Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot playing defense as she gears up for tough reelection campaign

CHICAGO — As Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot gears up for her expected reelection campaign after three tumultuous years, she finds herself in a familiar position: on the defensive.

Lightfoot the rookie politician won in 2019 in part because of her credentials as an outsider, but Lightfoot the incumbent does not have that advantage. And in recent days — still more than 10 months before the municipal Election Day — two candidates have announced plans to run for mayor with expectations several more will join the field.

During her three-plus years in office, Lightfoot has faced spikes in crime, hasn’t run as transparent an administration as promised, and engaged in constant fights with unions representing Chicago teachers and police — all while struggling to forge good relationships with politicians or leaders in the city’s business community.

“I have never met anybody who has managed to piss off every single person they come in contact with — police, fire, teachers, aldermen, businesses, manufacturing,” Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza, 10th, a onetime close Lightfoot ally, said recently in explaining why she wouldn’t endorse the mayorfor reelection. “I said it. That’s it. I don’t care.”