Cannibalizing the mayor’s race

By Shia Kapos

With help from Olivia Olander

Good Monday morning, Illinois. And welcome first lady Jill Biden, who’s visiting our fair state today.

The upcoming Chicago mayor’s race is revealing huge divisions within the progressive community.

Who's more progressive: Candidates Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Brandon Johnson, Sophia King and Kam Buckner are all card-carrying progressives who are dissatisfied with the management of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who also touts some progressive credentials.

The issues: Unlike the midterms, however, where progressives addressed reproductive health care, student debt and democracy, the municipal elections are going to zero in on one thing: crime.

The challenge for progressive challengers is being able to speak to how they’ll handle public safety while also juggling their left-leaning supporters who want more accountability from police.

Even within the progressive movement, there are different sects. Johnson leans toward Democratic Socialists. Garcia is more of a middle-to-left progressive. And who will be the Bernie Sanders candidate?

There’s already a cannibalization within the progressive movement. Garcia, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, is backed by state Rep. Theresa Mah. Johnson is endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union, Congresswoman-elect Delia Ramirez and state Rep. Lakesia Collins. King heads the City Council’s progressive caucus. And Buckner championed criminal justice reform in Springfield.

Lightfoot’s progressive report card: The mayor has supported a $15 minimum wage, a fair work week, a guaranteed-income pilot program and investments in affordable housing. And she's backed by progressive state Rep. Kelly Cassidy and Ald. Scott Waguespack.

The real challenge for her opponents: How to reckon with the awkwardness of claiming the progressive mantle while taking on the first black, gay woman mayor of Chicago.

Illinois House Republicans appear set to endorse Rep. Tony McCombie as the new caucus chair. They are scheduled to vote Tuesday, according to a memo signed by McCombie and 22 other House Republicans.

McCombie would become the first woman to hold the top leadership post in the House in either party. (Some years ago, state Sen. Christine Radogno was the first woman to hold the minority leadership post in the Senate.)

The angling for the new House leader comes on the heels of state Rep. Jim Durkin announcing he will be stepping down from the top job. Durkin also signed on to the letter supporting McCombie.

Mike Mahoney, deputy chief of staff to Durkin and senior adviser to the caucus for more than a decade, is already helping McCombie transition into her expected new role as House Republican leader.

Big question about what’s next: Durkin has said he is evaluating what his next chapter will be, but lawmakers behind the scenes believe it’s likely he will step away from his seat before the new legislative session begins.

On the Senate side, state Sen. John Curran is angling to challenge Minority Leader Dan McConchie. The outcome of that contest will be decided this week, too

If you are a progressive politico, Playbook would like to know what will drive your vote in the municipal election. Email skapos@politico.com .

Have a news tip, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for Playbook? I’d like to hear from you: skapos@politico.com

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No official public events.

At City Hall at 9 a.m. for a special meeting of the City Council.  — Then at the Aon Center at 1:45 p.m. to join first lady Jill Biden, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to highlight the Biden administration's apprenticeship and career-connected learning programs.

At O’Hare airport at 11 a.m. to greet the first lady on the tarmac. — Then, they'll head to Rolling Meadows High School to kick-off National Apprenticeship Week.

— In year’s final session, Illinois legislators set to consider changes to SAFE-T Act but likely to leave gun control, abortion for 2023: “While Democrats wrote and passed the law, party leaders including the governor and Attorney General Kwame Raoul have acknowledged that some fixes are needed. Gov. JB Pritzker said a priority of the session that begins Tuesday will be to clarify the discretion that judges will have to detain defendants who pose a risk under the cashless bail system,” by Tribune’s Jeremy Gorner and Dan Petrella.

— Insurance giant failed foster kids with inadequate care: “A nearly $370 million contract promised to improve health care for state wards — but for two years the Centene Corp. fell short on basic care, forcing foster parents to scramble,” by Better Government Association’s David Jackson and Rachel Hinton.

— Illinois GOP, suffering from Trump factor and right-wing ideology, teeters on edge of irrelevance, by Tribune’s Rick Pearson and Dan Petrella

— ‘We got shellacked’: Election results put spotlight on Illinois GOP’s future, by Daily Herald’s Jake Griffin

— ARRIVED: Chicago welcomed 17 new migrants Friday, according to the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services. The city has now welcomed 3,684 asylum-seekers bused from the Texas border since Aug. 31.

— City says it’s on track to plant 15,000 trees in first step to fix Chicago’s tree disparities: But “real work” starts now, advocates say, via Tribune’s Maddie Ellis.

— Where is Ald. Walter Burnett Jr.’s missing $300,000 in campaign money? “The long-tenured Chicago City Council member says when asked what happened to that money: ‘I don’t feel comfortable talking about that with you. It’s not my city business,’” by Sun-Times’ Tim Novak and Lauren FitzPatrick.

