Since his election as mayor of Chicago in April of last year, Brandon Johnson raised $2.6 million, almost half of which came from a variety of labor organizations – some of them key supporters of his election campaign, others that emerged later.
The progressive first-term mayor’s continued reliance on union support is no surprise after his campaign was funded primarily by large labor groups such as the Chicago Teachers Union and the Service Employees International Union — two organizations whose leaders maintain access close to the mayor, according to his public schedules and text records.
But an analysis of his political campaign revenues shows a growing variety among his labor supporters and a general widening of his political fundraising sources, including a big check from a Grammy-winning rapper with Chicago ties.
Of the $2.6 million in political contributions Johnson has received since being elected mayor, $1.2 million has come from unions, according to quarterly filings filed last week. He had about $2 million on hand at the end of last month, compared with $576,000 just before winning the April 4, 2023, runoff.
Johnson, who beat his opponent Paul Vallas despite being spent almost 2 to 1he has also raised more funds since taking office than his predecessors in the same period.
Old Mayor Lori Lightfoot raised around US$2 million between his victory in the second round of the 2019 elections and just over a year after his inauguration. And Rahm Emanuel raised just $360,000 in the year after his 2011 victory, even though he had a whopping $2.7 million on hand when he easily won the election and had the ability to quickly fire up his fundraising machine.
Since the April 2023 runoff, Johnson’s labor fundraising has diversified to rely on prominent support from more moderate trade and industrial unions, according to an analysis of his latest batch of state campaign finance records. During the mayoral race, nearly all of his union donations came from the left-leaning CTU, SEIU and affiliates.
Johnson’s new mayoral donors include the local chapter of the Laborers’ International Union of North America and the Carpenters Union of Central America, each contributing $200,000 shortly after he was elected. The two have been tied as his top donors since the second round. In June of this year, the mayor hosted a LIUNA internship program with Chicago Public Schools, while earlier that month he hosted the regional carpenters council at City Hall, according to Johnson’s calendars, which the Tribune received through public records requests.
The business manager of Laborers’ Local 1001, which represents the city’s sanitation and maintenance workers, publicly criticized Johnson’s administration last month over its botched handling of hundreds of labor checks.
It’s not uncommon after a candidate’s political star rises. Lightfoot won LIUNA’s endorsement in the 2019 runoff after the top trade group spent heavily supporting Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who was eliminated in the first round of mayoral voting. This contribution was Lightfoot’s largest during her runoff against Cook County Chairman Toni Preckwinkle.
After LIUNA and the carpenters union, Johnson’s biggest union supporter since the runoff has been the CTU, whose PAC has raised $111,643 – a $75,000 contribution last June and several in-kind canvassing contributions, ads in videos and phone banking that were recorded in the following weeks. the flow. During the election, the labor organization was Johnson’s main financier, contributing $2.3 million through the April runoff. This does not include other affiliated teachers unions that also contributed to Johnson’s tenure.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers of Illinois PAC gave Johnson $105,000 shortly after the runoff and later hosted him for a convention in August. None of the three unions donated to Johnson during his campaign for mayor, which began in late October 2022.
The teachers union — where Johnson rose through the ranks as an organizer before running for county commissioner — has notable direct access to the mayor. This access brings advantages, such as The Tribune reported last month, after learning that the mayor’s letter to Illinois Senate President Don Harmon promising not to close selective enrollment schools was edited directly by a CTU lobbyist.
From his inauguration in May until June this year, Johnson’s public schedule included a dozen events or meetings with the firebrand Labor group’s leadership or at its headquarters. Johnson had four meetings with CTU President Stacy Davis Gates at City Hall, his diary books show.
The mayor’s cellphone messages in 2023, although generally sparse, show that Davis Gates was the union leader with whom he exchanged the most messages. But he also corresponded with SEIU Healthcare Illinois Vice President Erica Bland-Durosinmi, as well as Chicago Federation of Labor President Bob Reiter.
SEIU Healthcare’s political committee contributed $48,000 in the quarter after its runoff victory. Bland-Durosinmi appears four times on the mayor’s agenda, while union president Greg Kelley appears once. The umbrella organization, which donated $4.5 million to Johnson’s mayoral campaign, appears eight times on the mayor’s schedule, including a meeting at City Hall with the state SEIU board.
Since winning the mayor’s seat, Johnson has seen a name emerge outside of Chicago’s usual political world as one of his biggest financiers: rapper Lil Durk.
Durk, a Chicago native whose real name is Durk Banks, contributed $150,000 in June 2023, shortly after meeting twice with Johnson. He is Johnson’s third-largest political donor since the April runoff.
