The Tunney-Vallas Alliance

Alderperson Tunney and Paul Vallas have a curious take on civil rights.

By BEN JORAVSKY

Irealize we’re in the silly season of the mayoral race, as candidates bombard us with propaganda we know we shouldn’t believe. But the recent commercial in which Alderperson Tom Tunney praises mayoral candidate Paul Vallas for being on the front lines in the fights for LGBTQ+ and abortion rights is particularly misleading even by the stretchthe-truth standards of a mayoral race.

Look, I understand: Vallas voters, you have your reasons for loving that man.

It may be 90s nostalgia—a desire to return to the autocratic “good old days” of Mayor Daley, for whom Vallas loyally served.

Or, some of you may still be upset that Mayor Lightfoot defeated all the white guys, Vallas included, in 2019. And Vallas is your chance to, as Vallas puts it, “take back City Hall” and “make Chicago safe.”

Even though Chicago really wasn’t all that safe when the last white guys—Mayors Daley and Emanuel—were in charge.

You might be MAGA and realize Vallas is as close as you’ll get to having Donald Trump as mayor.

After all, Vallas cozied up to Jeanne Ives and John Catanazara in the months leading up to this campaign. Even as he scrambled to distance himself from that ilk as we headed toward the February 28 election.

If so, vote for your guy.

But, please don’t fool yourself into believing that Vallas is, or has ever been, “a passionate ally of our community with a track record of significant contributions to the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement” and “a lifelong, pro-choice Democrat running to make sure Chicago will always be a safe haven for someone seeking reproductive care,” as Tunney contends in that commercial.

Tunney’s cautious choice of words—“reproductive care”—says it all. He can’t even bring

In return, Tunney was a reliable rubber stamper for any dumb idea that popped out of Daley’s brain, including the parking meter sale.

Similarly, Vallas was Daley’s budget director in the early 90s. He was there when Daley invented Chicago’s version of the Tax Increment Financing program. That is, they took a program designed to subsidize development in low-income neighborhoods and turned it into a gargantuan slush fund, fortified by an abundant flow of your property tax dollars that Daley was free to spend as he wanted— even if he wasted it on his cronies.

In 1995, Daley made Vallas CEO of Chicago Public Schools. It was presumably understood that Vallas made sure Daley got all the credit for anything they could possibly spin as good news.

The mayor eventually pushed out Vallas as CEO when it became obvious that Vallas was starting to believe he should get the credit—a mistake Tunney was too shrewd to make, so long as Daley was mayor.

Bottom line is I can’t recall either man sticking his neck out to take a controversial stance on abortion or LGBTQ+ rights. Especially not Vallas.

Actually, he went in the opposite direction back in 1996 in the matter of Coffee Will Make You Black—a coming-of-age novel that a substitute teacher had assigned to a freshman

When his turn came to speak, Vallas praised “school choice” as “the civil rights issue for this generation.”

Then he gave the group a few tips. “You have to define it as that because, I’ll tell you, the unions are relentless.”

You’ve “got to find natural allies,” such as police unions and conservatives, and build coalitions with them to “advance a pure schoolchoice agenda”, he said, according to Garcia.

In short, teacher unions are your enemies and police unions are your friends in the fight against critical race theory and transgender kids.

Eventually, Vallas retreated and claimed he didn’t realize Awake Illinois was transphobic when he agreed to appear at their fundraiser. Though any cursory Google check would have told him everything he needed to know about Awake Illinois.

Classic Vallas. Tell one group one thing and tell another group something else. And hope one doesn’t hear what he’s saying to the other.

Who knows, if Vallas prevails in taking back City Hall, he might put Shannon Adcock in charge of curriculum at CPS. Just a little gallows humor, my friends.

On the bright side, the next few weeks may bring us more Vallas-Tunney commercials, which are entertaining in their own George Santos sort of way. v @bennyjshow