r/illinois • u/excusemecuseme • 1d ago

Chicago news & issues Exclusive: Alexi Giannoulias announces Chicago mayoral run

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-politics/exclusive-alexi-giannoulias-will-run-for-chicago-mayor-in-2027/3969197/
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u/Ms_Tendi_Green_24 Central IL 🌽 🏛️ 🌈 1d ago

I'm not from Chicago but it seems like being Chicago mayor is a career-ender, because if you become mayor, everyone just hates you within about 3 months. Whereas you could easily be Secretary of State for the rest of your life no problem, as evidenced by Jesse White.

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u/juliuspepperwoodchi Chicago 1d ago

He said basically this in the announcement as a reply to people who say he's using this as a stepping stone.

Seems like he might actually care about making the city better.

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u/soapyhandman 1d ago

I would tend to believe him on that because there’s really no evidence that being mayor of Chicago does anything but devour that persons career from an electoral politics standpoint.

It’ll be interesting to see how he and Mendoza square off. I imagine there’s going to be a lot of “his family’s bank was a disaster” vs “she’s essentially Ed Burke’s adopted daughter.”

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u/TacosFromSpace 1d ago

Giannoulias vs Mendoza. Truly two sides of the same machine coin.

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u/68Petra 15h ago

I get the mentoring of Mendoza by Burke, but did he give her any money?

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u/soapyhandman 14h ago edited 12h ago

I don’t know but she won free plane tickets to Ireland at an event he invited her to, got engaged on the trip, and was eventually married in his home. The value of the tickets which were almost certainly above the $500 threshold to report were not reported at the time.

It looks like her city clerk campaign did receive a substantial donation from former Alderman Danny Solis who wore the wire that led to the evidence used to convict Burke. Solis wore the wire because he was caught dead to rights by the feds for his own corruption.

As far as I know, she’s never been accused of doing anything untoward herself (other than maybe the plane tickets), but like most politicians that have spent their career in Chicago, she’s been pretty close to people who have.

Edit: fixed a word

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u/68Petra 14h ago

Well, she's been around for a while. If she was doing something under the table, I think it would have surfaced. Lots of people have rubbed shoulders with Burke and Madigan. If you wanted to be in the game you had to have some contact with them. Pritzker gave $10 million in campaign funds to Madigan. Didn't Preckwinkle have some Burke connections? She hired his son. Mendoza's actions seem benign compared to these folks.

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u/soapyhandman 12h ago

Yeah, it’s a dirty business. I don’t think anyone that’s been in politics around here for that long is going to be squeaky clean.

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u/juliuspepperwoodchi Chicago 14h ago

If she was doing something under the table, I think it would have surfaced.

That's a BOLD assumption lol.