Chicago saw another bloody weekend of violence even in the dead of winter with 22 people shot and three fatalities between Friday night and Sunday afternoon in the "windy city," which has some of the strictest gun laws in the country and has been run by Democrats for at least 50 years. 

The first fatal shooting occurred in an alley at 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning, when a 23-year-old man was shot numerous times in an alley and died at the scene, in the 8400-block of South Wabash.

The second fatal shooting occurred about 23 hours later, around 1:40 a.m. Sunday, when two men ambushed another man, 32, in his car and shot him. The 32-year-old shooting victim was taken to the hospital, where he died.

The final fatal shooting occurred 10 minutes later around 1:50 a.m., when a 23-year-old was found lying in a different location with multiple gunshot wounds and was taken to the hospital, where he also died.

Homicides continue to be high

So far in 2023, 57 people have been killed in Chicago, where Democrat Lori Lightfoot has been mayor since 2019.

She is up for re-election this year; in fact, early voting started today in the city ahead of the February 28 voting deadline.

So far, more than 41,000 votes have already been cast by mail in the election, compared to 0nly 2,452 at the same time in 2019.

Politico called the mayoral race extremely "fluid," with Lightfoot facing strong opposition from Paul Vallas and Jesus “Chuy” Garcia. Brandon Johnson trails the other three but remains close enough to be a wild card in the race.

Re-election not certain

It is by no means a sure thing that Lightfoot will be re-elected or be one of the top two candidates, who will face off in a subsequent runoff if no candidate gets a majority.

Lightfoot's internal polling shows her with a slight lead, 24% to 20% over Vallas as of February 9.

Vallas is facing last minute allegations of carpetbagging, since he splits his time between a home in Chicago and one in his wife's name in Palos Hills.

But Vallas also got an infusion of cash into his campaign from Koch Foods billionaire Joseph Grendys, which should help with last minute ads.

Lightfoot raised almost twice as much from some large donors of her own that included Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts, media exec Fred Eychaner, and Peak6 Investments co-founder Jenny Just, among others.

Does she really deserve another term to run the city when she can't make a dent in the number of shootings and homicides there, however?