* I mean, if it wasn’t obvious on Friday night when the Johnson administration handed the Brighton Park environmental report to reporters before they gave it to the governor’s office, then I’m not sure where you’ve been…
Mayor Brandon Johnson campaigned on a promise to be the likable consensus-builder that Lori Lightfoot wasn’t.
He touted lessons learned as one of 10 siblings in a home with one bathroom, along with his previous work as a paid organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union. Listening, negotiating and collaborating is part of his DNA.
And yet, Johnson’s relationship with Gov. J.B. Pritzker is off to a rocky start not all that different from the tension between Lightfoot and Pritzker that worsened during the pandemic and became a hallmark of her single term.
The full story by Fran Spielman and Tina Sfondeles is definitely worth a read. I learned some things. The end graf is brutal…
“The governor has spent a lot of time, effort and money on national politics … The folks in the Pritzker administration don’t want to be embarrassed by a city that doesn’t really seem to have a plan,” Giangreco said. “All [Johnson] seems to say is, ‘I need Washington or Springfield to fix this for me.’”
That last sentence in particular is a sharp insight.
Some Chicago mayors have at times considered themselves more important than the state’s governors, and some actually were. But instead of consolidating support after the election, this mayor has allowed circumstances to alienate much of the city, including at least parts of his progressive base. Pritzker, on the other hand, has consolidated power with the two legislative leaders, taken control of the state party, has a net worth in the billions and is undoubtedly far more popular in Chicago than the mayor. There’s just not much Johnson can do to him at this point which won’t badly backfire.
Whatever the case, the fighting isn’t good in the long term, so this really needs to end soon.
*** UPDATE *** Gov. Pritzker was asked about this today…
We have a good relationship with one another. And I know the media would like to, every time there’s a governor and a mayor of Chicago, when you occasionally have things you’re working out together. They want to turn it into ‘They hate each other.’
Now there have been mayors and governors in the past that don’t like each other. But the truth is that we get along an we have a lot to accomplish. Chicago is an important economic driver for the country, not to mention for the state of Illinois. And I’ve really made it my mission - I’ve had now three mayors that I’ve worked with - I’ve made it my mission to make sure that the relationship is good. Even when you disagree occasionally on something, you just need to work it out. And whenever we have disagreed, we have worked it out. So I feel really good about the relationship and about the future working together. We do share one overriding concern together and that’s lifting up the working people of our state, making sure that people are doing well, that families are thriving, making the investments that are necessary for that. S that’s a great common ground to work from.
- Regular democrat - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 9:43 am:
This appears to be a intentional strategy by Johnson not sure why. The gov has FAR better advisors and strategists and will really make him look sillier. No way the gov going to let this amateur mess up his convention
- Lucky Pierre - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 9:43 am:
Maybe staying on the sidelines in the Mayors race wasn’t such a smart idea after all.
Brandon Johnson’s failures should surprise no one
What on his resume makes him qualified to be Mayor of Chicago?
- Suburbanon - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 9:48 am:
Alderwoman Jeannette Taylor said it best:
“We were not ready because we haven’t been in government long enough to know how government really works. … We’re pretending like now we got the power, let us show you how it’s supposed to be done. And we look real stupid, right now.”
- Red headed step child - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 9:51 am:
He needs to wake up and learn the ropes fast or he will need a new job in 44 months
- Demoralized - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 10:05 am:
At 10:05 a.m. on December 5, 2023, I agree with @LP
- Nothing New - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 10:11 am:
Who can we believe here: A wildly popular governor whose team has led him comfortably through two elections, or a mayor whose team doesn’t even know how to properly execute a Friday news dump?
- Larry Bowa Jr. - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 10:12 am:
“No way the gov going to let this amateur mess up his convention”
I have quite a bit of confidence that the Johnson “administration” will find a way. There will be plenty of problems for them to continually fail to address over the next 8 months while flopping around aimlessly in the media.
- Roman - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 10:25 am:
Mayor Lightfoot reveled in her confrontational political persona and that bled into almost every intergovernmental relationship and policy decisions during her tenure. Many of us hoped Johnson’s affable personality would have the opposite effect on the 5th Floor and usher an era of collaboration.
That hasn’t happened because while Lightfoot was a hands-on manager, Johnson is not. He’s a likable guy, but he’s not a problem-solver. He is slow to make tough decisions and fill key positions, and goes weeks without making public statements. That leaves the governor and other would-be allies guessing. And when inevitable conflicts begin to simmer, he’s not getting personally to put out the fires.
The vacuum in leadership ends up gets filled with stuff like Carlos Ramirez-Rosa’s tweets.
- Flapdoodle - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 10:35 am:
Agree with Suburbanon’s comment @ 9:48. But there’s a necessary extension to Alderwoman Taylor’s remarks, namely, that the Mayor and his administration have demonstrated a marked inability if not active resistance to learning from repeated gaffs and errors. From basic staffing issues to the arts of policy formation, building inter-governmental alliances, and media relations, the Mayor and his administration have not only continued to make mistakes, but to make the *same* mistakes. Perhaps he and his allies think this is persistence, what changing the system looks like, but to me it looks like a failure to grow and at times an almost petulant abdication of responsibility. Maybe the Mayor assumed getting elected would mean he’d automatically be the big dog, and now he’s discovering all it gets him is a ticket to the dance and the rest must be earned. Politics abhor a power vacuum, but that’s what I see in Chicago right now. Fill it, Mr. Mayor, or get out of the way before you get run over.
