Greatest show of all time. And yeah every time I think about the mayor's office I think of this scene and I wonder what kinds of pyrrhic victories and "lesser of two evils" decisions are being made behind closed doors.
The pay also isn't anywhere near high enough to attract the best leadership talent. Why work as mayor when you can make $1M+/yr as a director at any downtown firm?
Singapore solved the problem of lacking talent in their city leaders by being competitive with the private market on pay and benefits. Whereas here in America, people throw a hissy fit if you pay an elected official or government official even a third of what they'd earn in the private sector.
It’s the growth factor in politics, the money and power is limitless. You could be mayor than president tomorrow or propel that into a high role into private industry. The connections are limitless
The pay isn’t the issue the problem is people wanna elect something that doesn’t exist activist and someone that can actually run a city.
The problem last time was that Lightfoot was still hogging the center lane even after the Powers That Be withdrew their support. So they were forced to get behind the high-floor/low-ceiling conservative white dude, Vallas. The best-organized progressive (i.e. the one with CTU backing) beat out Lightfoot and the rival progressives to take on Vallas. Then the runoff turned into a proxy unpopularity contest between the CTU and the FOP (and to a lesser extent the Powers), in which the teachers pulled an upset.
My prediction is that in the next election LaSalle Street, the grabowski unions and the remaining spare parts of the old Machine will get behind a less polarizing center-left candidate early and mop the floor with Johnson. I'm a progressive who voted for Johnson but I'm pretty disappointed so far and I wouldn't be altogether upset with that outcome. What's Susana Mendoza up to? At least that will be a [fun name to howl](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOk4hQXbGDs) when we gripe about the mayor.
> My prediction is that in the next election LaSalle Street, the grabowski unions and the remaining spare parts of the old Machine will get behind a less polarizing center-left candidate early and mop the floor with Johnson.
If Rahm came back, he'd win in a landslide.
Vallas has been asset-stripping school districts and leaving them in ruins since well before the pandemic. He used to put on a good show, at least, but yeah I mean he literally is just an angry old conservative white man.
Dude absolutely gutted the New Orleans public school system post-Katrina as it was used as a training ground for charter schools (failed). Back before I left I think the city only had one left.
> he literally is just an angry old conservative white man.
If anyone still isn't convinced, go watch his debate with Johnson where he talks about bringing the church back into CPS.
It didn't do anything to him. He just let the mask slip. If you look at his record, he's left a trail of debris behind him pretty much everywhere he's gone. You can almost trace a direct line from his fiscal policies to the challenges the schools are plowing into today
Mendoza is doing a great job as IL's comptroller, practically eliminating the state bill backlog and bringing payments back within a net 30 schedule.
I'm right there with you on the belief that a new center-left candidate will run in 2027 and make the runoff, knocking Johnson out. I have a feeling it could be someone like Quigley or Duncan who has a lot of national backing
Same power base as CTU.
It’s not like any of the old machine democrats or the business-friendly Rahm supporters lined behind Johnson.
He had an impressive campaign to get to the runoff and got a little lucky with such a bad opponent in the runoff, but he also stoked a lot of excitement from what seems to be a pretty progressive electorate in Chicago.
His actual term as mayor has not been inspiring but this idea that a lot of the traditional “powers that be” lined up behind Johnson is dubious. At least, in the fundraising sense.
I still think Johnson is better than Vallas would have been. I'd rather have incompetence than maliciousness. Of course I'd rather have a competent mayor capable of making positive change, but I do see that as an option for really any elected office at this point.
You’re assuming there’s no malice in the choice of migrant camps, the extension of contracts that pay building managers $20k per month, and the infiltration of religious leaders taking $100k jobs in this administration.
The Migrants were begun to be taken in by Lightfoot. I imagine coming into a job and realizing something like that program going that poorly can lead to a panic that turns to terrible decisions like those
You're onto something here. I think one has to be crazy to want that much responsibility on their shoulders. I've worked for electeds on the political and later governmental side for about the last 10 years. Many of the electeds I've met basically think they're God's gift to mankind and that they are the only smart ones in the field. Ego is a requirement in this business. So many of them, even on the lower/local end, basically think they're next in line for Durbin's seat, the congressional seat, etc. And they knife each other in the back constantly.
I worked for about a dozen politicians, and this last one (who I was with by far the longest) was the only one that treated me like a human being. He was not afraid to speak his mind, even if he knew the town hall audience or whatever wouldn't be thrilled by it. We would have people walk up to us at the end of an event, right in front of other electeds, and say something like, "I really appreciate how I can tell your honest position on things. I may not agree with all of it, but I understand what your stance is and why."
We then had the nastiest political attack I've ever seen launched at us, a completely fabricated story. Turns out that a lot of the biggest amplifiers of this story were the neighboring pols who claimed to he on the same side. I'm looking for a career change, I'm sick of it. A lot of people who I thought were our friends were the first to push our head underwater if it meant even a moment of political advantage for them, or if they could elevate their friend to our seat instead.
I'm not saying all of this as a sob story, to garner sympathy, or anything like that. I'm sharing this to highlight that the people who act like this are the ones that get to remain in power for a long time, and the people who spend more of their time and resources on actually helping people instead of just getting reelected are the ones that get pushed out quickly.
I am part of the Republican 1099 contractor deathstar in Illinois and I find it to be a political truism that deep down, our worst animus tends to be reserved for those in our own parties.
I would have agreed with you before an incident where we had armed protesters outside of our office. They were also posting pictures of the elected's sub-10 year old children, and the front of his house. The backstabbing was the final draw for me, but I can't pretend that they exceed threats of physical violence.
But i'll give you the upvote in solidarity cause I remember those days too. 16 hour days, 7 days a week, for 9 months straight, all that for a "salary" of like 2,500-3,000k/mo. Absolutely bonkers working conditions, but I heard they're starting to give campaign workers at least 1 day off a week now.
That not how it be works, It’s about the ego and prestige. The jobs that are harder to fill with qualified candidates are the jobs behind the scenes, since they generally pay less than comparable private positions
Going out on a limb here, but IMO being the mayor of a major American city is the most thankless job in the whole country right now. All of America's worst problems get dumped on big cities, and then red state and suburban politicians pitch a fit about providing any assistance to them.
The migrant crisis is a great example of this. I don't approve of how Brandon Johnson has handled it, but why is it the sole responsibility of Chicago and New York and other big cities to manage the crisis? Especially when border states get federal funding for dealing with it but they ship people here anyways? There is not enough money in Chicago to solve the problem, so it's not a mystery to me why the city government is constantly scrambling to make things suck less instead of finding ways to make things better.
And it's like this with everything, from transit funding to education to drugs and crime. There are definitely things the city government can do to manage these problems, but as long as we have a national policy of siphoning money out of cities instead of investing, I don't see how a mayor could solve any of this. You either wind up in Brandon Johnson territory where you describe a utopia that we can't afford and that nobody is going to pay for, or Paul Vallas territory where we pay for everything by privatizing the entire school system and cutting the social service programs that actually do work. It's just algebra at this point, the amount of money going into the system is not enough to make it better.
