Joining mayor's race, Giannoulias casts himself as a coalition builder, says Johnson ‘has not met the moment’

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

46% : Taking aim at Mayor Brandon Johnson’s revolving door of senior leadership, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias joined the race for mayor Sunday, portraying himself as the coalition builder needed to solve Chicago’s enormous problems.Giannoulias enters the race as a presumed frontrunner with a political target on his back after raising $22 million from business leaders and building trade unions.At the risk of biting the hand that fed his campaign, Giannoulias vowed to support the millionaires tax that Johnson has also championed.But unlike Johnson, who has used previous budgets to shrink the Chicago Police Department by attrition, Giannoulias promised to hire 1,000 additional Chicago police officers by 2030 and bring back ShotSpotter, the gunshot technology contract that Johnson canceled.
46% : As cheesy and idealistic as it sounds, I want them to look up and say, ‘One day when the city was struggling, my dad was one of the many, many people who did his best in a transparent and an honest way to fight for this city.’”With only $631,309 in his campaign fund to nearly $22 million for Giannoulias, Johnson is leaning heavily on social media and on the power of incumbency, along with the free media that comes with it.He is expected to portray Giannoulias as a repeat of Emanuel — a captive of the very people who would be most affected by the embattled mayor’s mantra to “tax the rich.”Giannoulias hopes to blunt some of those attacks by joining Johnson in the campaigning for a 3% tax on annual income over $1 million.
45% : Macquline King, though her proposal — and the version that the board passed — also counted on a $285 million tax increment financing surplus that the City Council has not approved.Giannoulias called it yet another sign that the Chicago Teachers Union, which bankrolled and staffed Johnson’s 2023 mayoral campaign, is calling the shots in his administration.“Instead of adopting the [Chicago Public Schools] CEO’s proposed budget, which included some staffing cuts, the CTU-linked members jammed through this alternative budget, which avoids any hard choices about structural changes.
35% : Making demands at the end of session rather than working earlier to develop policy and build support… His attempt to raise property taxes was rejected by the City Council 50-to-0 and the City Council passed a budget 29-to-19 when he failed to back off the job-killing corporate head tax,” Giannoulias said.“A mayor who cannot move an agenda through Springfield and City Council is having difficulty… looking out for the interest of Chicagoans.”

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