”

Mayoral candidate Bill Daley in the 2019 Chinese New Year Parade earlier this month. File Photo. | James Foster/For the Sun-Times

Daley stands alone among mayoral candidates in his support for an amendment to change the Illinois Constitution’s pension protection clause, which states those benefits “shall not be diminished or impaired.”

If Daley advances to the runoff against Preckwinkle, Reiter said, “We would have a better shot at building a coalition to get an endorsement” of Preckwinkle to stop Daley.

“But, it’s not necessarily guaranteed,” he said.

(Left to right) Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Andy Crooks sit at the Chicago Teachers Union Headquarters at a news conference in December. File Photo. | Colin Boyle/Sun-Times

Already, AFSCME Council 31 is “taking steps to educate union members and the broader voting public about the anti-worker records, wrong priorities and dangerous allies” of Daley and Willie Wilson, union spokesman Anders Lindall said.

“We want to make sure Chicago voters know that Bill Daley co-chaired Bruce Rauner’s transition team and took a million dollars from Rauner’s top funder,” Lindall wrote in an email, referring to hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin.

“Voters should also know about Daley’s record of enriching himself at the crossroads of government and business, including as CEO of SBC when he took a million-dollar bonus before laying off 5,000 workers.”

The CTU’s December endorsement of Preckwinkle came one day after the former school teacher embraced the union’s entire education agenda.

That includes: a “fully-elected” school board; a freeze on new charter schools and public school closings for the four years until that board is seated; and “real progressive revenue” to bolster neighborhood schools.

Preckwinkle has insisted that won’t compromise her ability to negotiate a new teachers contract that beleaguered Chicago taxpayers can afford.

Mayoral candidate Gery Chico doesn’t buy it.

“If you take that kind of money — that percentage of what you raise — from one or two unions, you’re bought. … Your first priority is the people [who] funded you,” Chico said.

“You’re gonna be sitting at that table negotiating with the very unions that gave [you] millions. And you’re gonna do what now in terms of labor agreements for our people? You’re gonna cave, cave, cave. You’re gonna tax, tax, tax to pay for it. I don’t care what she says. That’s exactly what’s gonna happen.”

Mayoral candidate Gery Chico was endorsed by the Chicago Firefighters Union Local #2 during his 2011 mayoral run, but he’s not getting union endorsements this time. File Photo. | Brian Jackson~Sun-Times

Preckwinkle’s spokeswoman Monica Trevino countered, “We are proud to have the support of Chicago’s workers and teachers. Unlike Bill Daley, who relies on millions in donations from Illinois billionaires, our campaign is people driven.”

In his 2011 campaign against Emanuel, Chico had heavy labor support from police and fire unions, the operating engineers and painters. This time around, he’s flying solo.

“It was basically Rahm and me last time. It was pretty clear who … would be sensitive to issues involving labor. That was me,” Chico said.

“This time, you’ve got fourteen candidates. You’ve got a much more confused picture. I understand it. I don’t whine.”

Contributing: Rachel Hinton

Organized labor groups with an ownership stake in the Chicago Sun-Times include the Chicago Federation of Labor, the Service Employees International Union Local 1 and SEIU Health Care, the Labor/Management Union Carpentry Cooperation Promotion Fund, the Construction and General Laborers District Council of Chicago and Vicinity and Operating Engineers Local 150.

Illinois’ richest man has given another $1 million to mayoral candidate Bill Daley, doubling his investment in the brother and son of past mayors’ campaign.

Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin gave Daley the latest 7-figure donation on Tuesday, eight days after his first $1 million contribution.

The donation from the CEO of Citadel Investments keeps the son of former Mayor Richard J. Daley and brother of Richard M. Daley comfortably in the lead in the fundraising derby in the 14-candidate mayoral field.

As of Wednesday, Daley reported raising $8,646,434.81 since he entered the race in September.

As eye-opening as Griffin’s donation is, it is not a surprise. Crain’s Chicago Business first reported that a second donation was in the works.

Griffin released a statement after the first influx of cash, saying “Bill is a proven leader who understands the critical importance of working for all Chicagoans regardless of politics, race or background.”

Daley thanked Griffin for the early support, saying “While we may not agree on every political issue, Ken’s commitment to Chicago is unquestionable and unwavering.”

But mayoral rival Susana Mendoza seized on the contribution from Griffin, who also gave $36 million to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s campaigns.

Griffin, she said, “is supporting Bill Daley because Bill Daley is Bruce Rauner’s candidate.”

“I’ve got to make sure that Chicago keeps moving in the right direction and doesn’t elect ‘Bruce Daley,’” Mendoza, making an intentional slip, said at a news conference last week.

In this year’s mayoral election, Chicagoans face an unnecessarily difficult choice because of how we vote.

No matter who ultimately wins — coming in first or second on Feb. 26 and then winning a runoff race on April 2 — the outcome will have silenced the true voices of thousands and thousands of voters.

OPINION

For centuries, Americans have voted in a “first-past-the-post” electoral system: Citizens cast their ballots, and the candidate who receives a plurality (the most votes) wins. Sometimes, as in Chicago’s mayoral race, a runoff is added in which the top two candidates compete for a majority of the vote.

But this doesn’t work well — democracy is not best served — when, as in the case of this mayoral election, there are just so many candidates. When there are 14 candidates, how can the current system possibly gauge which candidate enjoys the broadest level of support among all the voters?

Short answer: It can’t.

That is, not without ranked-choice voting, which is used successfully in other cities. In an RCV election, the voters rank all the candidates in order of personal preference. Then, on Election Day, the total number of “first” ballots (the ballots where a candidate is a voter’s top choice) for each candidate are counted.

If no candidate has received a majority of these “first choice” votes, then the candidate who received the fewest “first choice” votes is eliminated — but his or her voters are not! In the next round of counting, the votes of those voters are automatically assigned to their preferred second choice candidate.

This process continues — second choice, third choice, etc. — until one candidate has received a majority of the total vote.

The RCV system is the most accurate gauge of true majority support available to us. Especially in mayoral elections with many candidates, RCV allows “losing” voters to retain their voice in our democracy and help decide the final outcome.

For decades, RCV has been used in cities such as Minneapolis and San Francisco, making the voting process there more representative than ever — without sacrificing the ease of voting. In Minneapolis, more than 90 percent of voters describe RCV as “simple,” and roughly two-thirds support the continued use of RCV in city elections. In San Francisco, RCV has been linked to a “positive voter experience” and an “increase in voter turnout.”

But this is not the case in Chicago.

Toni Preckwinckle, a favorite to come in first or second in the Feb. 26 election, getting her into the April 2 runoff race, is polling at 16 percent. Her most likely opponent in the runoff race, Bill Daley, is polling at about 14 percent.

This means that voters in the runoff election likely will have to choose between two candidates who together on Feb. 26 received less than a third of the total votes. There is no guarantee, that is to say, that Chicago’s next mayor will be the preferred choice of the people.

An RCV system would go a long way in replacing political toxicity with genuine civic discourse — and a renewed faith in our government.

When voters no longer feel like they’re choosing between “the lesser of two evils,” they are more likely to analyze multiple candidates on their merits and reward the one who truly deserves a vote. Likewise, negative ads become less effective — and, therefore, less common — when candidates aren’t only looking to fire up their respective bases, and are instead courting a broader swath of voters.

There has been little conversation about RCV in Chicago, but the 2019 mayoral election has exposed the system’s necessity. It’s time for change: Ranked-choice voting brings us one step closer to democracy.

Philip Hinkes, a Chicagoan, is president of Every Vote Counts’ Yale University chapter.

Send letters to: letters@suntimes.com.

The Smollett file . . .

Actor Jussie Smollett’s character on “Empire,” Jamal Lyon, may disappear during this season’s final two episodes because of charges he faked his own racist, homophobic attack.

But it hasn’t stopped Fox from requesting security and traffic-control assistance from Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s office when it films scenes for an “Empire” episode Wednesday at Paw Paw Woods.

“It just seemed beyond the pale this request would come on the heels of Smollett being charged yesterday,” said a spokesman for Dart’s office.

“They wanted to know if we had officers available,” said the spokesman. “They claimed they may be doing some stunt driving, but did not mention Smollett,” according to the spokesman.

OPINION

“And they also volunteered to pay the security costs from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. that day.”

Will Smollett’s character die in a car accident if they decide to permanently erase him from the Empire series?

Sneed also hears mega attorney Mark Geragos has now become the main attorney for Smollett; the Chicago lawyers are no longer on the team.

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Of mice and mansion . . .

Mice?

Mouse traps?

Too many varmints in the Governor’s Mansion complex?

Yep, Gov. J.B. Pritzker claims the crumbling ancillary building next to the Governor’s Mansion that houses the governor’s security detail is full of mousetraps … and he hopes to do something about it!

“There are mice and mouse traps everywhere [in the cops’ house],” Pritzker told the Sun-Times Editorial Board recently.

To the rescue?

The governor say first lady M.K. Pritzker may make rehabbing the cops’ new digs one of her first orders of business, since she was a member of the mighty megamillion-dollar privatized rehab effort headed by former Gov. Bruce Rauner’s wife, Diana.

Last November, Sneed asked if the new “old pile” would have “new style” when M.K. (an avid horse person) added her own personal touch.

It now looks like the busy mother of two won’t be adding a paddock, but a project to appropriately house the police.

“Nothing was done with that building,” said Pritzker.

“And the police do such a tremendous job,” he said.

“And they put up with a lot,” he added.

“So my wife is looking at how we could presently fundraise to help upgrade the state of that building.