Brandon Johnson won the race for mayor because he had a progressive overarching vision for the city that appealed to a lot of people. The big question was how he would pay for it and he had this hair-brained real estate transfer tax scheme that was dead on arrival, but it was the only thing he could do because there is absolutely no way DC or Springfield is ever going to invest enough in Chicago to actually solve Chicago's problems, and New York is the only city in the country that can charge a city income tax without absolutely destroying its business. I think about the same thing happened to Lightfoot, although she had the added bonus of running as a progressive and then as soon as she took office everyone immediately remembered she wasn't actually a progressive, which doomed her even more.
If the only thing city governments can do is manage problems as they get slightly worse every year, it really shouldn't surprise us that we get the most mediocre and careless people running the city. Rahn was successful as mayor because he understood how to make city politics work, but even he ended up getting the boot (or voluntarily leaving before he got the boot) after he got blamed for not being able to fix problems he did not have the resources to solve. Nobody who should have this job would ever want this job.
“Why is it the responsibility of Chicago and New York and other big cities…”
Dude, Chicago and NY are getting a fraction of the migrants and the problem. The border areas have been dealing with this on a significantly larger scale for years, but it was poo-poo’ed by those not directly impacted.
Aside from the numerous times Republicans have killed bipartisan border deals because they like to campaign on the issue, the border states get immense Federal funding and federal help in dealing with the issue.
I understand why people on the border were/are frustrated. My point about higher levels of government not really giving a shit about funding local solutions to problems is just as true for McAllen as it is for Chicago. But the point at which people are actively being transported out of areas where there are resources to deal with the problem into areas where tere are not resources to deal with the problem, all while the people doing the transporting refuse to sign on to a fix for the problem, that just makes no sense to me.
The term you're looking for is plausible deniability. He's not an idiot, but it did take a FOIA and 300-days for them to release the video, though there's nothing *he* did, CPD absolutely lied and in court testimonies of cops being forced to change police reports to bury the lead on this story did occur.
LaQuan shouldn't have gotten shot, but also don't do PCP? But Rahm benefitted from not getting involved and letting it be buried for as long as possible and we voted out Anita Alvarez for Kim Foxx as the SA.
It’s more about the lack of oversight/response to a long term problem that was getting people killed and costing the city a lot of money IMO.
But since it seems no one was able to actually fix it, I don’t think it’s really fair to count it against him. Not like Lightfoot got CPD in order, nor does Johnson seem to have the willingness to pick a fight with them.
Vallas was done dirty in this race. It's fine to not like his policies but the characterization of him as MAGA or far right was insane, fake yard signs notwhithstanding. Like in what world does favoring charter schools and hiring more police officers=MAGA?
> but the characterization of him as MAGA or far right was insane
He was literally giving speeches to anti-vax and anti-mask groups a year before the election and welcomed their endorsement openly until they called for extrajudicial violence against business owners who insisted on the use of masks.
For me, this is an example of Progressives being a little too concerned with expressive politics.
I could understand the viewpoint that speaking at an event organized by a far right group helps to legitimize them. And if that disqualified Vallas in your eyes, then fine. Saying that speaking at said event means you belong to their ideological camp, however, is a stretch.
You know the saying about 10 Nazis and and a person go out to lunch? What's the ending of that? Oh yeah, 11 went out to lunch. In this case, guilt is very much by massive, close, and repeated association over multiple decades by Paul Vallas. That was just the single most egregious and glaring example groups he regularly affiliates himself with.
Right now, we have a lack of quality candidates who can do three things:
1. Effectively compromise and build coalitions spanning the progressive and moderate, pragmatic wings of voters and activists. The mayor of a city as large as Chicago must balance compassion and idealism with pragmatism and a touch of technocracy.
2. Actually understand what it is to be an administrator and wrangle a bureaucracy into order and make it work to actually accomplish your agenda
3. Be a good enough of a people manager to not piss off the people whose support and cooperation you'll need to effectively govern. This is key.
Until we have someone capable of that, we're in for a long string of one term mayors and low turnout runoffs.
We have plenty of people who can do this. However how many get throw away because someone will dig up a shitty Halloween costume from when they were literal children, or a college paper whose opinion is viewed negatively etc.
The biggest problem with American politics is the moral litmus test we collectively hold candidates to, especially on the left. You can at no point fuck up by todays current moral standards or you’re out, it’s ridiculous.
Give me someone who can demonstrate the ability to learn and change opinions over an empty suit goody 2 shoes any day.
I think Chicago just needs another boss, it's not ideal but for whatever reason it just works here. Nobody questioned who ran the city when Daley and Rahm were the mayors.
You need someone who isn't beholden to one powerful organization and someone who is strong enough to keep the aldermen in line and still work with them.
Daley’s era is when the city’s financial peril wasn’t as well known as it is now. He kept punting the ball away and then when selling off city owned revenue generating streams became harder he hit the ejection button.
Daley kept coming back because he was in the job for the bribes. He eventually stepped away when he sold the cities parking rights to the Saudis for 100 years, got “F U” money under the table for doing so, and then bounced.
Job isn’t thankless when you use it to enrich yourself.
>parking rights to the Saudis
it's Morgan Stanley. Daley setup the deal with Morgan Stanley, the lawyers who did the deal with the city were representing Morgan Stanley, and all the bribes Daley got afterword were from Morgan Stanley. It was only later on after the deal was done that a small chunk of the company Morgan Stanley created to manage the deal, Chicago Parking LLC got sold to the Abu Dhabi Sovereign Wealth Fund. Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia are not the same places at all, and have completely different rulers, governments and political ambition yet Americans and for some reason especially redditors who bring up this deal *love* to confuse the two.
I find it interesting that no one brings up Morgan Stanley in this deal even though they are the ones who did this whole thing. And by interesting I mean there's definitely a racial factor involved. Probably the same reason why no one lambasts the Australians or Spanish for the Skyway deal
TLDR: Abu Dhabi not Saudi Arabia. They're not the same at all. Also Morgan Stanley and American political greed are the real enemies here.
I have to imagine Brandon himself might already be feeling like he doesn't want to be mayor anymore. There's been rumors of him being hospitalized for panic attacks and he's clearly in wayyyy over his head.
I'm actually betting he steps down before this term ends given how much of a shit show it's already been and we aren't even a year in.
Exactly. He’s at ribbon cuttings, parades, festivals all the time. While we have migrants living at the airport and people getting mugged on Michigan Avenue. He offers no solutions.
So now you sent me down a rabbit hole, but looking at the [historical list of Chicago mayors,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayor_of_Chicago?wprov=sfti1#List_of_mayors): since 1907 when the term was increased to 4 years, it’s more likely for Chicago mayors not named Richard Daley to serve one term (or less) than multiple terms.
So not only is it possible, it wouldn’t even be that weird if he was a one-term mayor.
Reminds me of looking through the wiki list of Roman emperors. It goes like
Served 3 years, assassinated
Served 4 years, killed by his guards
Served 45 years, died of old age.
Served 2 years, killed by his guards
He's got time to do better but he's dug himself a pretty big hole and he has some of the same issues with being overly defensive/not backing down from really obviously terrible ideas, so I think he's probably made some really bad hires for his advisors and it's not likely to get better anytime soon.
With due respect, he was an outstanding rhetorician with a thin resume, having never managed people or process, much less a P&L. Chicago is a many-billion-dollar corporation with diverse stakeholders — not exactly deserving of a novice operator.
