美国国家公共电台 NPR--Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot faces 8 challengers in Tuesday's election

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot faces 8 challengers in Tuesday's election

Transcript¹

Voters will decide whether the city's first openly gay and first Black female mayor will win reelection or face a runoff. Why is the incumbent² mayor facing so many challengers?

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

Chicago voters are heading to the polls tomorrow to decide if the city's current mayor should serve another term.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Yeah. Lori Lightfoot made history four years ago as the first openly gay and first Black woman to lead the country's third-largest city. Now she faces a stiff reelection battle and could be the first mayor in decades to not get a second term.

MART?NEZ: WBEZ's government and politics reporter, Mariah Woelfel, has been covering the race. Mariah, she made history four years ago when she was elected. She beat out - what? - more than a dozen people. But now she's in a similar situation. But since, typically, the city's incumbent mayor wins reelection, why is Lightfoot facing so many challengers?

MARIAH WOELFEL, BYLINE³: Right. Well, like many other big-city mayors, Lightfoot faced a really unprecedented⁴ set of challenges in her first four years in office - elected in 2019, soon after hit with a global pandemic. She was elected as a political outsider, as a reformer who was going to put an end to long-standing political corruption⁵ in Chicago. When submitting her paperwork to run this time, she joked that she'd give this note of caution to her 2019 self.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LORI LIGHTFOOT: Beware of a global pandemic.

(LAUGHTER)

WOELFEL: Her term has been marked by pandemic-era challenges - you know, public disputes with the teachers union over when to send kids back to school, with police over vaccine⁶ mandates⁷. But I think most of all, people are lining⁸ up to replace her because she's dealt with an increase in crime that, you know, many cities across the country have grappled with that her opponents say they can do a better job of fixing.

MART?NEZ: Now, Chicago is a big city - third-largest city - but largely a segregated⁹ one, too. There's a mix, though, of Black, Latino and white candidates. How is race playing a role in this election?

WOELFEL: Sure. The main point here is that there are seven Black candidates, one white, one Latino in the race. So some strategists fear that the Black community's vote - who want to see someone in office who will represent that community's issues - of course, those issues are diverse - but that that vote will be split among those seven candidates, leading to, you know, two others who might not have broad support getting into what's to be a likely runoff election. There's also one - only one white candidate, like I said, Paul Vallas. And he's just one of two candidates running to the right of Lightfoot politically. He's a Democrat¹⁰ but more conservative than her. He has a very clear and uncrowded lane, with a tough-on-crime message. Delmarie Cobb is a veteran political strategist and said that's a factor in his front-runner status this time.

DELMARIE COBB: The racial part of this is that whites will galvanize around Paul Vallas. And we've already seen that the wealthy Republican establishment is pouring money into his campaign right and left.

WOELFEL: Racial politics has a long history here in Chicago, and it's been on full display this election, too.

MART?NEZ: And we've talked about how Lightfoot is a first for the city. But if she does not win the race, she would join the city's only other female mayor - and that's Jane Byrne in the '80s - in not winning a reelection bid. Has being a female mayor been at all a factor for her so far?

WOELFEL: Well, I think Lightfoot would say absolutely yes, it's been a hurdle¹¹ for her reelection fight. She started this campaign saying to a crowd of people at a bakery on Chicago's South Side that she's a Black woman in America; people are betting against her every day, but that doesn't mean she's not ready for a fight. She's certainly had some major accomplishments¹², maybe some she hasn't gotten enough credit for. But she also has some very real things to answer for. She's reneged on a lot of progressive campaign promises that people are upset about - to reform the police in a more meaningful way, create a Department of Environment to prioritize ending environmental racism¹³ in the city, pushing for an elected school board - things that voters want to see her take on in a more meaningful way.

MART?NEZ: That's Mariah Woelfel, political reporter with member station WBEZ in Chicago. Thanks a lot.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 incumbent   

adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的

参考例句：

• He defeated the incumbent governor by a large plurality.他以压倒多数票击败了现任州长。
• It is incumbent upon you to warn them.你有责任警告他们。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

5 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

6 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

7 mandates   

托管（mandate的第三人称单数形式）

参考例句：

• Individual mandates would require all people to purchase health insurance. 个人托管要求所有人都要购买健康保险。
• While I agree with those benefits, I'm not a supporter of mandates. 我同意上述好处，我不是授权软件的支持者。

8 lining   

n.衬里，衬料

参考例句：

• The lining of my coat is torn.我的外套衬里破了。
• Moss makes an attractive lining to wire baskets.用苔藓垫在铁丝篮里很漂亮。

9 segregated   

分开的； 被隔离的

参考例句：

• a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
• The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。

10 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

11 hurdle   

n.跳栏，栏架；障碍，困难；vi.进行跨栏赛

参考例句：

• The weather will be the biggest hurdle so I have to be ready.天气将会是最大的障碍，所以我必须要作好准备。
• She clocked 11.6 seconds for the 80 metre hurdle.八十米跳栏赛跑她跑了十一秒六。

12 accomplishments   

n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就

参考例句：

• It was one of the President's greatest accomplishments. 那是总统最伟大的成就之一。
• Among her accomplishments were sewing,cooking,playing the piano and dancing. 她的才能包括缝纫、烹调、弹钢琴和跳舞。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

13 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。