“It’s unfair for people who work on the [Governor’s Mansion] property every day to be in these diminished conditions.”

Body language?

Please.

It’s about the knees.

Or is it?

For two nights in a row, Sneed watched Carol Marin and Phil Ponce question nearly a dozen candidates for Chicago’s mayor on WTTW-TV on issues ranging from taxes to whether they drank Malort, a malodorous brew growing in popularity.

But I wasn’t tracking their soundbites.

I was checking out their leg language.

Yep.

Seated atop barstools with back rests, I was transfixed by the way each candidate managed their leg room.

So I asked my trusty assistant, Francesca Gattuso, to check out explanations of leg language and came up with a few descriptions on the internet.

Paul Vallas was the only candidate who sat with his knees crossed.

• Translation? Comfort or closed and reserved attitude.

Bill Daley kept his knees open the widest … while tucking his feet firmly on each side of the stool’s leg rest.

Is it a signal of virility, dominance, strength and even a little bit of smugness?

Garry McCarthy’s open knees came in a close second.

The rest a close third.

Toni Preckwinkle was the only woman wearing a skirt and crossed her ankles. (Typical ladylike pose, but also a signal of self-restraint.)

Susana Mendoza and Amara Enyia wore slacks, but also crossed their ankles — which can also be similar to biting the lip, holding oneself from slipping another word, or hiding emotions of anger.

Lori Lightfoot positioned her feet on the stool’s leg rest like most of the men.

Confidence?

Dominance?

The bottom line?

Who will have the final leg up during Tuesday’s mayoral election.

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Sneedlings . . .

T-shirt time! Soon-to-be retired WVON’s Cliff “the Governor of Talk Radio” Kelley was recently gifted a special t-shirt from Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas with the phrase “I ain’t the governor [which Kelly calls himself]. I’m the president.” And she showed up during his broadcast last week to sock it to him. . . . Saturday’s birthdays: Emily Blunt, 36; Aziz Ansari, 36; and Niecy Nash, 49. . . . Sunday’s birthdays: Floyd Mayweather, 42, Daniel Kaluuya, 30; and Phil Knight, 81.

Chicago is heading into what could be one of its most unpredictable mayoral elections ever.

Not only is it anyone’s guess which two candidates will wind up in the expected runoff, but it’s not even clear when we will know which two get to advance to that second round.

“I’ve never had anything like this before. It’s kind of like the Super Bowl,” 47th Ward Democratic Committeeman Paul Rosenfeld said of the wide open races for mayor, city treasurer and his ward’s City Council seat.

With 14 candidates on the mayoral ballot, the top race is expected to be exceptionally close. And complicating the matter is the huge number of voters who opted to cast ballots by mail. Those ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday, but could take days or weeks to trickle in and be counted.

The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners will keep tallying votes until March 12, which it’s required to do by law, so it can proclaim official winners by March 13.

“What candidates do, in terms of declaring victory or conceding is up to them,” said board spokesman Jim Allen said. “We’re scheduled to count up to March 12, regardless of what candidates do or say.”

(From left) Mayoral candidates Gery Chico, Bob Fioretti, State Rep. La Shawn Ford, State Comptroller Susana Mendoza, Lori Lightfoot, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Paul Vallas meet with the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board in the second of two sessions earlier this month. File Photo. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Allen declined to predict how close the mayoral race will be or whether he thinks Chicagoans will know who’s in the runoff on Election Night.

But the crowded field is making a runoff likely, if not a certainty. If a candidate wins a majority Tuesday, the race is over. But if no one wins a majority, the top two vote getters square off in an April runoff.

That holds for all the contested city races — mayor, treasurer, and the 45 aldermanic races. Five aldermen face no opposition.

The only thing certain seems to be uncertainty.

“We’re getting mixed messaging from voters,” Allen said. “We have a super-sized quantity of vote-by-mail applications but only 30 percent back so far. Early voting isn’t following its normal course — there’s a surge one day and then it tapers off the next instead of rising in the last few days.”

And in the mayoral race that unpredictability has gone into overdrive.

“There’s no poll with fewer than 20 percent undecided — that’s a large number, a very large number especially at this time. Usually that number is between 5 and 10 percent,” Allen said.

Who’s in and who’s out will depend on the distance, vote-total wise, between the top candidates, and mail in ballots may be the deciding factor, though Allen said he couldn’t say what to expect.

The board spokesman said the high percentage of undecided voters is “revealing that people haven’t made up their minds — or pollsters are calling the wrong people.”

Election officials received over 62,000 mail-in ballot applications and had received around 18,500, or around 30 percent, of them back. Some who applied were just now receiving ballots because they applied in the last few days, Allen said.

This is only the fourth Chicago mayoral election in a century without an incumbent seeking re-election.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s surprise decision last September not to seek a third term opened the floodgates of candidates.

The final field is former Illinois State Board of Education Chairman Gery Chico, former Commerce Secretary Bill Daley, community activist Amara Enyia, former Ald. Bob Fioretti, state Rep. La Shawn Ford, lawyer Jerry Joyce, attorney John Kozlar, former federal prosecutor Lori Lightfoot, former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, state Comptroller Susana Mendoza, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, tech entrepreneur Neal Sales-Griffin, former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas and businessman Willie Wilson.

Twelve mayoral candidates (joined later by a 13th candidate) face off at a forum at Steinmetz College Prep on the Northwest Side. The candidates on stage, from left to right: Dorothy Brown, Gery Chico, Bill Daley, Amara Enyia, Bob Fioretti, La Shawn Ford, John Kozlar, Lori Lightfoot, Garry McCarthy, Susana Mendoza, Paul Vallas and Willie Wilson. | Nader Issa/Sun-Times

“I’ve never seen a municipal election with this many people running for one office,” 19th Democratic Ward Committeeman and Ald. Matt O’Shea said. “The general feeling I get is that everyone is concerned about what direction the city is headed in, and obviously the mayoral election has everybody intrigued.”

The crowd of candidates started at 21 and was winnowed down to 14, but it remains one of the most crowded in the city’s history.

So long as vote by mail ballots are postmarked on or by Tuesday, and those with provisional ballots provide evidence that their vote should count, they’ll be added to vote counts.

The board will proclaim the victors on March 13 so that runoff ballots for the April 2 election can be printed and touch screens programmed by March 18, Allen said. And, while he says recount litigation is rare, no lawsuits will keep the board from “proceeding with the election results we have in hand — we can’t hold off.”

There are usually more ballots in hand at this point, but Allen says that could also be chalked up to people still making up their minds on who they want to succeed Emanuel.

That seems to be the case in the 41st Ward, where Tim Heneghan, the ward committeeman, said early voting totals are a little bit down this election as compared to similar ones — even though the Northwest Side ward is second only to the Southwest Side’s 19 Ward in early voting.

“People coming to vote, especially last week, really did not know who to vote for for mayor,” Heneghan said. “Voting has picked up — Tuesday we had 427 voters, Wednesday 340, [Thursday] I’m confident we had over 400 voters. People are starting to make their decisions, [and] I think between now and next Tuesday numbers will … continue to be high for early voting.”

In 2011, when Emanuel was first elected, overall turnout was around 42 percent in the municipal election — in 2015 turnout was a little over 34 percent.

From left to right, mayoral candidates Willie Wilson, La Shawn Ford, Lori Lightfoot, Paul Vallas, Toni Preckwinkle, Amara Enyia, John Kozlar and Bob Fioretti, participate in a forum at Malcom X College. | Nader Issa/Sun-Times

Rosenfeld said the mayor’s race and the race to replace 47th Ward Ald. Ameya Pawar could be slowing things down for voters since they have to choose between 14 candidates for mayor and nine aldermanic hopefuls, though the North Side ward has the third highest early voting total.

“I don’t know if we’ll know Tuesday,” Rosenfeld said. “I [personally] would not concede prior to counting the mail-ins because they could break real differently.”

Allen says, given the historic nature of the election, his office is trying to encourage Chicago voters to “remember their vote counts now” because it could be very close.

“There are discussions on every platform, on social media, in newspapers, everywhere. So the awareness is there, everyone has rung the dinner bell, but how many will come to the table? We don’t know.”

The race for Chicago’s next mayor features many contenders with government experience, so we weren’t surprised to encounter lots of boasts and jabs about performance in office while fact-checking the 14-candidate field in the lead-up to Tuesday’s initial round of voting.

With an April 2 runoff for the top two vote-getters all but certain, we decided to revisit some of the questionable things candidates have been saying about each other’s records.

Garry McCarthy, the former Chicago police superintendent fired in the wake of the police shooting death of Laquan McDonald, recently released an ad claiming Chicago saw its lowest murder rates in a generation under his leadership. In two of the four-plus years McCarthy led the department, murder rates fell to a low not seen since the mid-1960s. But those years were bookended by ones in which murders spiked, so we rated the claim Mostly False.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle made a campaign issue out of McDonald’s 2014 shooting in an ad that credits her with bringing to light key information about the circumstances of his death. The commercial says Preckwinkle made sure the public learned about the medical examiner’s autopsy of McDonald, which showed the teen had been shot 16 times by an officer later convicted of murder. The reporter who broke the autopsy story has confirmed Preckwinkle’s role.

In the same ad, however, Preckwinkle also suggested she had been an early voice for demanding the release of police dashcam footage of the shooting that Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration kept under wraps for more than a year. We could find no evidence of that, leading to a Half True rating for her claim.

(From left) Mayoral candidates Comptroller Susana Mendoza, Lori Lightfoot and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle meet with the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board earlier this year. File Photo. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Two other candidates — Paul Vallas and Gery Chico — have sought to play off their experience guiding public education in Chicago.

