Former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Wednesday he is "absolutely thinking about" challenging Mayor Lori Lightfoot for office in 2023, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Duncan, who served under then-President Barack Obama from 2009-16, told the Sun-Times three weeks ago that he was being pushed to run for mayor by business leaders concerned about Chicago’s future.
On Wednesday, Duncan told reporters he was "absolutely thinking about" running.
"All of us as citizens are just extraordinarily concerned about where we are as a city right now and want to get to a better place," Duncan said at a private meeting with the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, the Sun-Times reported. "It's just way too serious … to stay silent.
"There’s nothing personal here. This is life and death."
Last year ended as one of the most violent years on record in Chicago, according to statistics released by the police department. The Sun-Times said Chicago ended 2021 with 836 homicides, the highest total in a quarter century.
"We're coming off of two horrific years. We already have more shootings so far this January than last January," Duncan said, though Chicago Police Department (CPD) data said otherwise, the Sun-Times reported.
"We can't afford to have another horrific year in 2022. Why is it important to address these issues now? Because it’s early enough in the year to do some things different and try to get our city to a much safer place right now."
Duncan spoke before the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce to push his plan to battle violent crime. Saying the CPD was "in crisis," he pushed his proposal to rethink the fundamental role of police to free "burned out" officers to spend more time solving violent crime.
His plan also includes taking violence prevention programs "to scale" at a cost of $400 million.
"The biggest driver of gun violence is retaliation because no one is being held accountable," he said. "In Roseland, less than 1 in 10 shootings leads to an arrest. In the absence of real justice, there is street justice."
Duncan noted that CPD has 10 officers for every civilian employee — compared with 3 to 1 in New York, Los Angeles and other major cities, the Sun-Times reported.
"There doesn't need to be less sworn officers. The number is relevant," he said. "But what's much more important to me is how those officers are deployed. How they’re used."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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