Gebruiker:Haaftjlv/LoriLightfoot

Lori Lightfoot at MacLean Center (10a).png Mayor-elect of Chicago Assuming office May 20, 2019 Succeeding Rahm Emanuel Personal details Born August 4, 1962 (age 56)

Political party Democratic[1][2] Spouse(s) Amy Eshleman Children 1 Education University of Michigan (BA) University of Chicago (JD)

Lori Elaine Lightfoot, Massillon (Ohio), V.S., 4 augustus 1962 is een Amerikaanse politica.

who is currently the mayor-elect of Chicago. She has worked in private legal practice as a partner at Mayer Brown, and held various government positions in the city of Chicago, most notably as former President of the Chicago Police Board.[3][4]

Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed her to replace 19-year incumbent Demitrius Carney as President of the Chicago Police Board in 2015. In the wake of the controversy over the murder of Laquan McDonald, Emanuel also appointed Lightfoot as Chair of a special Police Accountability Task Force.[5] In 2016, the Task Force, led by Lightfoot, filed a report critical of the Chicago Police Department's practices.[6]

Lightfoot defeated Toni Preckwinkle in the 2019 Chicago mayoral election on April 2, 2019.[7][8] Lightfoot is the first black female and first openly gay leader of the city, which will now be the largest in United States history to have an openly LGBTQ mayor.[9]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Early career 2.1 Assistant U.S. Attorney 2.2 Chicago Police Department Office of Professional Standards 2.3 Other roles in Chicago city government 2.4 Private practice 2.5 Chicago Police Board and Police Accountability Task Force 3 2019 mayoral campaign 4 Mayor of Chicago 5 Personal life 6 Public positions held 7 References 8 External links Early life Lightfoot was born in Massillon, Ohio, the daughter of a healthcare aide and school board member mother and a factory worker and janitor father. She is a graduate of Washington High School in Massillon, where she was class president. Her high school alumni association named her a "Distinguished Citizen" in 2013.[6][10][11]

She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from University of Michigan, working seven jobs to afford her education.[10][12] Lightfoot took jobs working for Congress members Ralph Regula and Barbara Mikulski before matriculating at University of Chicago Law School, where she was awarded a full scholarship. She first gained notoriety as a law student at UChicago when she, as president of the student body, led a successful movement to ban a law firm from campus after the firm sent a recruiter who made racist and sexist remarks towards a student. Lightfoot also served as a clerk for Justice Charles Levin of the Michigan Supreme Court. She graduated from law school in 1989. [13][14]

Early career Assistant U.S. Attorney After graduating law school, Lightfoot became a practicing attorney at Mayer Brown. Lightfoot first entered the public sector as Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. She cites several reasons for entering public service, including a desire to represent the African-American community, a sense of injustice based on the murder of a family member by a Ku Klux Klan member in the 1920s, and her older brother's struggles with the law.

While working as a federal prosecutor, Lightfoot assisted with Operation Silver Shovel, an FBI investigation into Chicago corruption. She helped to convict alderman Virgil Jones.[6] Lightfoot was issued a warning for misconduct by judge Richard Posner in a case [15] in which she was found by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to have misled a United States Circuit Judge regarding a suspect's whereabouts, making it impossible for the judge to stay the suspect's extradition to Norway. Lightfoot and the Justice Department at the time disputed this characterization of her actions. [16]

Chicago Police Department Office of Professional Standards In 2002, Lightfoot was appointed chief administrator of the Chicago Police Department Office of Professional Standards, a now-defunct governmental police oversight group, by Mayor Richard M. Daley. She held the position for two years. In the position, she was charged with investigating possible cases of police misconduct, including police shootings of civilians. However, a Chicago Tribune report found that the Office of Professional Standards' investigations often lacked thoroughness. Lightfoot says her recommendations for disciplinary action were often rejected by the police department.[6]

In one notable case, Lightfoot went against Police Department orthodoxy by recommending the firing of officer Alvin Weems, who shot and killed an unarmed man, Michael Pleasance. Weems was initially believed to have accidentally shot Pleasance, but after video evidence contradicting the initial claims was revealed, even Weems himself expressed feeling that the shooting was unjustified. Weems was not fired by the Chicago Police Department, but the city was eventually forced to pay a settlement to the Pleasance family. Weems later committed suicide.[16]