Vallas and Chico ran the Chicago Public Schools together for several years under former Mayor Richard M. Daley, Vallas as CEO and Chico as president of the school board.

In the campaign, Vallas cast himself as a turnaround specialist who fixed dire financial problems at CPS. We rated one of those frequent Vallas claims Mostly True, but added a caveat. Vallas — and Chico, too — were able to improve CPS finances in part because of new state laws that removed fiscal handcuffs that had made the task harder for their predecessors.

From left to right, mayoral candidates Gery Chico, Lori Lightfoot, Garry McCarthy, Toni Preckwinkle and Paul Vallas, attend a forum in December. File Photo. | Nader Issa/Sun-Times

Chico has also run ads touting spending and property tax cuts at the City Colleges of Chicago during a brief stint in 2010 when he chaired the board of trustees. Not said was that the savings from those cuts were so modest that it’s doubtful the average taxpayer took note. That earned his claim a Half True from us.

The evolving death penalty position of mayoral hopeful Susana Mendoza, now the Illinois comptroller but once a member of the Illinois House, figured in two fact checks.

Mendoza had once backed the death penalty, but in 2011 voted for its repeal. During a candidate forum she claimed her vote had been the deciding one, but records and news clips made clear that it was a different House lawmaker who put the repeal vote over the top. We rated her claim Mostly False.

Preckwinkle, meanwhile, aired an ad that misrepresented Mendoza’s change of heart in 2011.   It used deceptive video editing of a House floor speech Mendoza made prior to that vote to make it falsely appear Mendoza was pushing to retain capital punishment rather than end it. For that, we handed Preckwinkle a Pants on Fire! Rating.

Mendoza was also the target of a slap from Chico who claimed in an ad that as a legislator she “voted to hit working families with a massive new soda tax.” Mendoza supported a major capital bill that increased sales taxes on soft drinks and other common convenience store items to fund infrastructure spending, but it didn’t create a designated soda tax. We rated Chico’s claim Mostly False.

We also vetted an attack by Mendoza that linked rival Bill Daley with former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. On her campaign website, Mendoza accused Daley of “writing the blueprint” for record Springfield gridlock that occurred as Rauner fought Democrats over the budget and other legislative priorities.

Mayoral candidates, left to right, Bill Daley and Susana Mendoza participate in a debate at WTTW-Channel 11. Screen image.

The claim hinged on Daley’s role as the co-author of a transition report for Rauner following his election in 2014. That document contained little in the way of concrete policy recommendations, and there is no evidence it guided Rauner’s later actions. We rated Mendoza’s claim False.

Daley in campaign ads has featured a less-than-straightforward promise to place a moratorium on property tax hikes. Not said was that only about one-quarter of a typical Chicago property tax bill goes to fund city government, so a moratorium would by no means eliminate rising tax bills.

What’s more, by far the biggest slice of property tax bills goes to fund CPS, which is effectively controlled by the mayor. A spokesman for Daley acknowledged to us that his moratorium on city tax hikes would not extend to the far more expensive school taxes.

We rated Daley’s tax claim Half True.

The Better Government Association runs PolitiFact Illinois, the local arm of the nationally renowned, Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking enterprise that rates the truthfulness of statements made by governmental leaders and politicians. BGA’s fact-checking service has teamed up weekly with the Sun-Times, in print and online. You can find all of the PolitiFact Illinois stories we’ve reported together here.

Sources

See fact-checks

The envelope, please!

Let’s play … who?

Last September, David Axelrod, the stellar political strategist with 150 national campaigns under his belt, told Sneed he was sitting out this mayoral campaign.

“Sneed, I’m watching this one as an observer this time,” said Axelrod, who is this/close to Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

“But I think this mayoral race is the least predictable mayoral race in the history of Chicago,” he said. “Certainly in my memory.”

Back then, Axelrod didn’t want to be “put in a position of handicapping candidates,” but he did promise to give Sneed  “two names … predictions … in a sealed envelope the day before or after the primary, and we’ll see how close I came.”

But just in case the “envelope” gets lost in the mail, Axelrod now tells Sneed:

“Anyone who says they know for sure what is going to happen is a fool or a liar!

“The differences between the top rung of candidates — Preckwinkle, Daley, Chico, Wilson, Mendoza, Lightfoot are marginal enough that nothing would be totally surprising,” he said.

∞The stunner: Axelrod now claims if you break down the early vote “you see HEIGHTENED numbers in primarily white wards, FALLING numbers in primarily African-American wards and FLAT in Hispanic wards.”

∞The buckshot: “Despite the increased early voting — something that has been true in just about every election since early voting was introduced — there are FEWER other signs of intense voter interest,” he said.

∞The upshot: According to Axelrod, who served with Bill Daley in the Obama White House, “All of this suggests a modest turnout and an older and perhaps, whiter electorate — which, in theory, should help Daley sneak into the runoff.

“He (Daley) has a familiar name, which has cache with older voters and has by far the best funded campaign and the most robust TV.

∞The kicker: “But the ONE caveat on Daley is that he’s also taking heavy negative fire in TV ads.

“We’ll see what effect they have,” he said.

∞Finally, Axelrod claims Preckwinkle started out with the broadest base “but lost altitude after the Burke scandal broke … but still is formidable and has the support of some powerhouse, active unions.”

∞Final shot? “While I wouldn’t place bets on this race, you’d have to say Preckwinkle and Daley are marginally in a better position to make the run-off,” he added.

Stay tuned … and we’ll see if the envelope gets mailed.

The Vallas file …

Mayoral candidate Paul Vallas claims the results of a text message poll of 8,700 “very likely voters” in Chicago shows him in the lead.

Hmmm.

∞Fact 1: Conducted by L2T Research & Survey, the poll — conducted on Feb. 21 — only included Vallas and the three candidates who have “raised and spent the highest amount of money this far: Bill Daley, Toni Preckwinkle, Susana Mendoza,” said a Vallas spokesman.

∞Fact 2: The poll showed Vallas garnering 10.75 percent; Daley 10.16 percent; Preckwinkle 8.63 percent; and Mendoza got 6.29 percent.

∞The kicker: Out of 8,700 people canvassed via texting, 5,585 were UNDECIDED, which amounted to 64.17 percent.

Trump ’em …

It’s a fish story that’s meaty.

Sneed is told a bearded Donald Trump Jr. was in Milwaukee late last week ice fishing.

An avid sportsman, Trump Instagrammed his 16-pound brown trout catch — along with two buddies.

∞The hook: “Good times on the ice in Wisconsin this weekend with some good friends,” texted Trump. “Psyched to have caught my personal best brown trout which we released unharmed. Lost another after 30 minutes that made this one look small …” Trump posted the missive with a tear.

∞The fork: Then Trump headed into Milwaukee’s Five O’Clock Steakhouse, where he and his pals ate 14 oz. Bone In Filet steaks. “He was dressed as an outdoorsman and was gracious with photograph requests,” said a source.

Sneedlings …

Congratulations to Kevin Carroll and Mia Cameli on their engagement this weekend. Tom and Carol Carroll are over the moon … ditto to Gina Stefani and Luka Ilic on their wedding this weekend at Queen of All Saints Basilica on Sauganash. Proud papa Phil and wife Karen are over also over the moon … and the sun and the stars.

Chicago’s mayoral candidates braced heavy winds to knock on doors, visit churches and speak to voters in their final push Sunday in what has become an unpredictable and seemingly endless race to Tuesday’s election.

With a whopping 14 candidates vying to lead the city — and polls showing differing results and a high number of undecided voters — the race is expected to be close. And the top two candidates will likely not even be known by Tuesday night.

Bill Daley, the top fundraiser in the race by more than $5 million, spent his day visiting churches and speaking with voters at Aurelio’s Pizza in the South Loop.

Daley said he’s run a “consistent” and “positive race.”

“Here’s who I am. Here’s what I’ve done. Here’s what I’ve laid out. I think we’ve laid out in this campaign more bold ideas than anyone else,” Daley said.

The mayoral run is the first political campaign for the former U.S. commerce secretary. And he said he wants voters who may not have liked his father or brother — both former mayors of Chicago — to give him a “fair chance.”

“To say I don’t want to vote for him because of whatever, the past, well then that’s fine. That’s your opinion,” Daley said. “But if you haven’t listened to what I’ve been trying to propose, what I’ve done, who I am and you just assume something like that, well that’s not a very informed voter.”

Mayoral candidate Toni Preckwinkle attended services at St. Stephen A.M.E. Church in Chicago, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2019. | Kevin Tanaka/For the Sun Times

Toni Preckwinkle, leaving the Founder’s Day celebration at St. Stephen A.M.E. Church on the West Side, called her experience running for mayor “tough.” But she said she’s grateful for the support she’s received.

The Cook County Board president, in part, pinned the number of likely undecided voters on the sheer number of candidates: “I think that the undecided voters are a reflection of that.”

“It’s been a tough one,” Preckwinkle said of her run. “But as I said, I’m looking forward to Tuesday with optimism.”

Lori Lightfoot spent Sunday knocking on doors in West Town and Hyde Park, among other neighborhoods. Lightfoot, the former Chicago Police Board head, was joined by U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., and Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) for part of her canvass.

“We believe that we’re really surging and that we have a real shot to get into a runoff. So we’re talking to our supporters to get out there and knocking on doors,” Lightfoot said. “Literally this is a game of inches at this point.”

Amara Enyia, who visited eight churches and participated in two rallies on Sunday, said her final message to voters is that she represents “change” and a “very strong vision for the city.”