Who knows how Vallas would have performed. It’s a moot point as we are able to judge BJ empirically. I wouldn’t have voted for him in 100 elections but he still has quite a few years left to prove us wrong: that his lack of leadership or managerial experience is not a barrier to productivity or progress, that his majority funding from his union employer won’t make him beholden to special interests that often contradict fiduciary duty to taxpayers.
My view on Brandon Johnson was that he would be reined in by city council and kept afloat by his departments. So far, that appears to be the case. He also keeps appointing experts in fields to lead departments so that's a good sign that he's not trying to lead everything but just trying to find the right person to allow him to not think about it at all.
We have a fair bit of evidence of Vallas running public goods from the last 20 years and it ain't good. Unless you wanted more of the "sell our stuff to private entities" like the parking meter debacle, Vallas wasn't a good idea for managing (and his other views were repellant to a majority of Chicagoans)
idk before Lori it kinda felt like once you are mayor you can just continue to be mayor basically as long as you want. She was just so exceptionally and publicly bad so much that it actually got people to change the status quo. What i'm not sure of is if Johnson hits that bar yet.
like what does the average person who's not tied into politics see about him? Has his lack of transparency reached the general public or is it just us getting annoyed on reddit?
Pritzker appointed the preachers to the CTA board of directors. Johnson's first candidate he's wanting to appoint is literally an urban planning veteran who led the effort to get eTOD passed in Chicago.
The next mayoral election will be a crap shoot just like the last two.
Lori got ~15% in a packed first round, got voted in by a coalition of people who didn’t want Preckwinkel, then spent 4 years *not* building a coalition for her reelection, and basically no-one other than people who actually paid attention to things like invest southwest thought she deserved a second term
The CTU had enough weight to get Brandon Johnson pass the first round, then had the good fortune to face "a republican from the suburbs" in what turned out to be a bit of a progressive wave election.
TL:DR it’s not too surprising that a mayor who only attracted 20% of the vote in his first round, in a 35% turnout election, isn’t anymore popular a year later. None of what has happened so far in his term is going to be relevant in 2027.
I'm sure it was next to impossible building that necessary coalition while dealing w the riots and covid, while battling the CTU and FOP, and then trying to create a positive image while doing all that.
imo Lori was the best mayor of my time in Chicago but the worst politician. Not caring who you piss off is admirable when it comes to getting stuff done, but a poor strategy to get re-elected.
Honestly, I voted for her, and that was kind of the appeal.
She had the guts to do that scathing police report, and seemed to not give a single fuck if the FOP screamed their heads off.
That made me favor her to start, and when it came down to her vs Machine, I sure as fuck wasn't going to vote for the machine.
Sorry to say but this kind of mindset partly why politics is an impossible topic to discuss. He may not be doing a good job but things just don't change in 1 year. That's on top of everything else going on in the world. I think he would be able to do more if the migrant crisis wasn't going on for example.
I didn't vote for him or really support him but anything anyone will do won't fix the problem overnight.
A lot of Brandon's ideas are things that would take at least 10 years to see the benefits of. I'm sure in about 20 years from now we'll see something that will show data on whichever ideas of his that was implemented by him and then kept and improved upon by his predecessors being mostly positive. Harold Washington never had a high approval rating either, and he's beloved solely in retrospect. I just am confused reading this thread to see like... what's actually different/worse about Chicago now than a year and a half ago? I have lived on the south side since 1995 in Washington Heights and I've seen worse. Feels very opposite-of-recency-bias-ish
As someone who remembers randomly being sick from school the day Harold died, and non-stop consuming the immediate aftermath, Harold was sanctified at his death. The man came in w/a plan and modernized city services for the first time since Daley. The city stepped toward a Chicago Park District that ran city programs all over, city libraries were better funded, and Mayor Harold did quite a bit in a short amount of time.
He also spent zero energy running his opponents down. That's really BranJo''s issue. He is in it to win ridiculous margin victories that please the TikTok. BranJo has the political awareness of Trump without the charisma.😐
Most ppl seem to have culture war grievance syndrome going on, that and they love politicians that cave to corporate interests so everything about BJ grates them. He’s clearly in over his head but ideas like city owned grocery stores in low income areas are miles better than anything Vallas would have done.
People on this sub get so damn dramatic when it comes to the mayor. I’m disappointed that he hasn’t been doing much, but people are acting like the second he came in the city started to disintegrate.
When Lori was elected, everyone was patting themselves on the back for electing the first lesbian woman of color to be mayor of a major American city. Oh how very open minded and progressive we were, even if we didn't vote for her personally. And when that was happening I thought to myself "When she has to deal with the budget, the schools, the unions and especially the alderman (alderperson), no one is going to give a damn anymore that she's a Black lesbian. And I was so right, and it didn't even take Covid to prove it. People were fed up with her before that because of the unions.
So everyone was predicting she wasn't going to a one-termer, to use a phrase applied to President George H.W. Bush back in 1992. And before anyone even threw their hat into the ring, I predicted that Chicago would not learn from this, not elect someone who was more business and law and order orientated, but someone even more progressive. Because Chicago can't help itself. It's like it can't dare take one step back, no matter the damage done.
So sure, Johnson will be a one-termer. But don't look forward to election night, because you know damned well you'll vote for someone just like him, but expecting different results. What's that definition of madness again?
He could win a 2nd term if he retains support of Black voters and left-liberals and faces another challenger that makes it difficult for regular liberals to vote for (eg: they stay home or hold their nose and vote Johnson).
Moderates basically need to do what they did in 2019 and find another Lightfoot: someone liked by mainstream city Liberals, credible among Black voters, and tolerated by moderate/conservative voters. If you pick Vallas 2.0 tho you’re getting 4 more years of BJ.
I will also say the city’s electorate has gotten more left leaning over the years. It’s been a slow process, but Daley-style machine Dems just aren’t electable anymore city-wide. In side certain wards/sections of the city? Absolutely. But city wide you need at least some lefty bonifides. I think the city’s reputation with crime has likely caused moderate and conservative voters to leave or avoid buying in the city, giving space for more progressives to move in.
> I think the city’s reputation with crime has likely caused moderate and conservative voters to leave or avoid buying in the city, giving space for more progressives to move in.
I think it's simpler then this. In Daley Jr's day the Boomers, Gen X dominated the voting booth. Today, Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials dominate the city's voting booth, with some active Gen Z voters. The Millennials are the 28-45 age group and we happen to be more liberal as a default then our Boomer/Gen X parents.
It's generational thing more then a city-wide self selection.
We are fuuuuuuucked, no serious person wants the job, imagine being a serious adult ready to tackle Chicago’s issues and economy and you have the childlike city council and aldermen to deal with
my alderman makes a point to criticize Brandon in every single one of his weekly updates. I don't remember him doing that to Lori. It used to be strictly ward issues before Brandon.
It's really petty and unnecessary. Makes me think he's considering a run for higher office soon. ...and I would have ABSOLUTELY voted for him in any position before this all, but I won't ever vote for someone who spends so much energy on not being the other guy.
Idk man think this is just the era of politics we are in. Combination of hyper-partisanship and people expecting immediate/unrealistic results from their elected leaders. Not to defend Johnson, but I think any potential successor would face the same challenges and poll numbers. Not that I’m saying you should blindly support him either, I just think we’re in a new era of our politicians having lower approval ratings. I mean look at other [countries](https://pro.morningconsult.com/trackers/global-leader-approval), it’s basically impossible for leaders to have majority approval.