In another controversial case where officer Phyllis Clinkscales shot and killed unarmed 17-year-old Robert Washington, the Chicago Tribune reported that Lightfoot determined that the shooting was justified. In doing so, the Tribune said she reversed the order of her predecessor, who had called for Clinkscales' firing. Clinkscales' account of the events of the shooting had been found to contain untrue statements in an investigation.[16] Lightfoot disputes this account of Clinkscales' case, saying that the police superintendent at the time was responsible for declining Lightfoot's predecessor's finding that the shooting was unjustified.[17] Lightfoot said her action on the case was to push for a 30-day suspension for Clinkscales, which she implied was the most that was possible given the circumstances.[18]

Other roles in Chicago city government Lightfoot later worked with the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications. She then moved on to work as deputy chief of the Chicago Department of Procurement Services, where she and her boss, Mary Dempsey, investigated Chicago corruption, drawing Mayor Daley's ire in the process. Lightfoot and Dempsey's investigations included probes of then-Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich's associate Tony Rezko and prominent Daley donor Elzie Higginbottom. Lightfoot worked at the Department of Procurement Services for a few months, subsequently returning to Mayer Brown.[6]

Private practice As an attorney at Mayer Brown, Lightfoot represented Republicans in two cases protesting Democratic gerrymandering.[14] At Mayer Brown, she also defended Chicago police officer Paul Powers against charges of physical assault. In 2019, after facing criticism over defending Powers, Lightfoot cited video evidence in favor of her former client's innocence.[18]

Lightfoot was briefly hired by the city of Chicago to defend the city against charges brought by the family of a mentally ill woman, Christina Eilman, who was brought into custody by Chicago police after suffering a mental breakdown at Midway Airport. Eilman suffered sexual assault and a seven-story fall after being released by police into Englewood. Eilman's family reached a $22.5 million settlement with the city.[19][20]

Lightfoot has also served on the boards of the Illinois chapters of NARAL and the ACLU.[13] She has served as external counsel for Bank of America.[12] In 2013, Lightfoot was a finalist for the position of U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, but the job went to Zachary T. Fardon.[21]

Chicago Police Board and Police Accountability Task Force

Lightfoot speaking at the release of the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force's report in 2016 Lightfoot returned to the public sector in 2015, when Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed her to replace 19-year incumbent Demitrius Carney as President of the Chicago Police Board. The board's main responsibility is to make recommendations for or against disciplinary action on certain disputed cases of police misconduct.[21] Under Lightfoot's leadership, the board became more punitive, firing officers in 72% of its cases. In the wake of the controversy over the murder of Laquan McDonald, Emanuel also appointed Lightfoot as Chair of a special Police Accountability Task Force.[22] In 2016, the Task Force, led by Lightfoot, filed a report critical of the Chicago Police Department's practices.[6] She specifically criticized the police union's "code of silence.[23] The anti-police brutality activist organization Black Youth Project 100's Chicago chapter released a statement denouncing Lightfoot and the Board and Task Force for a "lack of accountability".[24]

In 2017, Emanuel re-appointed Lightfoot to a second term as president of the Police Board. The decision came after Lightfoot and Emanuel had publicly come into conflict, particularly over Emanuel's attempts to reach a police reform deal with Trump Administration Justice Department officials that would avoid a consent decree and oversight from a federal judge. Lightfoot called Emanuel's approach "fundamentally flawed". At the time, there was already speculation that Lightfoot was planning a run for mayor of Chicago in 2019, though she denied the rumors.[25] Lightfoot resigned from the Police Board in May 2018, just before announcing her mayoral campaign.[10]

2019 mayoral campaign See also: 2019 Chicago mayoral election

Lightfoot's mayoral campaign sign On May 10, 2018, Lightfoot announced her candidacy for Mayor of Chicago in the 2019 elections, her first-ever run for public office.[26][27][28] She is the first LGBTQ mayor and first black female mayor of Chicago.[29] Lightfoot is the first openly lesbian candidate in the history of Chicago mayoral elections.[30]

By the summer of 2018, Lightfoot had the highest-funded campaign of any individual challenging the two-term incumbent Emanuel.[31][32] However, in the fall, Emanuel dropped out of the race, and high-profile candidates like Gery Chico, Bill Daley, Susana Mendoza and Toni Preckwinkle subsequently entered.[33]

