Bill Daley, the son and brother of legendary Chicago mayors, as well as the former chief of staff for Barack Obama, spent nearly twice as much in the Democratic primary for mayor as his closest rival, Cook County Board president Toni Preckwinkle. The last weeks of the campaign saw Daley being tarred with accepting a $2-million campaign contribution from billionaire Ken Griffin, a prominent donor to the campaign of the unpopular former governor of Illinois, Bruce Rauner.  In a race where anti-establishment themes dominated, that was enough to deny Daley a spot in the runoff election, scheduled for April 2. Preckwinkle, who was tied to the burgeoning public corruption scandal involving longtime powerful Alderman Ed Burke, managed to finish ahead of Daley in second place.  The candidate who won the most votes and who will face off with Preckwinkle is an African-American lesbian outsider who was polling in single digits just last month. Lori Lightfoot...(Read Full Post)