“The fact that so many people in the city are undecided speaks to the reality that many are ready for change. That they are not voting with the status quo or the establishment, and that’s regardless of how much money you’ve spent on TV or commercials,” Enyia said.

Mayoral contender Paul Vallas speaks at a South Side church Sunday, Feb. 24, 2019 | Photo by Tina Sfondeles

At the Progressive Baptist Church, one of five church visits for Paul Vallas, the former Chicago Public Schools CEO was quizzed about his religion, his hopes for the city and his plans for education and economic stability. He spoke of a decline in the middle class and life expectancy differences based on race and where Chicagoans live.

“We live in a city that has neglected, in effect, 80 percent of the city; and it’s a tale of two cities, a small thriving, growing dynamic city, and a much larger city that has gone through decades of not only lack of investment, but disinvestment,” Vallas said.

Former Chicago Board of Education head Gery Chico said he canvassed 15 communities in a day and a half, including the South Loop, Beverly, Little Village, Mount Greenwood, Jefferson Park and others.

Chico said he only came across “a handful” of undecided voters, adding that, “I don’t think people are as confused as we might think.” Mostly, he said he’s been encouraging people who haven’t already voted to make their way to the polls while selling himself as the candidate with the most experience, a vision and a “lifetime as a Chicagoan.”

“I think we’re surging just at the right time,” Chico said.

Susana Mendoza, Illinois comptroller and mayoral candidate, talks to patrons during a campaign event at the Jimenez Restaurant, located at Belmont Central neighborhood in Chicago, on Feb. 24, 2019.| Victor Hilitski/For the Sun-Times

State Comptroller Susana Mendoza made an afternoon stop at Jimenez Restaurant, where she made a point of chatting with every person she could find. Earlier, she said she did the same at grocery stores and other restaurants.

“If they’re breathing, I’m talking to them,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza said she’d only found a few undecided voters as she combed the city, but she said she gave each one the opportunity to ask her “anything” that would help them make up their minds.

“People have been pretty honest,” she said.

Mayoral candidate Garry McCarthy hit the campaign trail again Sunday, Feb. 24. | Photo by Jon Seidel

Former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy joined campaign volunteers in the cold outside the Chicago Public Library’s Roden branch in Norwood Park early Sunday afternoon. He said he’d been “bouncing around and putting up signs and stopping and talking and meeting people” since 10 a.m.

“We know that this thing is completely up for grabs,” McCarthy said, “and we’re chasing it just like everybody else, and we feel really good about our chances.”

The “key component” in the race, McCarthy said, is that “we’ve been doing this for a year” while “a lot of people have been doing it for four months, when Rahm dropped out.”

Lawyer Jerry Joyce spent Sunday at two charity events — the “Get Behind the Vest” pancake breakfast in Beverly and a Polar Plunge fundraiser in Bridgeport. Other members of the crowded mayoral field include Bob Fioretti, La Shawn Ford, John Kozlar and Neal Sales-Griffin.

Businessman Willie Wilson said Sunday night he’d lost track of all the stops he’s made as the campaign nears its end. But he said he had more rallies planned, as well as trips on the L to shake voters’ hands.

Wilson said he’s continued to push a program that includes “no taxes” and “equal opportunity” from which “no community will be left out.”

He also offered a bold prediction.

“I think I’m going to win it … without any runoff,” Wilson said.

Are you ready? ARE YOU READY? Are you ready? ARE YOU READY?

Well, you’d better be. NO MORE EXCUSES!

If you’re a Chicago voter, you can never say you didn’t have a choice in Tuesday’s mayoral election.

You have 14 choices to be exact, as wide an array of candidates as in any election in which most of us have had a vote.

Whether you want a mayor who will fight for you or one who thinks it’s time to bring in the light, the future starts now.

And even if you’re not susceptible to catchy though empty campaign slogans, from which I am borrowing liberally from the various candidate’s television commercials, the message is the same: let’s go get the city we want.

It’s true. The people of Chicago are entitled to a new, honest and open government.

But there’s only one way to do that. Get out and vote.

Just remember, there’s nothing Chicago politicians fear more than this broom, unless it’s a mass outpouring of voters they don’t control.

So many elections come and go where we don’t have any choice, where the incumbent is running unopposed or against only token opposition.

Mayoral candidates, from left, Bill Daley, Amara Enyia, Garry McCarthy, Jerry Joyce, John Kenneth Kozlar and Willie Wilson meet with the Sun-Times Editorial Board earlier this month. File Photo. | Rich Hein/Sun-Times

This time we have legitimate choices, substantive people who have done substantive things with their lives, many of whom might capably fill the role of mayor.

Is there a perfect candidate in the field, someone who excites us to the possibilities of the future under their leadership and won’t disappoint us when elected?

Let’s get real.

No such person exists.

Back on Sept. 6, the Sun-Times ran a front page with the photos of 38 potential candidates believed to be considering the mayoral race after Rahm Emanuel’s surprise decision to call it quits.

I hope no one is still laboring under the impression that the dream candidate was one of those people whose photo appeared that day but who chose not to make the race.

Sorry to break it you. There are no perfect politicians. They all have feet of clay like the rest of us, and the more you know about any one of them, the more flaws you see.

Obviously, not all the candidates in the 2019 field are truly capable of being the mayor. It’s still not clear who or what convinced some of these folks to get in the race, that is, beyond visions of grandeur and cutting into another candidate’s vote. But at this point, we’ll have to trust you to sort that out for yourself.

At the same time, there’s no sense trying to handicap the field by limiting your choices to the candidates you think are most likely to qualify for the runoff based on some poll. This race is so wide open that any of eight candidates could conceivably slip into the top two if voters follow their own instincts instead of the pundits.

I keep hearing that some people are waiting for the runoff election to cast a vote for mayor, as if it’s too difficult to pick from this crowded field.

Are they kidding?

Do they not understand what’s being offered in this election that won’t be available to them on April 2?

Choices — all 14 of them. Make the most of a rare opportunity.

And if you are having trouble keeping track of all the campaign slogans, here’s a quick cheat sheet, sort of a Cliff’s Notes to the election:

“Are you ready? ARE YOU READY?”—Bob Fioretti

“NO MORE EXCUSES!”—Bill Daley

“Want a mayor who will fight for you?”—Toni Preckwinkle

“It’s time to bring in the light.”—Lori Lightfoot

“The future starts now.”—Susana Mendoza

“Let’s go get the city we want.”—Gery Chico

“There’s nothing Chicago politicians fear more than this broom.”—Paul Vallas

“The people of Chicago are entitled to a new, honest and open government.”—Jerry Joyce

“Let get real!”—Bill Daley

Lori Lightfoot once accused Toni Preckwinkle of trying to “bully” her out of the race for mayor. Now, the two political adversaries will face off against each other in the April 2 runoff with the winner becoming the first African-American woman to serve as mayor of Chicago.

Riding a wave of voter discontent, Lightfoot appeared to punch her ticket by finishing first, with 17.5 percent of the vote with 96 percent of the precincts reporting. Preckwinkle was second with 15.9 percent to Bill Daley’s 14.7 percent. Although 31,000 mail-in ballots were still outstanding, Daley conceded the race shortly before 10 p.m.

The runoff battle between Lightfoot and Preckwinkle promises to be a donnybrook, pitting a new reformer against an old one who has since become a party boss. Whatever happens, assuming the two indeed face each other in a runoff, Chicago will make history with its first African-American woman as mayor.

“This, my friends, is what change looks like,” a beaming Lightfoot told her cheering supporters at around 9:20 p.m.

“I want to thank the voters of this great city for fighting through the noise and coming to a place where we brought in the light.”

MORE ELECTION COVERAGE

• Lightfoot hangs tough for an amazing turnaround by any standard
• Late voter surge at the polls spares Chicago from setting record low
• Burke on apparent victory despite federal corruption charge: ‘It’s a great day’
• Aldermen Moreno, Arena lose their seats on Northwest Side
• Millennial voters fail to take their energy to the polls
• Live Blog: Lightfoot, Preckwinkle head to runoff

Lightfoot has openly referred to herself as a “triple-threat”: an African-American woman who is openly gay. She thanked her supporters for standing with her when “so many others said this day would never come.”

“The field was too crowded. There was no path for a new reformer without huge donors being an elected official for 10,000 years amidst a pack of establishment figures. People said that I had some good ideas, but I couldn’t win. And it’s true that it’s not every day that a little black girl in a low-income family from a segregated steel town makes the runoff to be the next mayor of the third-largest city in the country,” she said.

Preckwinkle took to the podium shortly after 10 p.m., acknowledging the moment.

“We may not be at the finish line. But, we should acknowledge that history is being made,” she said.

Mayoral candidate Toni Preckwinkle speaks at her election night event at Lake Shore Cafe, 4900 S. Lake Shore Dr., Tuesday night, Feb. 26, 2019. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Taking a shot at Lightfoot’s lack of executive experience, Preckwinkle said, “It’s not enough to stand at a podium and talk about what you want to see happen. You have to come to this job with the capacity and the capability to make your vision a reality.”

Lightfoot was leading throughout the evening, with Preckwinkle and Daley locked in a battle for second place. Daley threw in the towel shortly before 10 p.m., thanking billionaire Ken Griffin for $2 million in campaign cash that may have cost him the election by linking him to a top donor of former Gov. Bruce Rauner.

“I love this city. It’s my home and I’m going to continue to work hard to make it a better city. And I ask the same of each and every one of you,” Daley told his supporters. “Thank you, thank you, thank you for what you’ve done for me.”

