CTU endorsed mayoral candidates Toni Preckwinkle and Chuy Garcia's interesting history
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU)-endorsed mayoral candidate Toni Preckwinkle, the president of the Cook County Board, has promised the union she'll place a moratorium on school closings and charter schools, and that she favors an elected school board. She was a teacher before she entered politics.
The CTU endorsed mayoral candidates Chuy Garcia (2015) and Toni Preckwinkle (2019) did not endorse each other.But the CTU darling and heavily endorsed and encouraged to run against Rahm Emanuel in the last mayoral election of 2015 - Jesus 'Chuy' Garcia - has endorsed Lori Lightfoot, Preckwinkle's opponent.
Preckwinkle did not endorse Garcia when he ran for mayor. She is part of the city's Democratic Party machine. She was polling higher numbers and they say she could have beaten Rahm Emanuel in the last election but chose not to run. And not only not run, but she also chose to not back his challenger.
The CTU is now sending email blasts to its members to vote for Preckwinkle because Lightfoot is a corporate attorney and wants to turn the closed schools into police academies. It appears a lot of big corporate money is now filling her coffers.
One teacher union insider speculated that the CTU political strategy, which is heavily invested in city elections, is to help make Preckwinkle the mayor, and Brandon Johnson, who then spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to be elected Cook County Commissioner, would then become the president.
[Reporter Jim Vail's complete article is published on his site: http://secondcityteachers.blogspot.com/.]