Before the donation made through his company, The Voice Touring, Durk met with Johnson when he was mayor-elect and again over Zoom on the Friday after his inauguration, according to the mayors’ social media accounts and calendars. The first meeting was publicized on hip-hop blogs and by podcaster DJ Akademiks in an Instagram post, leading Durk to defend himself against criticism that he was taking the opportunity to promote his upcoming album.
“I’ve sat down with the mayor and the politicians, I’m trying to change the image,” he sings on “All My Life,” a Grammy-winning song released days after the first meeting, before Johnson’s inauguration.
Johnson last August also participated in the rapper’s “Financial Literacy Event” with the Bank of America office and city treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, as well as a “Lil Durk Christmas Event” in December.
On the expense side, a recurring controversy has been Johnson’s growing hair and makeup bill. Local company Makeup Majic ranked fifth in all his political fund costs and has racked up $32,700 in costs since he became mayor. Before that, he paid South Side artist Denise Milloy $4,000 during the mayoral race.
A total of 40 receipts from Milloy’s business have been recorded in Johnson’s expenses since his inauguration. Although the mayor is increasingly registered as a beneficiary, Milloy only appears 17 times in his daily schedule. Johnson’s campaign did not respond to a question about whether he was paying for third-party services.
Johnson does not receive many corporate and big business donations compared to his predecessors, likely a reflection of his stridently pro-worker stances that have often left him at odds with the business community.
Lightfoot, on the other hand, received several major campaign infusions from the city’s business leaders shortly after winning mayorship in 2019. These included DRW Holdings CEO Donald Wilson, real estate investor Sam Zell and his wife, Helen, and Lester Crown . Lightfoot would later count Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts and Newsweb founder Fred Eychaner as major donors.
A big exception for Johnson is the Leaders for Tomorrow political action committee. Run by Austin-based GMA Construction Group founder Cornelius Griggs and GMA vice president and general counsel Erica Kirkwood, the PAC has donated $74,000 to Johnson since the April runoff. The company has done business in the city in the past, and Griggs last month was chosen to serve on the mayor’s “Cut the Tape” initiative task force.
The PAC also donated a total of $124,100 to Lightfoot in 2022 and 2023.
Another PAC created by Ashlaur Construction CEO Zollie Carradine, whose company is an active municipal contractor, contributed $50,000 to Johnson’s fund in September.
Johnson previously refunded a donation from Griggs’ daughter Kyla after a Chicago Sun-Times investigation found that several donations from business interests violated the city’s ethics rules. In all, Johnson has repaid $72,602 in contributions, campaign records show, including more than $10,000 in this most recent quarter.
The city’s ethics law limits businesses to a $1,500 donation limit if they have more than $10,000 in city contracts in any consecutive year (in the last four years), but donations via PACs are much more complicated, so according to Steve Berlin, longtime executive director of the city’s Board of Ethics.
The council would have to investigate the facts to determine whether a PAC could be considered “a single person” under city code, Berlin said. The PAC may be covered by these limits if the board determines that the company has a high degree of control over it.
Corporate donations through PACs may also be subject to contribution limits if any PAC transfers more than half of its annual revenues to a particular elected official or candidate in the same calendar year. Anyone who contributed to that PAC, in that case, “would be considered to have contributed to the candidate in the amounts they contributed to the PAC,” Berlin said.
Asked about this quarter’s refunds and whether these PAC donations exploited a loophole in city code, campaign spokesman Jake Lewis said, “Our campaign is proud to have the support of donors in Chicago and the country, and we work diligently to ensure compliance with all state and local campaign finance laws and regulations.
Alisa Kaplan, executive director of the ethics advocacy group Reform for Illinois, said the board should investigate both issues.
“Chicago limits campaign contributions from city contractors for a good reason: to prevent corruption and the appearance of corruption. Contractors should not be able to use PACs or any other loophole to get around these limits,” Kaplan told the Tribune. “The city needs to aggressively enforce existing rules designed to avoid tradeoffs, but it also needs to tighten the rules.”
Company executives are not subject to this $1,500 limit. They can donate up to $6,900. Kaplan said this is also a problem. The mayor and City Council “need to stop stalling” and close this gap, she said.
Political groups that have donated to Johnson since his election include $7,000 from Midwestern Asian American Progressives and $47,400 from statewide Mijente. The mayor also received $49,000 from the United Working Families PAC, a CTU-affiliated political organization whose former executive director, Kennedy Bartley, was tapped to join the Johnson administration this spring.
The grassroots PAC, run by Warehouse Workers for Justice executive director Marcos Ceniceros, donated $75,400, while the North Zone-based One People’s Campaign contributed $3,200.
ayin@chicagotribune.com
aquig@chicagotribune.com