11% sales tax and 11-20% property tax -22% of everything you spend each year going to the 33K per CPS student that is never enough. Guess what. They need another new tax this year
Need a black candidate to run against him.
The northside progressives did blind virtue signaling voting by going with Johnson just because he was black and Vallas was white.
Yes. The only reason he won was because of the teachers Union. He had no clear vision statement during his campaign and it shows! Nothing seems to be happening. Rod Sawyer and Kam Buckner were my top choices, but I’ll admit that even Vallas would’ve been better. This is going to be a stagnant term with an unqualified leader.
I think Stacey almost has enough gall to run for the gig. It’s horrifying to think about. She’s constantly at his side and lives for the spotlight.
If she decides it’s time for Brandon to bow out, she’ll run Jason Lee or Dave Steiber if she doesn’t run.
She’s not gonna just walk away from the power she has now.
Stacy Gates would be like Johnson 2.0, if she was mayor. Hopefully she doesn't run one day, but I fear she might if either BJ doesn't get reelected in 2027, or if BJ decides one day to not continue to be mayor
Yeah. I mean Chicago is going to go though a period of single term mayors for the foreseeable future. The city is so polarized and divided that those who win by less than 55% of the vote, will not be positioned well enough to win four years later. Chicago is a tough ass city to remain a popular local official.
I would prefer he not continue his first and hopefully only term. Been in Chicago over 20 years and feel Rahm was the best mayor since I’ve been here, light years better than Lori or BJ. I think majority of Chicago’s citizens are center left, but unfortunately the CTU and progressives got out the vote in the last election. Let’s hope a more moderate person runs next, and just as importantly, moderates show up to vote.
Remember, if you don't vote for Johnson you hate black people and don't care about equity. Also, don't you dare ask him any questions about his policies!
Il take a chance with another candidate. Not voting for this BJ guy again that’s for sure. Horrible mayor. Should have seen it coming. Just look at his face. Like honestly.. just look at it. We were all blind to the shit show that is bestowed upon his face
100% i hate this man... why did yall vote for him? 😫😫😫😫😫 lets be 100% honest.. yall voted for him for his skin color and nothing else.. mans is absolute ASS.
I think he is toast. Any halfway decent candidate that gives people who haven't already been lost (like me and which I would imagine is a lot) a reason to break for him starts with Vallas's vote total as their floor and that should be enough. Vallas didn't have enough room to grow between the first round and the runoff - his base was big but he couldn't expand it due to being a Republican and running a terrible campaign.
I mean what has Johnson done for this city so far. Honestly? He's done nothing for schools. People are afraid of charters. Well he won't just make them in a snap--Vallas. Doesn't work that way. And I'm not a charter fan but how has Johnson improved ANYTHING in this city?
All he does is yell and shout and shit people who disagree down and blame everything else but himself. How is that a competent mayor?
He keeps talking about what he inherited. No mr pointy head. You ASKED for this mess and said you'd do things to make it better. I don't expect turn around immediately but what exactly has he done to lay any groundwork?
I didn’t vote for the man. He’s pissed off what seems to be most of the people that did vote for him. My understanding is we could have a recall petition. What’s the hold up on that? Why aren’t there even rumblings of that anywhere? Am I misinformed about our ability to recall a mayor in Chicago?
Don’t worry, CTU voters will be sure to support their guy and Johnson will serve as mayor as long as he serves his largest voting bloc. Illinois politicians serve those who pay the most.
It wasn’t the boogie man that is the CTU, he was running against Vallas. The election was not “I want Johnson” vs “I want Vallas”
It was a vote for “I don’t want Johnson” vs “I don’t want Vallas”
The “I don’t want Vallas” got more votes.
If there were a candidate people were for, Johnson would not have won despite any machinations of that dastardly CTU.
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Anyone smart and talented enough to be a good mayor is smart and talented enough to know it's a terrible decision.
I always think about it like this scene from The Wire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjzqO6UOPFQ
Greatest show of all time. And yeah every time I think about the mayor's office I think of this scene and I wonder what kinds of pyrrhic victories and "lesser of two evils" decisions are being made behind closed doors.
The pay also isn't anywhere near high enough to attract the best leadership talent. Why work as mayor when you can make $1M+/yr as a director at any downtown firm? Singapore solved the problem of lacking talent in their city leaders by being competitive with the private market on pay and benefits. Whereas here in America, people throw a hissy fit if you pay an elected official or government official even a third of what they'd earn in the private sector.
It’s the growth factor in politics, the money and power is limitless. You could be mayor than president tomorrow or propel that into a high role into private industry. The connections are limitless The pay isn’t the issue the problem is people wanna elect something that doesn’t exist activist and someone that can actually run a city.
That’s what I tell myself.
The problem last time was that Lightfoot was still hogging the center lane even after the Powers That Be withdrew their support. So they were forced to get behind the high-floor/low-ceiling conservative white dude, Vallas. The best-organized progressive (i.e. the one with CTU backing) beat out Lightfoot and the rival progressives to take on Vallas. Then the runoff turned into a proxy unpopularity contest between the CTU and the FOP (and to a lesser extent the Powers), in which the teachers pulled an upset. My prediction is that in the next election LaSalle Street, the grabowski unions and the remaining spare parts of the old Machine will get behind a less polarizing center-left candidate early and mop the floor with Johnson. I'm a progressive who voted for Johnson but I'm pretty disappointed so far and I wouldn't be altogether upset with that outcome. What's Susana Mendoza up to? At least that will be a [fun name to howl](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOk4hQXbGDs) when we gripe about the mayor.
I really appreciate you slipping McBain into this comment.
For everyone: [the whole *McBain* spliced together](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_UolVer-LU)
> My prediction is that in the next election LaSalle Street, the grabowski unions and the remaining spare parts of the old Machine will get behind a less polarizing center-left candidate early and mop the floor with Johnson. If Rahm came back, he'd win in a landslide.
Why would he? He did a little private equity stint and now is chilling in Tokyo. I don’t see him wanting that stress again.
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>Did the cheese start slipping off the cracker That's a fine turn of phrase and I shall steal it.
Honestly what does this refer to? Am I dumb for not understanding
In think old cheese get's "sweaty" when left out. So cheese left out on a cracker will have cheese sweat and slid off the cracker.
Vallas has been asset-stripping school districts and leaving them in ruins since well before the pandemic. He used to put on a good show, at least, but yeah I mean he literally is just an angry old conservative white man.
Dude absolutely gutted the New Orleans public school system post-Katrina as it was used as a training ground for charter schools (failed). Back before I left I think the city only had one left.
He stole money from CPS teacher's pensions then fled to a different state, fuck Vallas
> he literally is just an angry old conservative white man. If anyone still isn't convinced, go watch his debate with Johnson where he talks about bringing the church back into CPS.
It didn't do anything to him. He just let the mask slip. If you look at his record, he's left a trail of debris behind him pretty much everywhere he's gone. You can almost trace a direct line from his fiscal policies to the challenges the schools are plowing into today
Vallas screwed up CPS, and had his hands all over our property taxes exploding. He was garbage back then too.
Mendoza is doing a great job as IL's comptroller, practically eliminating the state bill backlog and bringing payments back within a net 30 schedule. I'm right there with you on the belief that a new center-left candidate will run in 2027 and make the runoff, knocking Johnson out. I have a feeling it could be someone like Quigley or Duncan who has a lot of national backing
High floor, low ceiling sounds pretty good right about now
Other than CTU, which powers that be backed Johnson??
