Chicago Mayor's Race: Toni Preckwinkle withdraws petition challenge to Lori Lightfoot

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The race for Chicago mayor continues to take shape as one of the leading candidates loses another attempt to get a rival booted off the ballot.

Toni Preckwinkle dropped her petition challenge against Lori Lightfoot at a Monday morning hearing after pushing her objections through the weekend.

For the second time in a week, Preckwinkle has withdrew her petition challenge to a woman of color, this time involving one of her more vocal critics.

"It was an absolute waste of time and taking people, frankly away from their families," said Lightfoot.

The Chicago Board of Elections had certified more than 24,000 signatures for Lightfoot, nearly double the number required to get on the ballot.

"It is absolute shameful and she should apologize to the taxpayers of this city and she should apologize to the election workers," Lightfoot said.

This is the second high profile challenge Preckwinkle has lost.

A week ago, she did a last-minute about-face and dropped her challenge to Susana Mendoza.

By challenging five women of color in the race and losing the first two which were most important, it could spell problems for Preckwinkle down the road.

"Toni Preckwinkle has portrayed herself as the front runner in this race and is tougher to run with a bunch of candidates attacking you. I think candidates that are particularly aggravated at you like I said they're not going to pull any punches as this campaign moves forward," said Tom Bowen, Democratic strategist with New Chicago Consulting.

Lightfoot said Preckwinkle is not who Chicago needs running city hall.

"She's not progressive, she's not independent, she's not going to bring transparency to city government. She is the paragon of the status quo," Lightfoot said.

Preckwinkle is widely considered one of the front-runners, which will also make her the target of many more attacks to come.

Her campaign did not immediately comment on Monday.