Mr. Vallas will square off in April against second-place finisher (20.3% as of Wednesday) Brandon Johnson, a former union organizer who promised higher taxes and even more money for teachers and failing schools. It’s no exaggeration to say he is a wholly owned subsidiary of the CTU. The teachers current labor contract expires in 2024, and if Mr. Johnson wins the union will be on both sides of the negotiating table.

Mr. Johnson has received $931,308 from the CTU, as well as $1,557,846 from the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers, according to the Illinois Policy Institute. Other unions gave him $1.3 million, but the total of all his non-union contributions is less than $200,000.

Crime is a form of tax, and Mr. Johnson’s plan to tax the rich even more will make it easier for more businesses to follow the example of Citadel and Boeing and leave town. The real-estate firm Redfin says Chicago is among the top five metro areas in the country that people are trying to leave.

[The only people who can “save Chicago” are its voters. They took a good step in the right direction this week by giving Lightfoot the ignominious boot from office, but they’re still a long way off from being “saved.” They need a complete 180 on police and prosecutorial policies and a school system that actually educates rather than focusing on indoctrination into political and cultural Marxism. The runoff will show whether Chicago voters are serious about being saved, or are still blinded by progressive ideology. — Ed]