Saturday marked an especially busy day in the race for Chicago mayor, with candidates making their pitch to voters and Election Day just three days away.
Incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot, as well as other candidates, focused on their opponents as they hoped to gain last-minute support.
"I’m going to give you 800 million reasons not to vote for Brandon Johnson, and it’s precisely the size of the taxes that he wants to put on your head when he becomes mayor," Lightfoot said.
Lightfoot also took aim at Paul Vallas, the former Chicago Public Schools CEO, who has faced recent criticism for offensive posts liked by his Twitter account. Vallas has blamed unnamed hackers for liking the posts, according to the Chicago Tribune.
"First it was an intern did it, that must have been what happened, then last night he said no, no, no, I was hacked. By who? The Russians Paul?" Lightfoot said.
Vallas, through a spokesperson, released the following statement to NBC 5 late Saturday:
""I do not personally manage the campaign's Twitter account and was shocked when this was brought to my attention because this kind of abhorrent and vile rhetoric does not represent me or my views," he said. "While I had nothing to do with liking these posts, our campaign takes responsibility and apologizes, and we want it to be clear that we have already taken immediate steps to restrict access to the account to prevent anything like this from happening again. We are working on identifying who is responsible for liking these tweets as many volunteers have had access to the account in recent years, including some who are no longer with the campaign, and will take immediate action in removing them from our campaign if they are still involved."
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At an event in Little Village, Vallas didn't discuss the controversy, but focused on his plans for the Chicago Police Department.
"We will recruit officers from within the community and while we will support our police officers with humane work and schedules... we will support our police officers when they respond to calls so that they can arrest criminals," he said.
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The latest polls show Vallas as the frontrunner, with his opponents battling for a second spot in the anticipated runoff election.
"No one has held the record that I’ve had, no one has been active in dismantling some of the bad politics, and no one has helped built a new bench of leaders for the future as I have," said Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García.
Recent polls reveal Johnson, a Cook County commissioner, is surging and trailing Vallas.
Johnson recently thanked his supporters, saying he believes the momentum is on his side.
"Our movement is on the front page of papers across this city," he said. "Our movement is streaming across the world right now, that a better, stronger, safer Chicago is just moments away."