Animosity between the Preckwinkle and Lightfoot campaigns was reported as early as October 2018, when Preckwinkle denied rumors that she had pressured Lightfoot to drop out of the race.[34] In December, after Lightfoot submitted the petitions necessary to secure a place on the ballot, Preckwinkle's campaign filed a challenge claiming that many of Lightfoot's petitions were fraudulent. The Chicago Board of Elections Commissioners found Lightfoot had enough valid petitions to remain on the ballot, and Preckwinkle's campaign withdrew its challenge.[35]

In January the race was upended by a major corruption scandal involving Chicago alderman Ed Burke.[36] Lightfoot ran a television advertisement criticizing Chico, Daley, Mendoza and Preckwinkle as the "Burke Four" for their connections to the disgraced alderman.[37]

Lightfoot (far right) at the Copernicus Center alongside State Representative La Shawn Ford and activist Amara Enyia, December 2018 Lightfoot picked up several endorsements, including nods from LGBTQ groups and local politicians.[38][38][39] In February, Lightfoot won the endorsement of the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board.[14] As close to the election as late January, Lightfoot's support ranged between 2% and 5%.[40][41][42][43] She surged in polls later in the race, consistently polling at or near double-digits in surveys released in the weeks leading up to the election.[44][45][46][47][48]

Shortly before the election, Preckwinkle's campaign manager, Scott Cisek, came under fire after comparing Lightfoot to a Nazi in a Facebook post. Preckwinkle fired Cisek and publicly apologized for his post.[49]

Lightfoot with a supporter during a runoff rally in March 2019 Lightfoot finished first in the February election, in what was considered to be an upset.[39][50] She and Preckwinkle advanced to a runoff election.[8]

In the runoff, both the Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune endorsed Lightfoot.[51][52] Several former candidates, including Mendoza, Chico, Paul Vallas, and fourth-place finisher Willie Wilson also endorsed Lightfoot in the runoff.[53][54] Lightfoot held a substantial lead over Preckwinkle in polls conducted during the runoff campaign.[55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62]

During the runoff, Lightfoot faced criticism from criminal justice activists over her record in police accountability and as a prosecutor.[18][63] Chicago-based musician and activist Chancelor Bennett, also known as Chance the Rapper, voiced similar concerns in his runoff endorsement of Preckwinkle. Bennett, a former Amara Enyia supporter and son of Preckwinkle's campaign co-chair, said Lightfoot's record as a prosecutor and Chicago Police Department employee has worked against the interests of the black community in Chicago.[64] U.S. Representative Bobby Rush, who endorsed Preckwinkle in the runoff after supporting Daley in the general election, made similar criticisms of Lightfoot centered around criminal justice issues.[65][66] Lightfoot defended herself against Bennett's criticisms at a mayoral debate, citing her personal experiences with racial discrimination as evidence she would take the concerns of the black community into account.[67] Lightfoot also faced activist criticism over comments at a University of Chicago forum, where she suggested turning some shuttered schools in the city into police academies.[63][68] Lightfoot later disavowed this suggestion via Twitter.[69]

Lightfoot won the runoff election on April 2, 2019, becoming mayor-elect of Chicago.[9]

Mayor of Chicago Lightfoot is scheduled to take office on May 20, 2019.[70] Incumbent mayor Rahm Emanuel is reported to be planning on modeling the transition between his and Lightfoot's administrations after the U.S. presidential transition between the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations. Emanuel was part of that transition as Obama's Chief of Staff designate.[71]

Personal life Lightfoot resides in the Logan Square neighborhood on Chicago's North Side.[72] She is married to Amy Eshleman, with whom she raises an adopted daughter named Vivian who was eleven at the time Lightfoot was elected mayor.[27][73]

Public positions held Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois (1996–2002) Chief Administrator of the Chicago Police Department Office of Professional Standards (July 2002 – July 2004) Chief of Staff and General Counsel of the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications (July 2004 – February 2005) Acting First Deputy Procurement Officer of the City of Chicago Department of Procurement Services (February 2005 – October 2005) President of the Chicago Police Board (2015–2018) 56th Mayor of Chicago (beginning May 20, 2019)