CHICAGO — Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was catapulted into office as an outsider, promising to shake up the city’s notoriously combustible politics. But nearly two years into his term, he is increasingly isolated and has even alienated some of his ideological allies as he struggles to implement his progressive agenda.
The most glaring recent example is the unfolding controversy over his strong effort to overhaul the city’s school board. The seven members rejected Johnson’s call to fire the school’s CEO – who had rejected his request to take out a short-term, high-interest loan to solve a budget deficit – and they resigned en masse.
Johnson aggressively defended his tenure Friday in an interview with POLITICO from London, where he focused on economic development and attending a Chicago Bears game in the city.
“There are those who may have some trepidation about how bold our vision is,” Johnson said, pointing to major investments in affordable housing alongside a list of achievements. “There are individuals who have a hard time adapting. But for the masses in the city of Chicago, they are very much aligned with the vision.”
The school board is just the latest drama from the fifth floor of City Hall. To that end, Johnson reshuffled his intergovernmental affairs team, bringing in a director who had worked closely with the Chicago Teachers Union — the influential group that helped him get elected mayor. He repeatedly clashed with the City Council over his push to eliminate the use of controversial gun detection technology. And he failed to get his first and second choices approved to chair the council’s powerful zoning committee.
All that came before the mayor postponed publication of his proposal to address perhaps the city’s most pressing problem: a $1 billion budget deficit heading into 2025.
Many city councilors support Johnson’s progressive agenda for the city, but they are annoyed by the way he is trying to achieve it. In particular, his unilateral efforts to reshape the school board have thwarted city officials like Councilman Bill Conway.
“I appreciate that Mayor Johnson is a man of principle, but he also needs to realize that city government is not set up as a dictatorship,” Conway said.
Nearly two years ago, Johnson, a former social studies teacher and CTU organizer, was a surprise hit when he won the race for Chicago mayor.
He rose as an activist and even led a hunger strike to keep a South Side school open. He won the backing of the teachers union to become district commissioner, and a few years later CTU anointed him as mayoral candidate.
But Johnson’s challenges began as soon as he was sworn in, when Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott began sending busloads of migrants to Chicago to draw attention to national immigration problems.
Johnson embraced Chicago’s reputation as a welcoming place for immigrants and, along with the state and county, devoted significant resources to providing housing and other services to the newcomers. But some Black Chicagoans felt slighted — why was the mayor willing to find housing for immigrants, they asked, when there were many in their own communities who needed help?
The migrant crisis also raised tensions with Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, as the mayor repeatedly criticized the state for not doing more even as Illinois paid more to handle the relief effort.
Johnson has praised his efforts to rebuild distressed neighborhoods in this diverse city, which has nearly equal populations of black, Latino and white residents. And he has been methodical in hiring black staffers for key positions.
But the mayor’s focus on expanding opportunities for black residents has also drawn criticism.
“As much as he wants to address legitimate issues affecting the African-American community, you can’t do that if that’s the only thing you’re focused on,” said Bill Singer, a former councilman and veteran City Hall observer. “You have to focus on the whole city and you have to focus on things where the entire support structure of the city is working with you. And that’s not it now.”
Johnson rejects such criticism, saying his administration’s efforts benefit the entire city, including programs he says have led to lower crime rates, investments in bonds that boost small businesses and expand affordable housing, and plans for a $1 business investment billion in a quantum computing campus.
“I committed to doing things differently, and I’m going to do that,” Johnson said. “If people have a problem with young black men being the highest group of individuals enrolling in community colleges, these are the same individuals who may not have cared when those young black boys were in schools that were divested and closed.”
The recent tensions between the mayor and the City Council reflect the turbulence of the 1980s, when Mayor Harold Washington was scrutinized at every opportunity by a group of council members. But there is a notable difference: Washington’s opponents were a small group of white councilors, while Johnson faced opposition from all sides, including some progressive allies and black council members.
“He is absolutely right to draw attention to parts of the city that have long been neglected and disenfranchised, but he needs to involve the City Council,” said Constance Mixon, professor of political science at Elmhurst University and co-editor of the paper . book ‘Chicago of the 21st century’. “He can’t do it himself.”
Johnson was brought to power with the support of progressives and minority communities who wanted change from a system they say is dominated by white corporate elites. For decades, every Chicago mayor has been associated with Richard J. Daley, who was first elected in 1955.
“They all came out of the Daley machine,” said Delmarie Cobb, a political consultant who got her to work on the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign, naming former mayors Rahm Emanuel and Lori Lightfoot, as well as Paul Vallas, who defeated Johnson in last year’s mayoral contest. “This was an opportunity to completely defeat the machine.”
Crime remains an ongoing problem in Chicago, despite some recent successes, including a significant drop in homicide rates. Black communities have debated whether the ShotSpotter gunfire detection system, adopted during Emanuel’s administration, is the best way to protect their gun-riddled neighborhoods. Johnson has vowed to terminate its contract with the company, arguing, as many progressives have, that it is merely a surveillance tool that does little to solve crimes.
But some Black communities — and their city council members — believe the tool has saved lives. ShotSpotter identifies gunfire so police and paramedics can reach the scene faster.
The mayor nevertheless kept his campaign promise and has rejected the program, prompting his opponents to consider a legal challenge.
But Johnson’s biggest challenges lie in finance and the school system. The city is facing a nearly $1 billion deficit and the Chicago Public Schools system is struggling with mounting debt.
It is a financial storm that the mayor hopes to avoid. He’s trying to shift school employee pension benefits from the city to Chicago Public Schools, and he wants the schools to take out a high-interest, short-term loan of $300 million to pay for it.
When school board CEO Pedro Gonzalez rejected that idea, Johnson became frustrated that his hand-picked board did not support him. All seven ultimately resigned — an astonishing move considering the board is also in the midst of contract negotiations with the powerful teachers union.
The unrest comes just weeks before the November elections, when Chicagoans will vote for their first elected school board. Critics say Johnson is trying to bypass the new board, which will consist of 21 members — 10 elected and 11 appointed by the mayor — so he can fire Martinez and fulfill CTU’s contract requests.
Many elected officials and civic leaders have warned against taking out a loan, and they worry that firing Martinez would be a mistake, especially considering that schools appear to be improving under his watch.
Johnson earlier this week compared those who have complained about the city’s financial problems to Confederate slave owners, a reference that has angered civic leaders who also run businesses in the city.
“They said it would be fiscally irresponsible for this country to free black people,” the mayor said. “And now you have opponents using the same argument of the Confederacy when it comes to public education in this system.”
The controversy threatens Johnson’s ability to move forward in the future — in the short term as he tries to get the City Council to approve his budget and in the long term as he hopes to be re-elected for a second term.
“There needs to be an understanding that the legislative and executive branches are co-equal branches, and this tension and bickering over whose authority that is is not helping,” said Councilman Andre Vasquez, co-chair of the City Council. progressive caucus.
Singer, the veteran councilman who has long studied Chicago City Hall, said the city will weather the latest turbulence.
“The bones are great. The settings are great. They don’t go away. But the city will shrink even more than it has already shrunk if this continues,” Singer said. “I think it can survive for a few more years [Johnson]but no second term.”
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