Willie Wilson, with 10.5 percent of the vote, and Amara Enyia, with 7.9 percent, appeared to be carving into Preckwinkle’s base. She carried only five of the city’s 50 wards, four of them in her south lakefront base.

Jerry Joyce, son of a legendary political operative, appeared to have undercut Daley with 7.4 percent of the vote, including walloping Daley in Joyce’s home 19th Ward. Gery Chico, at 6.3 percent, and Paul Vallas, at 5.5 percent, also siphoned votes from Daley.

Lightfoot’s lead over Preckwinkle was a stunning development. She carried 11 wards, including ones on the reform-minded north lakefront.

Despite a campaign war chest one-third the size of Preckwinkle’s, Lightfoot exceeded expectations by selling herself as the only truly independent candidate in the race.

Lightfoot closed the campaign with the Chicago Sun-Times endorsement, free media coverage handed to her by Preckwinkle’s now-fired campaign manager and with a compelling anti-corruption commercial that reminded voters, “Shady backroom deals haven’t served us. It’s time to bring in the light.”

Jason McGrath, Lightfoot’s pollster and senior adviser, branded Lightfoot an “agent of change” who was “selling what people want.”

“She’s not tied to the machine system that people are sick of . . . She articulated it well. We got some good momentum. And everything sort of happened at the right time,” McGrath said.

Preckwinkle has been been viewed as the frontrunner ever since she joined Daley, Chico, Susana Mendoza, Bob Fioretti and LaShawn Ford as belated entries into the race after incumbent Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s exit.

But the fact that she finished in second place — even with the money and manpower provided by SEIU, the Chicago Teachers Union and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 881 — speaks volumes about how wounded she was by the bruising Round One campaign and about how vulnerable she may be in Round Two.

“While my opponent was taking multiple appointments in both the Daley and Emanuel administrations, I fought the powers who have been trying to hold this city back for decades,” Preckwinkle said. “I remember when progressive wasn’t a positive. It was as best a euphemism for unelectable.”

Wilson’s strong showing in more than a dozen African-American wards on the South and West sides shows apparent residual anger from Preckwinkle’s tax policies — including the now-repealed tax on sugary beverages, and a penny sales-tax increase that she eliminated but then restored.

The mayoral campaign only made things worse. Preckwinkle suffered a series of self-inflicted wounds that forced her to fire her chief of staff, her security chief and her campaign manager.

But the unkindest cut of all to Preckwinkle came when she was dragged into the federal corruption scandal that threatens to bring down Ald. Edward Burke (14th).

On. Jan. 3, Burke was charged with attempted extortion for allegedly muscling a Burger King franchise owner for legal business and for a $10,000 campaign contribution to Preckwinkle’s re-election campaign as county board president.

Preckwinkle reported the donation, only after Burke was charged. She has since returned all $116,000 she raised at a January 2018 fundraiser at Burke’s house.

“I thought scenario one was Toni and Daley. I thought scenario two was Toni and Lightfoot,” said Jerry Morrison, assistant to the president of SEIU Local 1, who played a key role in the Preckwinkle campaign. “What we talked about happened. Between the building trades spending $1.5 million on TV to blast Daley — and Jerry Joyce looks like he’s running 8 or 9 percent — that probably did enough to Daley to keep him out.”

Mendoza was damaged even more by the burgeoning scandal, particularly after the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Ald. Danny Solis (25th), retiring former chairman of the City Council’s Zoning Committee, has spent the last two years wearing a wire to help the feds build their corruption case against Burke.

Patti Solis Doyle, the alderman’s sister and a former adviser to the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, cancelled a Jan. 29 fundraiser she was scheduled to hold for Mendoza.

Mendoza also purged herself of $141,550 in campaign contributions received over the years from Solis and from a debt collection firm founded by Solis Doyle and an attorney with close ties to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Mendoza conceded early during a speech at Moe’s Cantina. “This campaign may end tonight, but the fight for Chicago’s future does not,” said Mendoza.

For weeks, the mayoral race was dominated by fall-out from the scandal and by the ping-pong finger-pointing between Preckwinkle and Mendoza.

While the two early frontrunners tried to drag each other down into the mud, Daley played the adult in the room and remained above the fray, in part, by skipping many of the mayoral forums.

It wasn’t until the campaign’s final month that Lightfoot and Fioretti hit the airwaves with commercials branding Daley, Preckwinkle, Mendoza and Chico as the “Burke Four” with the closest ties to Burke. Paul Vallas grabbed a broom and cut a commercial promising to clean house at City Hall but couldn’t raise the money to get it on TV.

Meanwhile, Daley used his overwhelming lead in the fundraising sweepstakes to blanket the airwaves with his “No More Excuses” message about crime, taxes and downtown-centric development.

Movers and shakers fearful that Chicago could take a sharp turn to the political left and increase business taxes joined Griffin in filling Daley’s campaign coffers. That allowed Daley to raise $8.7 million, nearly double Preckwinkle’s $4.6 million. Lightfoot made the most of $1.6 million. The dozen other candidates combined together raised $15.9 million.

From the beginning, the race has been one of the most unpredictable in the history of Chicago mayoral politics.

Emanuel was expected to seek a third term — and he didn’t.

The crowded field was supposed to be narrowed significantly by ballot challenges — and it wasn’t.

A looming, $1 billion spike in pension payments, crime and police reform were expected to dominate the debate, particularly as Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke stood trial for the murder of Laquan McDonald. But all three crises were drowned out by talk of City Hall corruption and then, by a flood of celebrity news.

Now, this most unpredictable mayoral election will enter a second round, with the heat turned up on both candidates.

Batten down the hatches, Chicago. You’re in for a wild ride — not just in the mayor’s race, but also in races for the City Council.

In a night of upsets, three aldermen appeared headed toward defeat — Proco “Joe” Moreno in the 1st Ward, John Arena in the 45th and Joe Moore in the 49th.

In addition, as many as 16 wards were moving toward April runoffs, including City Council stalwarts Patrick O’Connor in the 40th, Howard Brookins in the 21st, Ariel Reboyras in the 30th, Milagros “Milly” Santiago in the 31st and Michelle Smith in the 43rd.

Contributing: Sun-Times staff members Alexandra Arriaga and Savannah Eadens; stringers Kendall Polidori, Bridget Ekis, Erica Snow, Kristina Karisch and Adam Klepp, and Carlos Ballesteros, a corps member with Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster Sun-Times coverage of issues affecting Chicago’s South and West sides.

What happened?

This was the election that was supposed to sweep the Chicago City Council clean of the incumbents that police reform activists blamed for covering up the deadly police shooting of Laquan McDonald in 2014.

“The City Council that voted for the settlements have to be removed,” declared activist William Calloway on Oct. 5 — the day former Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke was convicted of second-degree murder.

But the expected “McDonald effect” that bounced former Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez out of office and pushed Mayor Rahm Emanuel into stepping down never materialized.

By early Tuesday evening, the Chicago Board of Elections was reporting that the millennial vote was a lot lower than it was in the governor’s race.

“In the 25-34 age group last fall we had 189,000. We have more than 100,000 fewer than that. We are at 74,605. In the 35-44 [age group], another key group, we had 163,000 last fall, and we only have 85,000 now. Those two groups account for the biggest declines,” said Jim Allen, a spokesman for the Chicago Board of Elections.

Perhaps driven by the mayoral candidates that included familiar names — Bill Daley and Toni Preckwinkle, for instance — it was the middle-aged and senior citizen turnout that closely aligned with the statewide election.

“The millennials flexed their electoral muscle last time around, but this time, the 55-64 [age] group were at 160,000, and so far it is 110,000 now,” Allen said, citing numbers available about a half-hour before the polls closed.

“The age group 65-74 was 118,000 in the fall, and they are 90,000 so far today,” he said.

Calloway, a leading voice for police reform, took on Ald. Leslie Hairston (5^th), a regular critic of the mayor, who was first elected 20 years ago. Hairston had 49.1 percent of the votes to Calloway’s 26.5 percent with 98 percent of precincts reporting Tuesday night. That race seemed to be heading toward a runoff.

In the neighboring 7^th Ward, another police reform activist, Jedidiah Brown, took on first-term incumbent Ald. Gregory Mitchell. Mitchell was leading with 66.2 percent of the votes to Brown’s 21 percent with 100 percent of precincts reporting.

Several other millennial candidates campaigned on police reform issues, including some who vowed to ditch the proposed construction of a police and fire academy on the city’s West Side.

But by early evening, it became clear that there would be no uprising at the polls.

When I voted around noon, I walked into an empty polling place.

This election was not only historic because of the number of qualified people who tossed their hats into the ring, but it came on the heels of the Van Dyke trial.

That trial might not have taken place had it not been for the hundreds of young people who took to the streets to protest the police-involved shooting.

It was a demonstration of the power of the internet to connect people for good and to organize activists in a short period of time.

This mayoral election was a contest between old-school politicians and new-school activists.

I had expected that candidates Amara Enyia, who was backed by Chance the Rapper and Kanye West, John Kozlar, a fresh face, and Neal Sales-Griffin, the tech wizard, would have rallied an unprecedented number of youthful voters.

Maybe the millennials mistakenly thought their work was done.

It isn’t, not by a long shot.

Marching is good, but voting is a lot better.

Just one month ago, Lori Lightfoot placed ninth among the 14 mayoral candidates in a poll taken by the Chicago Sun-Times. Less than 3 percent of those responding said they would vote for her.

Now it’s clear she’s headed to an April 2 runoff against Toni Preckwinkle, an amazing turnaround by any standard.

I’m probably not the only one who didn’t think Lightfoot stood a chance after that January poll.

