Opinion: Lori Lightfoot made history in Chicago. Now she needs to make an impact.
By James Warren April 3 at 11:01 AM James Warren, former managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, is executive editor of NewsGuard, which rates the credibility of news sites.
Having ducked fundamental questions during her brave and historic campaign, Lightfoot, a corporate lawyer and onetime federal prosecutor with no elective experience, faces a colossal task in bringing financial stability, reducing crime and easing complex racial tensions in the nation’s third-largest city. “We can and will make Chicago,” she said, “a place where your Zip code doesn’t determine your destiny.
Lightfoot’s victory was a swift as it was unlikely. Just two months after finding herself in ninth place in a 15-candidate primary field, she rode both a wave of anti-incumbent fervor stoked by new revelations of municipal corruption and Rahm Fatigue, partly reflecting his fumbling race and police issues.
“She’ll have a sharp learning curve,” says David Axelrod, the political consultant and key strategist in the rise of hometown hero Barack Obama.
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