Chicago City Wire

On the heels of violent Chicago weekend that included thousands of teens marauding and looting the Loop and the murder of a teenager in Millennium Park, Illinois GOP candidate for governor Darren Bailey said Mayor Lori Lightfoot should resign, calling her continued tenure “a threat to the safety of all Chicagoans.”

Bailey also called upon rival GOP gubernatorial candidate Richard Irvin, a friend of Lightfoot who has promised to "collaborate" with her, to join him in repudiating the first-term mayor and her policies.

“Lori Lightfoot got her political start leading the anti - police movement in Chicago. She‘s trying to destroy a world-class city— preventing police from doing their jobs, favoring criminals, letting them wreak havoc downtown,” Bailey told Chicago City Wire. “As governor I will do everything within my power to stop the Lightfoot anti-police, pro-criminal agenda and to restore order in Chicago.”

Illinois state Sen. Darren Bailey | Facebook

Bailey said Irvin has been silent when it comes to Chicago crime for fear of offending Lightfoot.

"Richard Irvin won't point the finger at Lori Lightfoot because they are friends," Bailey said. "Every Republican running for Illinois Governor should call for her resignation."

Irvin and Lightfoot attended a meeting of fellow Democrat mayors called the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative together in New York City "to discuss issues and benchmark best practices." Other attendees included Mayors Jacob Frey of Minneapolis and London Breed of San Francisco.

Lightfoot wrote that she and Irvin promised to "continue the conversation and plan future collaborations in the near future."

"At the core of it, Lori and I both grew up from very humble beginnings, became attorneys, advocated for our community and now have the utmost honor of serving as mayor of our respective cities," said Irvin.

Chicago police said they arrested 26 juveniles and five adults on Saturday, after the murder of 16 year-old Seandell Holiday in front of the city's "Bean" sculpture. Police also recovered eight guns.

On Thursday, a group of teens swarmed North Avenue beach then Chicago's Old Town neighborhood, jumping on cars and Chicago Transit Authority buses.

That was one week after a 23 year old culinary student was shot three times, including in the head, by a robber who tried to steal his cell phone in Lincoln Park.

Bailey, a state senator from downstate Xenia, is one of five candidates running in the June 28 GOP primary for governor. The others are Irvin, former State Sen. Paul Schimpf of Waterloo, entrepreneur Gary Rabine of Bull Valley and venture capitalist Jesse Sullivan of Petersburg.

Like Irvin, Lightfoot was a criminal defense attorney before she was appointed as president of the Chicago Police Board in June 2015 by then-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.