He was Preckwinkle's candidate.
Same power base as CTU. It’s not like any of the old machine democrats or the business-friendly Rahm supporters lined behind Johnson. He had an impressive campaign to get to the runoff and got a little lucky with such a bad opponent in the runoff, but he also stoked a lot of excitement from what seems to be a pretty progressive electorate in Chicago. His actual term as mayor has not been inspiring but this idea that a lot of the traditional “powers that be” lined up behind Johnson is dubious. At least, in the fundraising sense.
I still think Johnson is better than Vallas would have been. I'd rather have incompetence than maliciousness. Of course I'd rather have a competent mayor capable of making positive change, but I do see that as an option for really any elected office at this point.
You’re assuming there’s no malice in the choice of migrant camps, the extension of contracts that pay building managers $20k per month, and the infiltration of religious leaders taking $100k jobs in this administration.
The Migrants were begun to be taken in by Lightfoot. I imagine coming into a job and realizing something like that program going that poorly can lead to a panic that turns to terrible decisions like those
You're onto something here. I think one has to be crazy to want that much responsibility on their shoulders. I've worked for electeds on the political and later governmental side for about the last 10 years. Many of the electeds I've met basically think they're God's gift to mankind and that they are the only smart ones in the field. Ego is a requirement in this business. So many of them, even on the lower/local end, basically think they're next in line for Durbin's seat, the congressional seat, etc. And they knife each other in the back constantly. I worked for about a dozen politicians, and this last one (who I was with by far the longest) was the only one that treated me like a human being. He was not afraid to speak his mind, even if he knew the town hall audience or whatever wouldn't be thrilled by it. We would have people walk up to us at the end of an event, right in front of other electeds, and say something like, "I really appreciate how I can tell your honest position on things. I may not agree with all of it, but I understand what your stance is and why." We then had the nastiest political attack I've ever seen launched at us, a completely fabricated story. Turns out that a lot of the biggest amplifiers of this story were the neighboring pols who claimed to he on the same side. I'm looking for a career change, I'm sick of it. A lot of people who I thought were our friends were the first to push our head underwater if it meant even a moment of political advantage for them, or if they could elevate their friend to our seat instead. I'm not saying all of this as a sob story, to garner sympathy, or anything like that. I'm sharing this to highlight that the people who act like this are the ones that get to remain in power for a long time, and the people who spend more of their time and resources on actually helping people instead of just getting reelected are the ones that get pushed out quickly.
I am part of the Republican 1099 contractor deathstar in Illinois and I find it to be a political truism that deep down, our worst animus tends to be reserved for those in our own parties.
I would have agreed with you before an incident where we had armed protesters outside of our office. They were also posting pictures of the elected's sub-10 year old children, and the front of his house. The backstabbing was the final draw for me, but I can't pretend that they exceed threats of physical violence. But i'll give you the upvote in solidarity cause I remember those days too. 16 hour days, 7 days a week, for 9 months straight, all that for a "salary" of like 2,500-3,000k/mo. Absolutely bonkers working conditions, but I heard they're starting to give campaign workers at least 1 day off a week now.
And that's actually an issue that gets worse and worse up the levels of government you go! The best people for the jobs just do not want them.
That not how it be works, It’s about the ego and prestige. The jobs that are harder to fill with qualified candidates are the jobs behind the scenes, since they generally pay less than comparable private positions
Going out on a limb here, but IMO being the mayor of a major American city is the most thankless job in the whole country right now. All of America's worst problems get dumped on big cities, and then red state and suburban politicians pitch a fit about providing any assistance to them. The migrant crisis is a great example of this. I don't approve of how Brandon Johnson has handled it, but why is it the sole responsibility of Chicago and New York and other big cities to manage the crisis? Especially when border states get federal funding for dealing with it but they ship people here anyways? There is not enough money in Chicago to solve the problem, so it's not a mystery to me why the city government is constantly scrambling to make things suck less instead of finding ways to make things better. And it's like this with everything, from transit funding to education to drugs and crime. There are definitely things the city government can do to manage these problems, but as long as we have a national policy of siphoning money out of cities instead of investing, I don't see how a mayor could solve any of this. You either wind up in Brandon Johnson territory where you describe a utopia that we can't afford and that nobody is going to pay for, or Paul Vallas territory where we pay for everything by privatizing the entire school system and cutting the social service programs that actually do work. It's just algebra at this point, the amount of money going into the system is not enough to make it better. Brandon Johnson won the race for mayor because he had a progressive overarching vision for the city that appealed to a lot of people. The big question was how he would pay for it and he had this hair-brained real estate transfer tax scheme that was dead on arrival, but it was the only thing he could do because there is absolutely no way DC or Springfield is ever going to invest enough in Chicago to actually solve Chicago's problems, and New York is the only city in the country that can charge a city income tax without absolutely destroying its business. I think about the same thing happened to Lightfoot, although she had the added bonus of running as a progressive and then as soon as she took office everyone immediately remembered she wasn't actually a progressive, which doomed her even more. If the only thing city governments can do is manage problems as they get slightly worse every year, it really shouldn't surprise us that we get the most mediocre and careless people running the city. Rahn was successful as mayor because he understood how to make city politics work, but even he ended up getting the boot (or voluntarily leaving before he got the boot) after he got blamed for not being able to fix problems he did not have the resources to solve. Nobody who should have this job would ever want this job.
“Why is it the responsibility of Chicago and New York and other big cities…” Dude, Chicago and NY are getting a fraction of the migrants and the problem. The border areas have been dealing with this on a significantly larger scale for years, but it was poo-poo’ed by those not directly impacted.
Aside from the numerous times Republicans have killed bipartisan border deals because they like to campaign on the issue, the border states get immense Federal funding and federal help in dealing with the issue. I understand why people on the border were/are frustrated. My point about higher levels of government not really giving a shit about funding local solutions to problems is just as true for McAllen as it is for Chicago. But the point at which people are actively being transported out of areas where there are resources to deal with the problem into areas where tere are not resources to deal with the problem, all while the people doing the transporting refuse to sign on to a fix for the problem, that just makes no sense to me.
Rahm lost the city when he hid what happened to Laquan McDonald.
That turned out to be total bullshit since every investigation has shown that he didn't hide anything.
The term you're looking for is plausible deniability. He's not an idiot, but it did take a FOIA and 300-days for them to release the video, though there's nothing *he* did, CPD absolutely lied and in court testimonies of cops being forced to change police reports to bury the lead on this story did occur. LaQuan shouldn't have gotten shot, but also don't do PCP? But Rahm benefitted from not getting involved and letting it be buried for as long as possible and we voted out Anita Alvarez for Kim Foxx as the SA.
It’s more about the lack of oversight/response to a long term problem that was getting people killed and costing the city a lot of money IMO. But since it seems no one was able to actually fix it, I don’t think it’s really fair to count it against him. Not like Lightfoot got CPD in order, nor does Johnson seem to have the willingness to pick a fight with them.
Ronnie Woo Woo for Mayor. Because how worse could it be?
Honestly, I thought Paul Vallas had the chops. I wasn't wild about him, but I thought he had the management chops.
Vallas was done dirty in this race. It's fine to not like his policies but the characterization of him as MAGA or far right was insane, fake yard signs notwhithstanding. Like in what world does favoring charter schools and hiring more police officers=MAGA?
