Last night, Ed had the live results of Chicago’s mayoral election and, to put it mildly, the outlook was not brilliant for Lori Lightfoot, who oversaw a dramatic decline in what was once one of America’s greatest cities. Looking back, I find it hard to comprehend that it’s only been four years since Lightfoot took the helm in the Windy City. She’s just been such a disaster as a mayor that it feels like she’s been tanking Chicago for ages. The Mayor came into office as one of those “historic” candidates of “equity.” As a Black, gay, female politician, she was heralded on the left as the future of Democratic politics. But the results she produced speak for themselves. Now she’ll be packing up her office and we’re left with the task of figuring out what Chicago will look like under new leadership.

Chicago Democrat Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday became the Windy City’s first incumbent mayor in 40 years to lose re-election as rising crime in the city steered voters away from the embattled leader.

Receiving only 16.4% of the vote, Lightfoot, 60, finished behind former head of Chicago Public Schools Paul Vallas and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson in Tuesday’s race.

Vallas, who took 35% of the vote, and Johnson, who obtained 20.2% of the vote, will head to an April 4 runoff election to determine who will be the city’s next mayor.

Right up until the end, it was clear that Lightfoot would carry the identity politics banner all the way to her political grave. She gave an interview on Saturday where she was asked about her dismal poll numbers and she had an explanation ready to roll out. “I am a black woman — let’s not forget. Certain folks, frankly, don’t support us in leadership roles.”

By “certain folks,” she obviously means “white folks” or MAGA Republicans or whatever other nonsense Joe Biden is peddling this week. The pattern never seems to change. It’s just a shame that she didn’t mention she’s a lesbian because then she would have finished the hat trick.

As to where Chicago goes from here, we won’t know that until after the runoff election on April 4th. Paul Vallas put in an impressive showing, as did Brandon Johnson. The two will face off in a little over a month, but there were seven other candidates in the race (including Lightfoot) so it will all come down to how their supporters break.

The differences between Vallas and Johnson are stark, and I’m not talking about the fact that Vallas is white while Johnson is Black. We dug into Paul Vallas’ profile last month and he’s something of an outlier among Chicago Democrats. He’s clearly the most conservative of the bunch, at one point telling a reporter that he thought of himself as “more of a Republican than a Democrat” and that he’s personally pro-life. He ran on a promise to bring Chicago’s crime rates under control and add hundreds of new officers to the Chicago PD. He received the endorsement of both the Chicago Tribune and the Fraternal Order of Police.

Brandon Johnson is at the opposite end of the scale. Widely viewed as the “most progressive” candidate in the field, he received the endorsement of the Chicago teachers’ unions. When asked during a recent debate, he refused to rule out the possibility that might further defund the police, drawing scathing criticism from even Mayor Lightfoot herself.

Given the decrepit state of Chicago these days, could the voters actually consider putting someone like Brandon Johnson in charge? Don’t laugh. We’re talking about a city that has been controlled for more than a century by one of the most corrupt political machines ever seen in America, rivaling even Tammany Hall in New York. And Chicago’s voters haven’t exactly run up a record of making the best choices.

But if Paul Vallas manages to be elected, perhaps there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon for Chicago. The city needs a serious dose of tough medicine and the streets need to be made safe if the industrial, retail, and entertainment sectors are to rebound. I’m foolish enough to believe that it’s still possible that it could happen. But we shouldn’t get our hopes up too far just yet based on nothing more than the promises of a Chicago politician.