— Vapes, bongs and sneakers: How and where e-cigarettes are sold have parents alarmed and Chicago looking at new restrictions, by Tribune’s Alice Yin

— Public money powers manufacturing incubator mHUB’s growth: “MHUB plans to move to the Kinzie Industrial Corridor on the Near West Side with $17.6 million in tax increment financing and another $9.6 million from the state,” by Sun-Times’ David Roeder

— Nonprofit wants to bring tech workforce hub to Greater Grand Crossing with help of $10M Pritzker Traubert Foundation prize, by Sun-Times’ Mariah Rush

— Voters want to reopen city’s closed mental health clinics. An alderperson says she’ll use momentum to revive stalled plan, by Block Club’s Alex V. Hernandez

— Once-touted Englewood Whole Foods closes as shoppers mourn the health-focused grocer, by Tribune’s Jake Sheridan

— 16 St. Ignatius College Prep students injured after truck crashes into hockey team bus in Indiana, by Sun-Times’ David Struett and Allison Novelo

— New pedestrian greenway could connect Chicago’s East Side with New Buffalo, Mich., by Tribune’s Sarah Freishtat

— What's next for the Bears at Arlington? A review process likely to take years, by Daily Herald’s Christopher Placek

— Oak Park makes it official: Village’s first woman top cop Shatonya Johnson takes oath of office, via Pioneer Press Staff

— Residents of south suburban Dixmoor want a long-term fix to the village’s water problems, by WBEZ’s Adora Namigadde.

— Mental health programs to start in select suburbs after voters approved property tax hikes, by Tribune’s Robert McCoppin

— Indicted Ald. Carrie Austin ‘not medically fit’ for trial, her lawyers say days after she voted on city budget: “They say her medical records are ‘startling,’ and she ‘cannot cooperate fully with counsel or withstand the stress of a trial,’” by Sun-Times’ Jon Seidel.

— CTA President Dorval R. Carter, Jr. impersonated by Twitter accounts, agency says, via The Associated Press/NBC 5

— Flight attendants urge lawmakers to better protect them from passenger abuse, by Block Club’s Kayleigh Padar

— Rev. Jesse Jackson’s half-brother Noah Robinson Jr. freed from life sentence for hiring El Rukn hit men: “Robinson, 80, was freed under the First Step Act. He’d been in custody since 1989, convicted of ordering the killing of a former childhood friend and linking the El Rukn gang to drug suppliers,” by Sun-Times’ Frank Main.

— Illinois man who pleaded guilty to Jan. 6 attack is arrested in fatal Interstate 55 crash, by State Journal-Register’s Steven Spearie

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We asked what decade you’d like to visit, or revisit:

Ed Mazur: “The 1960s for JFK, Peace Corps, Civil Rights, anti-Viet Nam War movement, 1968 Convention, marriage and being hired by the U. of I. Chicago to teach in the history department. Also had a full head of hair.”

Steve Sheffey: “I'd like to go back to the first decade 75,000 years ago and tell the person who invented the wheel that one day Elon Musk would invent a self-driving car — and then give that person a blue checkmark.”

John Straus: “The 1820s so I could travel the new nation with Alexis de Toqueville, while he researched Democracy in America, first published in 1830.”

Timothy Thomas Jr.: “The 1960s for the energy of the Civil Rights movement and leaders who were truly selfless.”

Chris White: “I had the best time in the ‘90s.”

How would you like travel to change in the future? Email skapos@politico.com

— Michelle Obama shares personal stories of coping in her new book: During the pandemic and post-George Floyd, she says, “Everyone was searching for some answers of how to cope. And for some reason they were asking me, ‘What do you do?’ I had to start thinking about that,” the former first lady said in an interview pegged to Tuesday’s release of her second book, “The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times.” She is also set to open a six-city book tour . The Associated Press reports.

— Dems want answers from Musk’s Twitter: “Musk said he would work to protect users, but we have seen quite the opposite,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce panel on consumer protection, via POLITICO’s Rebecca Kern.

And this: Washington gets increasingly freaked out by Twitter, by POLITICO’s Mohar Chatterjee

— House GOP presses toward leadership elections despite post-midterm disarray, by POLITICO’s Olivia Beavers

— Voters of color did move to the right — just not at the rates predicted, by POLITICO’s Marissa Martinez

— Trump’s picks to oversee elections in key 2024 battlegrounds all lost, by POLITICO’s Zach Montellaro

— Chicago-based cable startup NewsNation, host of this season’s most talked-about debates, sees election boost after slow start, by Tribune’s Robert Channick

— Sun-Times obit writer Maureen O’Donnell bids farewell to daily reporting: “I’ve written about too many people who died, leaving their dreams unrealized. I might contribute to the Sun-Times from time to time, but right now I’m planning to retire and travel,” by Sun-Times’ Maureen O’Donnell.

— Paul W. Hamann is leaving the Night Ministry, where he’s been president and CEO. Hamann has been with the organization for more than 20 years. Senior Vice President Erin Ryan will serve as interim president and CEO while a search for a permanent replacement is conducted.

FRIDAY’s ANSWER: Congrats to Barbara Flynn Currie and Jim Montgomery for correctly answering that the late state Rep. Joseph Callahan’s son was Senate aide Gene Callahan and granddaughter is Congresswoman Cheri Bustos.

TODAY’s QUESTION: Who are two big-city mayors — one from Illinois — who attended Providence College together? Email skapos@politico.com  

Obama Presidential Center President Valerie Jarrett, Elk Grove Township Democratic Committeeman Ted Mason and lobbyist and former Chicago alderman Gene Schulter.

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