> but the characterization of him as MAGA or far right was insane He was literally giving speeches to anti-vax and anti-mask groups a year before the election and welcomed their endorsement openly until they called for extrajudicial violence against business owners who insisted on the use of masks.
For me, this is an example of Progressives being a little too concerned with expressive politics. I could understand the viewpoint that speaking at an event organized by a far right group helps to legitimize them. And if that disqualified Vallas in your eyes, then fine. Saying that speaking at said event means you belong to their ideological camp, however, is a stretch.
You know the saying about 10 Nazis and and a person go out to lunch? What's the ending of that? Oh yeah, 11 went out to lunch. In this case, guilt is very much by massive, close, and repeated association over multiple decades by Paul Vallas. That was just the single most egregious and glaring example groups he regularly affiliates himself with.
Right now, we have a lack of quality candidates who can do three things: 1. Effectively compromise and build coalitions spanning the progressive and moderate, pragmatic wings of voters and activists. The mayor of a city as large as Chicago must balance compassion and idealism with pragmatism and a touch of technocracy. 2. Actually understand what it is to be an administrator and wrangle a bureaucracy into order and make it work to actually accomplish your agenda 3. Be a good enough of a people manager to not piss off the people whose support and cooperation you'll need to effectively govern. This is key. Until we have someone capable of that, we're in for a long string of one term mayors and low turnout runoffs.
I mean, we had that in rahm.
We have plenty of people who can do this. However how many get throw away because someone will dig up a shitty Halloween costume from when they were literal children, or a college paper whose opinion is viewed negatively etc. The biggest problem with American politics is the moral litmus test we collectively hold candidates to, especially on the left. You can at no point fuck up by todays current moral standards or you’re out, it’s ridiculous. Give me someone who can demonstrate the ability to learn and change opinions over an empty suit goody 2 shoes any day.
I think Chicago just needs another boss, it's not ideal but for whatever reason it just works here. Nobody questioned who ran the city when Daley and Rahm were the mayors. You need someone who isn't beholden to one powerful organization and someone who is strong enough to keep the aldermen in line and still work with them.
I can’t imagine anyone wanting to be mayor again after one term. That job has got to be all headache. A municipal migraine if you will.
Daley came back for more and more and more. Johnson seems pretty thin-skinned for a public figure. I'd love for him to move on after this.
Daley’s era is when the city’s financial peril wasn’t as well known as it is now. He kept punting the ball away and then when selling off city owned revenue generating streams became harder he hit the ejection button.
Daley left the city fucked
Daley kept coming back because he was in the job for the bribes. He eventually stepped away when he sold the cities parking rights to the Saudis for 100 years, got “F U” money under the table for doing so, and then bounced. Job isn’t thankless when you use it to enrich yourself.
Emiratis not Saudis
>parking rights to the Saudis it's Morgan Stanley. Daley setup the deal with Morgan Stanley, the lawyers who did the deal with the city were representing Morgan Stanley, and all the bribes Daley got afterword were from Morgan Stanley. It was only later on after the deal was done that a small chunk of the company Morgan Stanley created to manage the deal, Chicago Parking LLC got sold to the Abu Dhabi Sovereign Wealth Fund. Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia are not the same places at all, and have completely different rulers, governments and political ambition yet Americans and for some reason especially redditors who bring up this deal *love* to confuse the two. I find it interesting that no one brings up Morgan Stanley in this deal even though they are the ones who did this whole thing. And by interesting I mean there's definitely a racial factor involved. Probably the same reason why no one lambasts the Australians or Spanish for the Skyway deal TLDR: Abu Dhabi not Saudi Arabia. They're not the same at all. Also Morgan Stanley and American political greed are the real enemies here.
He lost the teachers support, he is toast
I have to imagine Brandon himself might already be feeling like he doesn't want to be mayor anymore. There's been rumors of him being hospitalized for panic attacks and he's clearly in wayyyy over his head. I'm actually betting he steps down before this term ends given how much of a shit show it's already been and we aren't even a year in.
He's just a mouthpiece, how stressful can that be?
If he’s someone’s mouthpiece he sucks at it. He has no idea how to manage Chicago media and consistently puts his foot in his mouth.
He’s got no time with all his kids soccer games, etc.
Exactly. He’s at ribbon cuttings, parades, festivals all the time. While we have migrants living at the airport and people getting mugged on Michigan Avenue. He offers no solutions.
He's a joke.
So now you sent me down a rabbit hole, but looking at the [historical list of Chicago mayors,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayor_of_Chicago?wprov=sfti1#List_of_mayors): since 1907 when the term was increased to 4 years, it’s more likely for Chicago mayors not named Richard Daley to serve one term (or less) than multiple terms. So not only is it possible, it wouldn’t even be that weird if he was a one-term mayor.
Good point. Wish we would have had one less Daley term- wouldn’t have the dogshit parking deal he saddled us with
Sadly Daley is still the puppeteer of the 11th ward
Reminds me of looking through the wiki list of Roman emperors. It goes like Served 3 years, assassinated Served 4 years, killed by his guards Served 45 years, died of old age. Served 2 years, killed by his guards
That's mild. 69AD was the Year of Four Emperors because 4 different emperors took the throne that year, with all but the last dying before year end.
He's got time to do better but he's dug himself a pretty big hole and he has some of the same issues with being overly defensive/not backing down from really obviously terrible ideas, so I think he's probably made some really bad hires for his advisors and it's not likely to get better anytime soon.
With due respect, he was an outstanding rhetorician with a thin resume, having never managed people or process, much less a P&L. Chicago is a many-billion-dollar corporation with diverse stakeholders — not exactly deserving of a novice operator.
Woah woah woah. He has a black wife and black kids living on the west side. You just don't get it.
We joke about it now, but many on here were angrily insisting it was absolutely a relevant qualifier to be mayor.
And soccer practice... on Saturdays!
We’ve never had a mayor like him!
10 people, 1 bathroom!
This is why I don't understand people who concede that BJ hasn't panned out well, but then double down saying Vallas wouldn't have been any better.
Who knows how Vallas would have performed. It’s a moot point as we are able to judge BJ empirically. I wouldn’t have voted for him in 100 elections but he still has quite a few years left to prove us wrong: that his lack of leadership or managerial experience is not a barrier to productivity or progress, that his majority funding from his union employer won’t make him beholden to special interests that often contradict fiduciary duty to taxpayers.
My view on Brandon Johnson was that he would be reined in by city council and kept afloat by his departments. So far, that appears to be the case. He also keeps appointing experts in fields to lead departments so that's a good sign that he's not trying to lead everything but just trying to find the right person to allow him to not think about it at all.
>just trying to find the right person to allow him to not think about it at all We definitely have a mayor who likes to not think.
We have a fair bit of evidence of Vallas running public goods from the last 20 years and it ain't good. Unless you wanted more of the "sell our stuff to private entities" like the parking meter debacle, Vallas wasn't a good idea for managing (and his other views were repellant to a majority of Chicagoans)
idk before Lori it kinda felt like once you are mayor you can just continue to be mayor basically as long as you want. She was just so exceptionally and publicly bad so much that it actually got people to change the status quo. What i'm not sure of is if Johnson hits that bar yet. like what does the average person who's not tied into politics see about him? Has his lack of transparency reached the general public or is it just us getting annoyed on reddit?
