Former Philly schools’ chief Paul Vallas is now in a two-man race to be Chicago’s next mayor

Paul Vallas, a polarizing former leader of Philadelphia’s schools, is now in a two-way race to become the next mayor of Chicago.

Vallas finished in first place in the Chicago mayoral election Tuesday and will face second-place finisher Brandon Johnson, a Cook County commissioner, in a runoff election April 4.

Vallas owned the more conservative lane in the nine-person race, garnering support from the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, and appealed to a large number of moderate Democrats, as well as Republicans and some independents, who can vote in the nonpartisan election.

Johnson, who had lagged in the polls earlier in the race, ran on a more progressive platform, with the backing of several progressive organizations and the Chicago teachers’ unions.

The two candidates’ ideological differences set up an intense battle for the direction Chicago could take on issues like education, policing, and crime — which are also top issues in Philadelphia’s May 16 mayoral primary.

While it’s easy to make some ideological comparisons between the candidates in Chicago and Philadelphia (namely the similar progressive followings of Johnson and Helen Gym), the race doesn’t foretell much about Philly’s election.

With Mayor Jim Kenney term-limited, Philadelphia’s is an open primary election, whereas Chicago had an incumbent, Lori Lightfoot, who failed to reach the runoff.

All registered voters can vote in Chicago. But in Pennsylvania, primary elections are closed, so only registered Democrats can vote in the Democratic primary contest, which almost certainly will pick the next mayor. Philadelphia leans heavily Democratic, with seven registered Democrats for every one Republican.

Philadelphia also doesn’t have a runoff provision like in Chicago, where the top two contenders face off, unless one has received more than 50% of the vote. That means with a crowded field here, a candidate could win with a much more narrow margin.

» READ MORE: Paul Vallas, a front-runner in the Chicago mayor’s race, was a controversial leader of Philly schools

Vallas arrived in Philadelphia in 2002, six months after the state seized control of the beleaguered school district, and wasted no time making his mark.

He was a polarizing champion of school choice and privatizing services during his time in Philadelphia. In his tenure, academics improved as the district standardized curriculum, opened a number of specialized high schools, and negotiated changes with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. Charter schools — which were authorized by the School Reform Commission, not Vallas — expanded in that era and the district flirted with private providers of its traditional public schools, an experiment that did not end well.

Shortly after he took the Philadelphia job, Vallas announced a zero-tolerance policy toward violence and disruption in schools. He threatened to fire principals who failed to report problems, and serious incidents soared. Like in Philadelphia, Chicago’s mayoral race has been almost unilaterally focused on crime. More than 800 people were murdered in the city in 2022, the most in a generation.

Vallas also led the Bridgeport, Conn., school system, New Orleans schools after Hurricane Katrina, and the Chicago Public Schools.