But then something happened. It happened slowly, almost imperceptibly.

She hung tough in the debates and put some commercials on television. People started to notice. The Sun-Times endorsed her. More people noticed.

Ald. Scott Waguespack, former County Clerk David Orr and Congresswoman Robin Kelly endorsed her, none of them heavyweights but influential enough to point the way for progressive voters looking for some sign, any sign, of how to pick their way through the thicket of candidates.

All along, the same type of word of mouth campaign that brought Jesus “Chuy” Garcia to the forefront in 2015 was helping voters find her as an alternative to the established politicians who were the frontrunners.

And lucky for her, Lightfoot peaked so late that those other candidates never found it necessary to train their negative advertising on her.

Only in the final few days did they start after her with whisper campaigns that undoubtedly will form the basis for the runoff election — trying to make the case that she’s not as progressive as she’s been portrayed.

But for them, it was too little, too late.

Lightfoot’s showing was a bright spot on an otherwise mostly dismal Election Day.

Given an historic opportunity to set the city on a new course in an election without an entrenched incumbent or an anointed successor, most Chicago voters sat out Tuesday’s trip to the polls.

The turnout was pitiful, flirting with the record low 33 percent turnout in the abysmal 2007 matchup between Richard M. Daley and Paul Jakes.

The civic energy of the November mid-term election dissipated faster than you can say: Donald Trump doesn’t care who wins.

So be it. For those who do care, there’s another election April 2.

That’s just 35 days away. Early voting is supposed to start in 20 days.

Expectations are that more people will participate, but it’s difficult to be sure. This is only Chicago’s second experience with a runoff election since switching to a non-partisan system of electing its mayor.

What’s certain is that it will be over in the blink of an eye, and for the candidate who doesn’t react quickly enough out of the gate, it will be too late.

Rahm Emanuel taught Chuy Garcia that the hard way four years ago.

Before Garcia could even raise enough money to get his runoff campaign into gear, Emanuel had successfully defined him negatively in the eyes of the voting majority.

Now it will be the underfunded Lightfoot who will be vulnerable to the same sort of attacks from Preckwinkle.

The difference is that Lightfoot is the type of person who warms to the fight.

With a five-week sprint to the finish line, Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle have very different paths to victory in one of the most historic and unpredictable mayoral elections in Chicago history.

For Lightfoot, the formula is simple: raise money and do it quickly to define yourself to an expanded electorate before your opponent can define you.

Reassure a nervous business community that backed Bill Daley that you have the gravitas to actually run the city, so they’ll open their wallets. Expand your base beyond the North Side and lakefront wards by hammering away at taxes and corruption.

For Preckwinkle, the task is a bit more complicated: Drive up Lightfoot’s negatives. Consolidate a divided labor community. Shape up a campaign apparatus that shot itself in the foot. And “quit hiding” from the news media to remind voters of the authenticity they once found  appealing.

ANALYSIS

“She has to change her approach to this election. She’s got to talk to the media. She’s got to get out and talk to people. She’s got to talk in her ads. People need to see her and hear from her and re-connect with the Toni that they remembered before she became the Toni that she is now,” said one strategist with no ties to any mayoral campaign.

“They ran this sort of frontrunner campaign, this inevitable-that-she’s-gonna-be-mayor campaign and it didn’t work. By the time they were ready to switch strategy, it was too late. She’s got to get back to being her and remind voters why she’s been called a reformer for all these years. It starts with being genuine.”

Most unaffiliated political strategists say the race appears to be Lightfoot’s to lose.

That’s because she has successfully portrayed herself as the change agent in a change election dominated by one of the biggest City Hall corruption scandals this city has ever seen, with longtime Ald. Ed Burke facing charges of attempted extortion.

But Lightfoot’s image could change in a heartbeat — as quickly as Preckwinkle airs her first campaign commercial.

“Preckwinkle comes with very high negatives. To change that, she has to drive up Lori’s negatives. … You get on the air first while Lori doesn’t have any money and you attack her. This is gonna be a race where she has to savage Lori to win,” said a political strategist for one of the dozen other mayoral candidates.

The strategist noted that Preckwinkle out-raised Lightfoot by a 3-to-1 margin and enters Round 2 with $3.9 million compared to Lightfoot’s $730,940.

“Lori’s biggest problem is, she didn’t raise any money. She flew under the radar. Nobody attacked her. And that’s not gonna be the case this time. Lori has got to be able to raise the money to defend herself because Toni and SEIU are gonna come after her with every dollar and every punch they can land,” the strategist said.

Supporters at Lori Lightfoot’s election party on Tuesday. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

On election night, Preckwinkle telegraphed her intention to go negative. She talked about Lightfoot’s dearth of executive experience and the “multiple appointments” Lightfoot accepted under two mayors, Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel, while Preckwinkle had “fought the powers … trying to hold this city back for decades.”

That’s nothing compared to the line of attack Preckwinkle has planned against Lightfoot, according to senior campaign adviser John Hennelly.

“She has conned progressives … [into believing] she’s a progressive. She is not. She’s a corporate attorney who defends Wall Street banks. She was appointed by Rahm and Daley numerous times and defended corrupt and violent police officers. She’s not a progressive.”

Of the two candidates in this race, “the only candidate with a record of bringing change is Toni. … Lori has not brought any change to Chicago. It’s a complete fraud. We feel confident that, once the true story about Lori gets told, progressives will come home for Toni. They remember her record as a progressive.”

Lightfoot co-chaired the Mayor’s Task Force on Police Accountability; that group’s scathing indictment of the Chicago Police Department laid the groundwork for the U.S. Justice Department to do the same after the police shooting of Laquan McDonald.

On Wednesday, Lightfoot told the Chicago Sun-Times she is “very proud of what we were able to accomplish” while leading the Office of Professional Standards under Daley, now known as the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.

“It was a difficult circumstance, particularly being embedded within the Chicago Police Department. But I know we made significant progress on a number of fronts — not the least of which was holding officers accountable when they lied, either by omission or commission,” Lightfoot said.

Lightfoot also made no apologies for the top jobs she held under Daley and Emanuel — at OPS, the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, the Police Board and the Department of Procurement Services after the minority contracting scandal.

“If she wants to attack me for being a public servant and stepping up, particularly at times of need in the city, I’m happy to have that conversation,” Lightfoot said.

Lightfoot branded as “patently ridiculous” Preckwinkle’s claim that she lacks executive experience.

“I have significant executive experience that’s relevant in running city departments which, frankly, she doesn’t have,” Lightfoot said.

In a race with a 33.5 percent turnout, nearly a record low, Lightfoot finished first with 17.4 percent. Preckwinkle got just over 16 percent.

Between them, Lightfoot and Preckwinkle got about 176,000 votes. But in Round Two, multiple strategists predict a 50 percent turnout; with 1.58 million registered voters, that means the winner will need almost 400,000 votes to win.

That means both candidates must dramatically expand their narrow bases by courting votes that went to Bill Daley, Jeremiah Joyce, Susana Mendoza and Willie Wilson.

Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle made the traditional election day stop on Tuesday at at Manny’s Deli. | James Foster/For the Sun-Times

Preckwinkle carried only six of the city’s 50 wards, three of them along the south lakefront, which she represented in the City Council for 20 years.

She needs to consolidate a divided labor movement, persuade South and West Side voters who backed Wilson to get over their anger about the now-repealed sweetened beverage tax and aggressively court Hispanics who went for Mendoza and Gery Chico.

“Willie Wilson did pretty well. That hurt Toni tremendously. … This will be more of a challenge for Lori. Toni has longer-established relationships. This is where her institutional support with establishment aldermen and with unions, particularly public employee unions, is especially helpful,” another strategist said.

The Chicago Federation of Labor, which has an ownership stake in the Chicago Sun-Times, took a pass on the mayor’s race in Round One, unable to garner the required two-thirds vote for any of the 14 candidates. The CFL meets again Monday, and Preckwinkle has “a shot” at convincing the organization to get off the fence and stand with her, CFL President Bob Reiter said.

But don’t count on it, he added.

“We may take a position. We may not. I have no idea how this thing is gonna shake out. This wasn’t the runoff people expected,” Reiter said, apparently referring to Daley’s third-place finish.

“These people have more of a relationship with Preckwinkle. She’s more of a known quantity. She’s been an alderman. She’s been county board president. Folks have negotiated collective bargaining agreements with her. She’s worked on public policy and development with the county. There’s more of a record for Toni to speak from. But I don’t know that anyone particularly has a dislike for Lori Lightfoot either. I don’t know that there’s a visceral, `We need to be against Lori,’ [which] would be one of the motivating factors to pick a side.”

Lightfoot carried 11 wards, including the reform-minded north lakefront.

Her best opportunity to expand her base is with the “two most tax-sensitive chunks of the vote: African Americans and non-college-educated whites,” another strategist said.

“You go on the offensive and say we’re paying a corruption tax when we allow this corrupt property tax system that can be gamed by big business and the wealthy. That’s Toni’s career. Joe Berrios and … more and more service taxes,” the strategist said.

“If [Lightfoot] leans into taxes and corruption and makes those the pillars of a ‘change’ argument, she can win. But, if she can’t get on the air until the last two weeks like she did in the first round, Toni’s got a chance to bury her and sneak by her. This is Lori’s race to lose. But her Achilles heel is, she’s not a very good fundraiser. … She’s got to make this appeal to the business community that she can run the city.”

Voters in Chicago went to the polls Tuesday to narrow the field of 14 candidates for mayor. On April 2, even more voters are expected to cast ballots as they decide if Lori Lightfoot or Toni Preckwinkle will be the next mayor. | Scott Olson/Getty Images

What was it that Margaret Thatcher, the late British prime minister, said:

“If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.”

