IF YOU HAVE A BIG CRIME PROBLEM, CRIME ISN'T YOUR BIGGEST PROBLEM:

The homicide rate in this deep-blue city doesn't crack the top 10 in the U.S. -- though you wouldn't know it from the mayor's race.

The eight challengers hoping to topple Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot later this month are almost solely focused on the city's violence -- hammering on issues such as homicides, carjackings and robberies at every open microphone.

It's a policy spectrum that stretches from the far left, where there's a call for police funding to be shifted to social services, to the far right, and a candidate who wants suspected criminals hunted down "like a rabbit."

Throughout 2022, the political script was clear: Republicans in New York, Pennsylvania and elsewhere channeled voters' attention to a pandemic-era spike in violence while Democrats did their best to talk about anything else.

The Chicago brawl over crime, however, is happening among candidates who all count themselves as Democrats. And a dearth of public polling has given them space to question whether the city's first Black female mayor, who swept the 2019 runoff, is vulnerable.

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