Days before Chicago's mayoral election Tuesday, one of the frontrunners has found himself at the center of a controversy related to Twitter "likes." The account of Paul Vallas, one of eight candidates running against incumbent Lori Lightfoot, has what CBS Chicago calls "a history of offensive 'likes' ... dating back to before he launched his campaign." Among the tweets "liked" by the account are ones disparaging Lightfoot's appearance or referring to her as "Larry," and others described by CBS as racist. "It's obvious we got hacked," said Vallas, who added that he's already apologized for the issue, "and in fact, even though we shut down our system; changed our password, they're still trying to hack us."
His campaign echoes that in a statement saying, among other things, "Paul does not personally manage the campaign's Twitter account and he was shocked when this was brought to his attention because this kind of abhorrent rhetoric does not represent his views." As for why someone might do this, Vallas says it's because he's doing so well in the polls due to his willingness to talk about the issues that people who don't want to talk about those same issues are trying to "change the subject." As CNN reports, no candidate is expected to get more than 50% of the vote, in which case the top two vote-getters will advance to a runoff in April. Lightfoot is Chicago's first Black woman and first out gay person to serve as mayor, but she's fighting for a spot in the runoff. (Vallas previously called her out for a controversial email.)
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