Chicago needs to get some things done.

We also asked a woman to do that on Tuesday, when Lori Lightfoot — an African-American and openly gay woman — took the lead from an unprecedented pack of mayoral candidates that included 10 men.

And just to make sure we were heard, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, also an African-American female, snagged a run-off spot by besting Bill Daley, who was a presumed front-runner.

People from all over the country texted me, excited about the results of this city’s mayoral showdown.

These black women did more than secure a place in the city’s history; they redeemed a Black History Month that was hijacked by negative stories about famous black men accused of criminal behavior.

Instead of images of the disgraced “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett and accused pedophile R. Kelly dominating front pages, Chicagoans woke up to Lightfoot and Preckwinkle, delivering a much-needed dose of positive energy.

Breathe it in and savor it.

It won’t be long before the mud slinging begins. While I’m hopeful that change is on its way, this is still Chicago.

Where else could someone with a federal extortion case hanging over his head, as does Ald. Ed Burke (14^th), wrack up a decisive win?

Were all those people who voted for Burke out of town when the feds raided his City Hall and ward offices? Did they not hear that another alderman, Danny Solis (25^th), cooperated with the feds by wearing a wire to record damning evidence?

By the way, for all those folks who couldn’t make up their minds on Tuesday and didn’t vote at all, shame on you.

To their credit, the 14 mayoral candidates crisscrossed the city participating in mayoral forums to get their message out.

After a governor’s race that saw wealthy candidates pour $284 million into the campaign, Lightfoot’s upset proved that a political candidate doesn’t need the most money to win an election.

Lightfoot and Preckwinkle’s successful campaigns have paved the way for a season of leadership that we’ve never seen before.

Frankly, in a city where the black church holds sway over the vote as much as it does the collection plate, I didn’t see Lightfoot knocking Preckwinkle out of the top spot.

And when Smollett’s reported hate crime turned into an alleged hoax, I was concerned that it would turn off potential voters from supporting an openly gay candidate.

But Lightfoot did not limit her campaign to seeking the support of LGBT friendly communities.

Wearing her trademark chapeau, Lightfoot reached out to every neighborhood.

For instance, two weeks ago — while top mayoral candidates skipped a mayoral candidate forum that was hosted by a coalition of South Side organizations — Lightfoot showed up, shaking hands and mingling with the crowd.

Preckwinkle, a seasoned politician and boss of the Chicago Democratic Party — the first woman to hold that title — is not known for her fuzzy feelings.

Yet the former alderman and teacher, has an exceptionally compassionate heart when it comes to criminal justice reform and healthcare.

Ironically, these women are a lot alike in outward appearance.

Although one is petite and the other is tall, both prefer a natural, no-fuss look and regularly wear little or no make-up.

In fact, the criticism I heard most often about either woman didn’t have anything to do with their policies or even their record.

Some women didn’t like their blue suits.

“Why don’t they have a stylist or someone to help them pick out what to wear?” one woman groused.

While a lot of women were worrying about superficial things like make-up, hair, and the latest trendy fashions, these two women had bigger concerns.

As smart and as accomplished as these women are, they won’t be able to solve all our problems.

As my husband pointed out, the woman who wins the mayoral contest is likely to be the most hated person in the city when she has to make the tough decisions.

But for now, I’m going to relish the day.

Thank you, Lori.

Thank you, Toni.

You ladies rescued Black History Month.

Lori Lightfoot got a pretty good bang for her buck, spending less than $17 a vote to grab her spot in the April runoff.

That’s less than third of what Toni Preckwinkle spent per vote, to win the other spot.

Who spent the most to get the least? Former Ald. Bob Fioretti. His 12th place finish cost more than $150 per vote. Lawyer John Kozlar spent the least, and wound up with about as much to show for it. He spent about 91 cents a vote and finished 13th in the 14-candidate field.

Obviously, the goal in politics is to spend enough to win. And they don’t give out prizes for thrift. But the Chicago Sun-Times decided to take an early look at the spending, realizing that the numbers are still in flux.

Nearly $29 million was poured into the mayoral race, which saw an astounding 14 candidates fight tooth and nail for the top two spots.

Here’s how the big dollars shook out in terms of votes, via the Chicago Board of Election’s unofficial tally, which does not yet include all mail and provisional ballots. The Sun-Times analysis tabulated all contributions as far back as January 2018. It also does not include recent spending, which candidates do not have to disclose until the next quarterly report with the Illinois State Board of Elections. And for candidates who were already holding an elected position, dollars were only calculated from their mayoral funds.

The fundraising battle will go on for Lighfoot, former Chicago Police Board, and Preckwinkle, Cook County Board president, who will face off in the April 2 runoff. The city will see its first black female mayor in Chicago history.

Chicago Mayoral Candidate Lori Lightfoot addresses the crowd at her election night party as she leads in the polls, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019, in Chicago. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

Lightfoot topped the field on Tuesday with 93,302 votes. She raised $1,558,656.53, and assuming she spent it all, that equates to $16.70 a vote. Lightfoot gave herself about $266,000, records show.

Preckwinkle brought in $4,617,515.53 and garnered about 86,057 votes, equating to $53.66 a vote. Preckwinkle’s top donation was $2.2 million from the Service Employees International Union, which will likely try to boost her campaign ahead of the election.

Mayoral candidate Toni Preckwinkle speaks at her election night event at Lake Shore Cafe, 4900 S. Lake Shore Dr., Tuesday night, Feb. 26, 2019. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

In third place was Bill Daley, who was also the top fundraiser. Daley brought in a whopping $8,754,866.81 and came in with 78,722 votes on Tuesday. That equates to $111.21 per vote. Daley’s biggest donor was Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, who contributed $2 million and whom Daley thanked in his concession speech.

Business owner Willie Wilson raised $1,612,681.16, which equates to $27.94 a vote. Wilson came in fourth with 57,713 votes.

Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza raised $2,866,365.91, and brought in 48,351 votes. That equated to $59.28 a vote. Political action committees for the carpenters, painters, bricklayers, laborers and finishing trades pumped $885,000 into Mendoza’s campaign.

Community activist Amara Enyia, who received $400,000 from Chance the Rapper, raised $649,636.91, which equates to $15.22 a vote. Enyia had 42,688 votes.

Attorney Jerry Joyce, raised $2,785,410.00 and got 39,128 votes, which equates to $71.19.

Former Chicago Board of Education head Gery Chico raised $3,340,652.09 — winning 33,392 votes — which equated to $100.04 a vote. Chico’s top donor was himself. He contributed $235,000 to his campaign.

Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas raised $1,128,520.34, which equated to $38.87 a vote. Vallas had 29,036 votes.

Former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy had 14,246 votes. McCarthy raised $1,374,685.67, which equates to $96.50 a vote.

State Rep. La Shawn Ford raised $23,350, which breaks down to $4.31 a vote. Ford recorded 5,418 votes. Fioretti raised $616,700.00, and had 4,090 votes, equals $150.78 a vote.

Kozlar raised $2,014 — and got 2,212 votes — which equates to 91 cents a vote. And businessman Neal Sales-Griffin raised $147,432 — winnng 1,426 votes — which equates to $103.39 a vote.

Certain political hypotheses explaining Chicago election outcomes have taken on the mantle of accepted truth over time, the 2019 mayoral race adding one more.

People still state as fact that it was Rich Daley who enabled Harold Washington to get elected as mayor in 1983 by splitting the white vote with Jane Byrne.

Then there’s the corollary argument blaming Tim Evans for the rift with Eugene Sawyer that split the black community and allowed Daley to win in 1989.

After Tuesday, we have another truth that “everybody knows”— that Jerry Joyce cost mayoral brother Bill Daley his spot in the April 2 runoff as part of a family vendetta involving his father, legendary 19^th Ward political guru Jeremiah Joyce, and the loss of a lucrative concession contract at O’Hare Airport.

As with all this common wisdom, there are elements of truth in the theory, as well evidence to the contrary that suggest it is at least an oversimplification.

Daley finished third with 14.7 percent of the vote, about 7,000 votes behind second place Toni Preckwinkle, according to the latest tallies.

Joyce finished seventh with just 7.3 percent of the vote, but his 38,595 total votes certainly would have made a big difference in the race if distributed elsewhere. If Daley had received even a third of Joyce’s votes, he’s in the runoff with Lori Lightfoot, assuming the rest didn’t go to Preckwinkle.

Mayoral candidates, from left, Bill Daley, Amara Enyia, Garry McCarthy, Jerry Joyce, John Kenneth Kozlar and Willie Wilson met with the Sun-Times Editorial Board Tuesday, February 5, 2019. | Rich Hein/Sun-Times

In the 19^th Ward alone, Joyce’s home turf, Daley finished nearly 6,000 votes behind Joyce, a whopping margin in a ward that Daley needed to carry.

Although by smaller margins, Joyce also won the 13^th, 23^rd and 41^st wards, all of which Daley might have once expected to be in his column.

But some say those were never really Bill Daley voters in the first place. Many of them might not even have voted at all if not revved up by the Joyce campaign, which mounted a superior field organization to Daley.

The former U.S. Commerce secretary hurt himself with city workers and retirees in those wards when early in the campaign he said he would support amending the state constitution to loosen the public pension guarantee.

That only fed into lingering anger that Daley’s brother was responsible for creating the problem by shorting payments into their pension funds while he was mayor.

Of course, that was a policy difference the Joyce campaign was not shy about exploiting.

