Lightfoot campaign wins backing from same corporate player that embraced Emanuel austerity agenda and Republican education voucher scheme.
CHICAGO—CTU President Jesse Sharkey issued the following statement today after mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot picked up her first big political donation from wealthy elites that also solidly backed the political agendas of Rahm Emanuel, Bruce Rauner and both former mayor Richard Daley and his brother, banker Bill Daley, who lost his bid to replace Emanuel.
“Lightfoot’s first big post-runoff contribution has dropped, from the CEO of one of Chicago’s most wealthy and clouted investment firms. This campaign donation exposes who Lightfoot will really serve: wealthy elites and education privatizers, just as Rahm Emanuel did before her.
“John Canning sank $200,000 into Bill Daley’s campaign for school closures, pension cuts and education privatization. Today, he’s backing Lightfoot, along with the ‘ask’ that she support Rauner’s despised $100 million education voucher program—a tax boon for rich elites that sucks millions of dollars out of already deeply underfunded public schools.
“Canning’s top executives at Madison Dearborn pumped more than $9 million into the coffers of both Republican candidates and Emanuel, Richard M. Daley and disgraced former CPS CEO Forrest Claypool—the very individuals who have starved our public schools, defunded special education and robbed our South and West Side neighborhoods of desperately needed investment. He’s embraced Lightfoot because she, like Emanuel, will serve clouted business elites at the expense of the rest of us.
“Chicago’s families have suffered for years under the Rahm/Rauner/Daley agenda of privatization, austerity and public subsidies for private corporate interests at the expense of working class families and neighborhoods. Chicagoans don’t want another Rahm or Daley in City Hall. They want a candidate like Toni Preckwinkle, who will bring real equity to city government and end Rahm’s failed educational and economic schemes. Chicagoans know how to follow the money—and understand what Canning’s dollars says about Lightfoot’s willingness to support the same failed policies that have plagued our city under eight years of Emanuel’s rule. We won’t fall for it—because no matter how much Lightfoot’s campaign tries to position her publicly, her financial backers expose her real agenda.”