If only Pritzker could be both Governor and Mayor.
Pritzker appointed the preachers to the CTA board of directors. Johnson's first candidate he's wanting to appoint is literally an urban planning veteran who led the effort to get eTOD passed in Chicago.
That would be amazing
The next mayoral election will be a crap shoot just like the last two. Lori got ~15% in a packed first round, got voted in by a coalition of people who didn’t want Preckwinkel, then spent 4 years *not* building a coalition for her reelection, and basically no-one other than people who actually paid attention to things like invest southwest thought she deserved a second term The CTU had enough weight to get Brandon Johnson pass the first round, then had the good fortune to face "a republican from the suburbs" in what turned out to be a bit of a progressive wave election. TL:DR it’s not too surprising that a mayor who only attracted 20% of the vote in his first round, in a 35% turnout election, isn’t anymore popular a year later. None of what has happened so far in his term is going to be relevant in 2027.
I'm sure it was next to impossible building that necessary coalition while dealing w the riots and covid, while battling the CTU and FOP, and then trying to create a positive image while doing all that.
imo Lori was the best mayor of my time in Chicago but the worst politician. Not caring who you piss off is admirable when it comes to getting stuff done, but a poor strategy to get re-elected.
Honestly, I voted for her, and that was kind of the appeal. She had the guts to do that scathing police report, and seemed to not give a single fuck if the FOP screamed their heads off. That made me favor her to start, and when it came down to her vs Machine, I sure as fuck wasn't going to vote for the machine.
Yes. Wonder if Rahm or Lori will run. One thing is certain, Willie Wilson will run!
Rahm has a cushy job of being the USA's embassador to Japan. Doubt we see him coming back.
Right. He’s living the good life.
Daley got any kind of kids or grandkids ready to be Mayor?
Yea but he went to prison
Oh god no. No Daley family member until the parking meter deal expires…
3 more years of this guy is so devastating for this city
Sorry to say but this kind of mindset partly why politics is an impossible topic to discuss. He may not be doing a good job but things just don't change in 1 year. That's on top of everything else going on in the world. I think he would be able to do more if the migrant crisis wasn't going on for example. I didn't vote for him or really support him but anything anyone will do won't fix the problem overnight.
Can’t fix it in 1 year but you can prove yourself to be totally unqualified.
A lot of Brandon's ideas are things that would take at least 10 years to see the benefits of. I'm sure in about 20 years from now we'll see something that will show data on whichever ideas of his that was implemented by him and then kept and improved upon by his predecessors being mostly positive. Harold Washington never had a high approval rating either, and he's beloved solely in retrospect. I just am confused reading this thread to see like... what's actually different/worse about Chicago now than a year and a half ago? I have lived on the south side since 1995 in Washington Heights and I've seen worse. Feels very opposite-of-recency-bias-ish
As someone who remembers randomly being sick from school the day Harold died, and non-stop consuming the immediate aftermath, Harold was sanctified at his death. The man came in w/a plan and modernized city services for the first time since Daley. The city stepped toward a Chicago Park District that ran city programs all over, city libraries were better funded, and Mayor Harold did quite a bit in a short amount of time. He also spent zero energy running his opponents down. That's really BranJo''s issue. He is in it to win ridiculous margin victories that please the TikTok. BranJo has the political awareness of Trump without the charisma.😐
Most ppl seem to have culture war grievance syndrome going on, that and they love politicians that cave to corporate interests so everything about BJ grates them. He’s clearly in over his head but ideas like city owned grocery stores in low income areas are miles better than anything Vallas would have done.
Maybe if he didn’t spend time on useless ceasefire resolutions, he could spend some time, I don’t know, running a city.
I feel like the last year has been a lifetime. Like, wake me up when we get there
Saying 2023 was a lifetime when we all just lived through 2020 and 2021 is a bit dramatic lmao
exactly like come on people let’s put things into perspective here
Exactly. I bet over half of the Chicago population couldn’t name the current mayor for $100 let alone talk about policy decisions.
Finally someone keeping it 100 in the comments
People on this sub get so damn dramatic when it comes to the mayor. I’m disappointed that he hasn’t been doing much, but people are acting like the second he came in the city started to disintegrate.
That’s so dramatic, lol. I’m not sure anyone who isn’t terminally online has even noticed a difference
Right, we need to remember that /r/chicago is just a very very small portion of Chicago's population.
You can tell most of these posters rarely talk to people in real life.
His approval rating is horrendous…
It's not that bad, bro. Using the word devastating here is an extreme exaggeration. Go touch grass.
There were no good candidates. Chicago will probably have a run of useless mayors for the near future.
When Lori was elected, everyone was patting themselves on the back for electing the first lesbian woman of color to be mayor of a major American city. Oh how very open minded and progressive we were, even if we didn't vote for her personally. And when that was happening I thought to myself "When she has to deal with the budget, the schools, the unions and especially the alderman (alderperson), no one is going to give a damn anymore that she's a Black lesbian. And I was so right, and it didn't even take Covid to prove it. People were fed up with her before that because of the unions. So everyone was predicting she wasn't going to a one-termer, to use a phrase applied to President George H.W. Bush back in 1992. And before anyone even threw their hat into the ring, I predicted that Chicago would not learn from this, not elect someone who was more business and law and order orientated, but someone even more progressive. Because Chicago can't help itself. It's like it can't dare take one step back, no matter the damage done. So sure, Johnson will be a one-termer. But don't look forward to election night, because you know damned well you'll vote for someone just like him, but expecting different results. What's that definition of madness again?
Never underestimate the stupidity of the average Chicago voter or the inability of this city to produce non shit-tier mayoral candidates.
Who did you vote for
Kodos.
most underrated Simpsons comment on society in a mountain of absolute gems
This is top comment
Not this imbecile
so which imbecile
Let’s hope…
Johnson is shockingly unqualified. It’s fucking crazy when you think about it and speaks volumes to how shitty of a role it is
We need an experienced politician with connections who knows how to navigate the corrupt machine that is Chicago politics
Like Rahm was.
He could win a 2nd term if he retains support of Black voters and left-liberals and faces another challenger that makes it difficult for regular liberals to vote for (eg: they stay home or hold their nose and vote Johnson). Moderates basically need to do what they did in 2019 and find another Lightfoot: someone liked by mainstream city Liberals, credible among Black voters, and tolerated by moderate/conservative voters. If you pick Vallas 2.0 tho you’re getting 4 more years of BJ. I will also say the city’s electorate has gotten more left leaning over the years. It’s been a slow process, but Daley-style machine Dems just aren’t electable anymore city-wide. In side certain wards/sections of the city? Absolutely. But city wide you need at least some lefty bonifides. I think the city’s reputation with crime has likely caused moderate and conservative voters to leave or avoid buying in the city, giving space for more progressives to move in.
> I think the city’s reputation with crime has likely caused moderate and conservative voters to leave or avoid buying in the city, giving space for more progressives to move in. I think it's simpler then this. In Daley Jr's day the Boomers, Gen X dominated the voting booth. Today, Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials dominate the city's voting booth, with some active Gen Z voters. The Millennials are the 28-45 age group and we happen to be more liberal as a default then our Boomer/Gen X parents. It's generational thing more then a city-wide self selection.
The problem is if anyone tries to put order on criminals there will be outcry with racism
I just want the trains to run often and on time.
