CHICAGO — The first debate of Chicago’s mayoral runoff election featured a series of attacks from Brandon Johnson on Paul Vallas, who largely avoided attacking in kind, even as the criticism escalated.
Over the course of an hour, Johnson repeatedly accused Vallas of wanting to raise property taxes, enacting policies in the 1990s that cause lasting harm to the city and school district’s financial position, and working with Republicans to damage the pension system. Johnson also said Vallas doesn’t want to teach Black history and claimed he does not support women’s abortion rights.
“We’re in this predicament because of the bad accounting measures of Mr. Vallas,” Johnson said, referring to the city’s financial woes.
