Chicago mayoral election: 36 newly elected police district councilors endorse Johnson

CHICAGO - Thirty-six newly elected police district councilors have endorsed Brandon Johnson for mayor of Chicago.

The announcement was made Monday morning outside City Hall.

Chicago is just one week away from the start of early voting, which is slated to begin March 20, and an independent poll conducted last week by Victory Research found Paul Vallas with a near six-point lead over Johnson.

Eight-hundred voters participated in the poll and neither candidate had the majority vote, with Vallas leading among white voters and Johnson leading among Black voters.

The poll concluded a winning margin would result from lakefront and Hispanic voters.

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Both candidates have vowed to make public safety a top priority, but each have differing views on how to tackle the issue, which is evident by today's endorsement.

Police district councilors were elected last month to represent individual neighborhoods and include civilians. However, Vallas has the backing of the Chicago FOP Lodge 7.

"He is supported by entities who want to put more guns on the street. We're working to get guns off the street. It's why not only are we gonna train and promote 200 more detectives, we're gonna make sure we spend to implement with all expediency the consent decree, and it's these memebers that's gonna help us get that done," Johnson said.

"My mission and job on day one will be to implement a public safety stratgey that will make sure that all — ALL — communities will have a police car covering that local beat. That the CTA stations and CTA platforms have police officers walking that beat, that there are police officers riding the trains," Vallas said.

On Monday, Johnson debunked rumors that he wanted to defund police but says he does want to tighten the department's spending.

Election day is April 4th.