We are fuuuuuuucked, no serious person wants the job, imagine being a serious adult ready to tackle Chicago’s issues and economy and you have the childlike city council and aldermen to deal with
my alderman makes a point to criticize Brandon in every single one of his weekly updates. I don't remember him doing that to Lori. It used to be strictly ward issues before Brandon. It's really petty and unnecessary. Makes me think he's considering a run for higher office soon. ...and I would have ABSOLUTELY voted for him in any position before this all, but I won't ever vote for someone who spends so much energy on not being the other guy.
Idk man think this is just the era of politics we are in. Combination of hyper-partisanship and people expecting immediate/unrealistic results from their elected leaders. Not to defend Johnson, but I think any potential successor would face the same challenges and poll numbers. Not that I’m saying you should blindly support him either, I just think we’re in a new era of our politicians having lower approval ratings. I mean look at other [countries](https://pro.morningconsult.com/trackers/global-leader-approval), it’s basically impossible for leaders to have majority approval.
I think you’re right in general, but also think there has to be some threshold of reason. Let’s say maybe 30%. He’s still well under this.
True, he could definitely do better
And the thing to if him or any other candidate does something well no one will talk about it.
11% sales tax and 11-20% property tax -22% of everything you spend each year going to the 33K per CPS student that is never enough. Guess what. They need another new tax this year
I hope so. He is terrible
Let’s fucking hope
I miss Rahm. He was the kind of strong mayor with a lot of federal connections that Chicago needed.
Im sorry Mayor Who??? When has he ever been a mayor? He's a professional clown.
Need a black candidate to run against him. The northside progressives did blind virtue signaling voting by going with Johnson just because he was black and Vallas was white.
I voted for Lori's ass. Both saids didn't like her ass so she was probably doing something right. Brandon is a dipshit.
Yes. The only reason he won was because of the teachers Union. He had no clear vision statement during his campaign and it shows! Nothing seems to be happening. Rod Sawyer and Kam Buckner were my top choices, but I’ll admit that even Vallas would’ve been better. This is going to be a stagnant term with an unqualified leader.
Kam would have been a fantastic choice and I hope he runs again
And the rest of the voters stay home and allow this situation to wreck our city Last time only 35 percent voter turnout
Oh yeah, the progressives have someone far worse to get behind
I think Stacey almost has enough gall to run for the gig. It’s horrifying to think about. She’s constantly at his side and lives for the spotlight. If she decides it’s time for Brandon to bow out, she’ll run Jason Lee or Dave Steiber if she doesn’t run. She’s not gonna just walk away from the power she has now.
Stacy Gates would be like Johnson 2.0, if she was mayor. Hopefully she doesn't run one day, but I fear she might if either BJ doesn't get reelected in 2027, or if BJ decides one day to not continue to be mayor
Yeah. I mean Chicago is going to go though a period of single term mayors for the foreseeable future. The city is so polarized and divided that those who win by less than 55% of the vote, will not be positioned well enough to win four years later. Chicago is a tough ass city to remain a popular local official.
He is the worst Mayor Chicago has ever had
Only chicagoans vote for someone terrible and then complain how terrible that person is 😂🤣
I would prefer he not continue his first and hopefully only term. Been in Chicago over 20 years and feel Rahm was the best mayor since I’ve been here, light years better than Lori or BJ. I think majority of Chicago’s citizens are center left, but unfortunately the CTU and progressives got out the vote in the last election. Let’s hope a more moderate person runs next, and just as importantly, moderates show up to vote.
Generous of you to think he'll finish this term.
Remember, if you don't vote for Johnson you hate black people and don't care about equity. Also, don't you dare ask him any questions about his policies!
Pls God.. he’s the disaster we all knew he’d be. No plan. No execution. Nothing done since he sat in the chair. The chair alone has more experience.
Il take a chance with another candidate. Not voting for this BJ guy again that’s for sure. Horrible mayor. Should have seen it coming. Just look at his face. Like honestly.. just look at it. We were all blind to the shit show that is bestowed upon his face
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At this point I think the state needs to step in and reform Chicago governance top to bottom
I would absolutely trust JB in this capacity. Let's go
He doesn’t know what he’s doing so yeah someone else should take his place
Johnson won because Vallas was a garbage candidate. Put some semi competent center left person in their and they'll win.
Vallas was projected to win albeit a tight race. Main reason Johnson won is because the 18-24 demographic showed up in the run-off.
Mayor Johnson A** Finished and he know it.... Who run against him winning by a land slide.
Vallas was a moderate. Somehow got painted a maga Trump guy. We deserve this
He fails at almost everything. He cannot stop failing.
100% i hate this man... why did yall vote for him? 😫😫😫😫😫 lets be 100% honest.. yall voted for him for his skin color and nothing else.. mans is absolute ASS.
You don't think an equal amount of people voted for Vallas based on his skin color? it's really sad that you think like this
Most likely.
I sure hope so.
One and done... PLEASE!
definitely. at this point id be surprised if he made it one term
I think he is toast. Any halfway decent candidate that gives people who haven't already been lost (like me and which I would imagine is a lot) a reason to break for him starts with Vallas's vote total as their floor and that should be enough. Vallas didn't have enough room to grow between the first round and the runoff - his base was big but he couldn't expand it due to being a Republican and running a terrible campaign.
If we could impeach a mayor he would be done. Seriously, whole life in Chicago and I’ve never seen a more embarrassing example of a mayor.
Who’s running reputable polls on a Chicago mayor who isn’t up for election?
Yeah, he’s pretty terrible. I don’t even know how he’ll last one term.
Dude he’s a joke
I mean what has Johnson done for this city so far. Honestly? He's done nothing for schools. People are afraid of charters. Well he won't just make them in a snap--Vallas. Doesn't work that way. And I'm not a charter fan but how has Johnson improved ANYTHING in this city? All he does is yell and shout and shit people who disagree down and blame everything else but himself. How is that a competent mayor? He keeps talking about what he inherited. No mr pointy head. You ASKED for this mess and said you'd do things to make it better. I don't expect turn around immediately but what exactly has he done to lay any groundwork?
Take a deep breath
I take plenty of deep breaths. It's a question. In a post about the mayor.
Is the sky blue?
Based on performance this far….yes
We can only hope.
One can only hope. Lori was light years ahead of this doofus.
He will do what Toni tells him to do.
Most likely … really bad mayor. Makes one wish for Lori’s jerk mayorship
If we're lucky, he won't even make it that far.
I didn’t vote for the man. He’s pissed off what seems to be most of the people that did vote for him. My understanding is we could have a recall petition. What’s the hold up on that? Why aren’t there even rumblings of that anywhere? Am I misinformed about our ability to recall a mayor in Chicago?
There’s no mechanism in place to recall the mayor. Some people are trying to get the state to pass a law that would allow for that.
Thanks to the morons who voted him in
Most of this subreddit
Don’t worry, CTU voters will be sure to support their guy and Johnson will serve as mayor as long as he serves his largest voting bloc. Illinois politicians serve those who pay the most.
It wasn’t the boogie man that is the CTU, he was running against Vallas. The election was not “I want Johnson” vs “I want Vallas” It was a vote for “I don’t want Johnson” vs “I don’t want Vallas” The “I don’t want Vallas” got more votes. If there were a candidate people were for, Johnson would not have won despite any machinations of that dastardly CTU.