But there were many other factors that hurt Daley, not the least of which was $1.2 million in negative advertising poured into the race against him by a dark money PAC, the union-affiliated Fight Back for a Better Tomorrow.

Those ads stunted his momentum in the closing weeks of the campaign just as he moved to the front in the polls.

It could also just as easily be argued Daley could have won with Garry McCarthy’s and Bob Fioretti’s combined 18,000 votes.

Once you start with those kind of woulda, coulda, shoulda’s, there’s no stopping.

But what about the other end of the equation — the thinking that Joyce’s determination to stay in the race in the face of Daley’s candidacy defied what he and his family must have come to realize was a lost cause even as they poured nearly $3 million into the race, much of it their own money?  And this from a Joyce clan with a reputation for being every bit as keen at political strategy, if not more so, as the Daleys, and with a particular talent for counting votes.

Well, there was the loss of that O’Hare contract that made Jeremiah Joyce rich. Originally awarded under Daley, Joyce might have hoped for a long-term extension. He didn’t get it and Emanuel took it away.

But not everyone thinks it’s quite that simple.  Remember that it was Joyce who first made plans to take on Emanuel. Why should he defer to Daley instead of the other way around? Or so the thinking goes.

When Bill Daley got in the race and expected Joyce to withdraw in his favor, that reawakened some long simmering resentment, the root of which will probably never be revealed outside certain Irish political circles.

My take: Jerry Joyce ran for mayor thinking he could win.

Did it bother him or his family that one result of his candidacy was hurting Bill Daley’s campaign?

Not at all.

The Van Dyke file . . . 

Tiffany Van Dyke — who tells Sneed she hadn’t talked to her husband, former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke, since his transfer to a medium-security New York correctional facility — finally talked to him Thursday.

“He’s OK,” said Tiffany, who was unsure when her husband was actually moved since being attacked last month by prisoners at a federal facility in Connecticut, where he was first sent after leaving Illinois.

She now plans to gather all the frequent flyer miles she’s been sent by well-wishers to visit her husband, who is serving a 6-year, 9-month prison sentence for the murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, whom he shot 16 times.

Van Dyke is now being held in isolation at the medium-security federal prison in Otisville, N.Y.

In a message forwarded to Sneed, Tiffany stated: “I heard the news about the Illinois Supreme Court ruling [rejecting a bid from prosecutors to re-sentence her husband to what could have been a harsher prison term], from a friend who had seen it on Twitter.”

“I am very grateful to the Illinois Supreme Court for not increasing Jason’s prison sentence and looking at this case objectively and without bias,” she said. “This has been devastating for our family, especially so for our two daughters. Now we can try to move on. I want to thank our lawyers, Dan Herbert, Tammy Wendt, and Randy Rueckert for all that they have done for my husband and our family, both in the courtroom and in our daily lives.”

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Trumping Trump . . .

Sneed has learned Mayor Rahm Emanuel took time out while recovering from torn-meniscus surgery late last week to send a few texts to Cindy McCain, widow of the late, great U.S. Sen. John McCain, following President Donald Trump’s newest attacks on her husband’s legacy.

“I never was a fan of John McCain, and I never will be,” Trump told reporters Tuesday while also mocking the late senator on Twitter for being “last in his class” at the U.S. Naval Academy.

• Texted Emanuel to McCain: “Just letting you know Amy and I are thinking of you.”

• Texted McCain to Emanuel: “Thank, you, Rahm. We are strong nevertheless. This is ridiculous. I appreciate you reaching out.”

• Texted Emanuel to McCain: “Well, I will say it because you are a perfect lady. HE’S AN A–HOLE!!!”

The mayor didn’t divulge McCain’s text back.

“Let’s put it this way,” he said. “I’m not going to repeat her exact response. Let’s just say she didn’t disagree!”

• Backshot: On a quiet afternoon last June, Emanuel and wife, Amy Rule, paid what became a farewell visit to the ailing senator, who was dying of brain cancer, at his ranch in southern Arizona — where he had been saying a final goodbye to old friends.

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Ms. Almighty! 

Don’t diss this miss!

Legendary feminist Gloria Steinem celebrates her 85th birthday Monday. 

Remember when Steinem famously said: “This is what 40 looks like,” when she turned 50?

Sneed covered Steinem’s 50th birthday party in New York in 1984 with 750 well-wishers including Bette Midler, Phil Donahue and the late Bella “The Hat” Abzug.  

What a night!

Begorrah!

Is this a case of the Billy Goat’s gruff?

In case you didn’t know, the Daley boys canceled their annual St. Patrick’s Day party last Saturday, which was scheduled once again at Chicago Cut Steakhouse.

“The Daley brothers are not happy campers since Bill Daley’s mayoral loss and the lack of overwhelming union support,” said a top Sneed source.

“And in the loyalty versus royalty department, the fact that Jerry Joyce — the son of an old Daley family stalwart — also was in the race and cut into Bill’s territory — has caused a lot of rancor,” said a second source.

Instead, the Bears celebrated St. Pat’s at the Cut outdoors with quarterback Mitch Trubisky acting as the meet-and-greet guy for players and Soldier Field suite owners.

Mountain Maddon . . . 

Hey! Hey!

Cubs manager Joe Maddon seems to have unlimited energy.

The 65-year-old was spotted leaving Sloan Park following a game with the Milwaukee Brewers this month in Mesa, Arizona, jumping onto his mountain bike and heading into the nearby hills for a one-hour ride at 6 p.m.

“All the players had gone home and he’s on a bike, no doubt getting ready to win the World Series,” chirped an observer.

Sneedlings . . .

I spy: Meow! Award-winning singer/actress/Chicago native Jennifer Hudson recently spotted with family and friends at TAO hosting her own wrap party for the film “Cats,” where she stars as Grizabella the Glamor Cat. . . . Saturday’s birthdays: Kyrie Irving, 27; Ayesha Curry, 30; and Brett Eldredge, 33. . . . Sunday’s birthdays: Jim Parsons, 46; Chris Bosh, 35; and Tommy Hilfiger, 68.

Congratulations, Lori Lightfoot. You got the job.

Now what are you going to do with it?

As mayor of Chicago, will you be more Jane Byrne or more Harold Washington, two former mayors who also beat the powers that be?

Or, given how much Chicago has changed, will you take us down an entirely new path?

You made history of the best kind on Tuesday. For the first time, an African American woman was elected mayor of Chicago. For the first time, an openly gay person was elected mayor.

You ran away with this election.

But you were not the first to beat the political bosses. Or the corporate money. Or the unions.

Byrne did it first, in 1979.

“I beat the whole goddamn machine single-handed,” she said.

And Washington did it next, in 1983, defeating Bernie Epton, Richard M. Daley and Byrne, who by then had reverted to type and re-embraced the “goddamn machine.”

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Byrne thought she had no choice. If she did not, as mayor, forge an alliance with the same City Council and Democratic Party leaders she had called an “evil cabal,” she feared she wouldn’t be able to get anything done.

“City Hall,” she told her disappointed campaign manager, Don Rose, “is lined with the bones of reformers.”

Washington, unlike Byrne, stuck to his progressive promises. He was determined, above all, that government would better serve all those Chicagoans who had been left out — African Americans, Latinos and women.

For this, Washington got four years of “Council Wars.” Only during his second term, cut short by his death after just six months, did he have the benefit of a workable City Council coalition of his own.

So what’ll it be, Mayor-elect Lightfoot?

Byrne or Washington? Accommodation or fundamental reform?

We’re thinking Harold and reform.

The way we see it, the voters of Chicago have granted you an unprecedented mandate to rein in, reinvent and redirect the traditional power structure of the city.

Like no mayor before you, you are in a position to demand that big developers do more for the neighborhoods, that the wealthiest residents and corporations pay a fairer portion of taxes, that neighborhood schools come before charter schools, and that affordable housing be extended to every ward.

You have been given a license to reform the Chicago Police Department. You can curtail the corrupting custom of aldermanic prerogative, which has allowed members of the Council to put the squeeze on every sad-sack store owner looking to hang a sign.

You were elected by tens of thousands of Chicagoans who are fed up with the way things are, the corruption and the self-dealing. Did you see the headline on the front page of the Sun-Times two weeks ago — “Another guilty alderman” — when Willie Cochran pleaded guilty to wire fraud?

The key word there was “another.”

To win this election, you had to beat 13 other candidates, including a trio — Toni Preckwinkle, Bill Daley and Susana Mendoza — who had much bigger names, a lot more money and the backing of powerful special interests. One of those three anointed candidates was supposed to win.

But you won, coming out of nowhere, because you were the preferred candidate of the rest of the city. You were the candidate of Chicagoans who can’t find a good school for their kids. Who wonder why they’re paying more in property taxes while wealthy developers get tax breaks. Who can’t find a mental health clinic in a family emergency. Who don’t dare let their children play outside.

They gave you a mandate: Be our mayor, too.

And they gave you a City Council, peppered with restless newbies, that could prove to be the most reform-minded in modern times.

You will not be universally loved, Lori Lightfoot. You’ll catch a lot of hell. It comes with doing the right thing even when that’s hard, like possibly raising taxes again, building affordable housing where it is not wanted, driving a hard bargain in union negotiations, and defending good cops against people who, weirdly enough, don’t believe there is such a thing as a good cop.

It will not always help that you are a woman, black and gay.

But you won this election because enough Chicagoans are finally sufficiently appalled by the political corruption and economic inequities. Start from there, as Harold Washington did, and good things will follow.

You made history, Lori Lightfoot.

Now make more.

Send letters to: letters@suntimes.com.