- Grandson of Man - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 10:40 am:
“and is undoubtedly far more popular in Chicago than the mayor”
Johnson has no mandate and was not the choice of many voters in the first mayoral election. If the opponent was not Vallas, maybe Johnson wouldn’t be mayor today.
- Lurker - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 10:47 am:
Are we to the point where the Governor needs to be directly involved in filling positions for the Mayor? He needs leaders and advisors that can help him make not only correct decisions but simply decisions.
- Lucky Pierre - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 10:49 am:
Does anyone in the business community in Chicago consider Mayor Johnson to be affable?
Anyone else notice JB no longer highlighting being the “most progressive”?
- de Gaulle - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 11:01 am:
There was a time when the (eventually) all-powerful House Speaker, the (eventually) all-powerful Finance Chair and the state’s own governor all were secondary players to the Mayor of Chicago.
Between Lori and now Brandon, the issue isn’t that the Mayor of Chicago is ineffective, it’s that the position is becoming inconsequential.
Businesses are working to go around them, the Governor is having to insert himself into a vacuum of leadership, etc. A progressive alder just went on record saying maybe this is not the right group to be in charge.
The comparison is not “how would it have been under Vallas?” It’s, “how far has the Fifth Floor fallen in 4.5 years and is it recoverable?”
- TradedUpForMitch - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 11:10 am:
Your blog Rich, but I’m going to respectfully disagree on the keenness on the insight from Sophia King’s advisor.
“Giangreco said he has no idea”
“Nor does he know”
The sentence you cite isn’t exactly the formula for Coke. Everyone knows the convention is important to Pritzker and he’s focused on national politics.
The unnamed sources provided better insight. Giangrecco just seems to be fomenting discord to see if he can get another vanity candidate to pay him to deliver 1.4% of the vote in 2027 like he did in 2023.
- Lincoln Lad - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 11:15 am:
Any civic leader needs the support, brain power, courage and effort of senior advisors committed to solving problems and improving bad situations through recommendations that have been researched and tested through stakeholders. It doesn’t appear Johnson has that… he needs to build that team and recognize others (like JB) are a source of support and guidance and he isn’t the enemy. He needs to do that especially while he doesn’t have a team of his own able to effectively lead the city. Make friends with those who are able to help you.
- JS Mill - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 11:15 am:
Looking at this from a different perspective- historically political movements have a somewhat predictable arc regardless of where they fit on the political spectrum, with the far right and far left somewhat mirroring each other- this seems to me like a group of activists that attained power without the pragmatic sensibilities needed to run government. Rich covered this last week as a matter of fact. The Johnson team lacks the understanding of how to run a city, even running iot based on their preferred political position. The governor, in their eyes, is the establishment that they want to fight not realizing they are the establishment now.
I liken it to a child that is given an early bedtime and tells their parents that they will let their kids stay up as late as they want when they are parents. In this case they actually do it and it is, predictably, backfiring.
=At 10:05 a.m. on December 5, 2023, I agree with @LP=
I sure sign that the apocalypse is upon us.
- LastModDemStanding - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 11:22 am:
The MBJ administration is making so many unenforced errors in 7 months, I’ve lost track. When electing someone whose primary concern is “likability” everything that has happened should have been expected. I’m personally just hoping the immaturity and gaffs of the Johsnon Admin. doesn’t take the City down with it- I know I’ll be watching the United Airlines debacle, which may be a lynchpin of things to come.
- de Gaulle - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 11:24 am:
Johnson is too reliant on one person. You see the same name in every article. I don’t care how talented that person is or isn’t. It is literally impossible to run the City of Chicago with success in such a fashion.
Meet with your cabinet leaders. Stop creating an army of “deputy mayors”. Our best mayors had zero or perhaps two or three.
Have a crack comms team and a crack IGA team. The rest will take care of itself. The Mayor needs to set the vision and the tone and let the talented people around him or her do the real work.
- Jerry - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 11:43 am:
I’m in the “business community” and I find Mayor Johnson to be affable.
Pleasant and at ease in talking to others according to Merriam Webster.
- Arsenal - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 11:57 am:
==Maybe staying on the sidelines in the Mayors race wasn’t such a smart idea after all.==
This assumes that JB would’ve preferred the failed Republican to Johnson.
- Leigh John-Ella - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 11:58 am:
The movement needs to be against something, always.
- Jocko - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 12:03 pm:
==Pleasant and at ease in talking to others==
Which is fine at a dinner party…not running the third largest city in the US. Nearly seven months into his administration and what does Brandon Johnson have to show for it?
- don the legend - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 12:24 pm:
=At 10:05 a.m. on December 5, 2023, I agree with @LP=
Demoralized, you can still avoid this endorsement of LP since today is December 4.
- Lucky Pierre - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 1:01 pm:
Maybe after 5 1/2 months the citizens of Chicago have learned the hard lesson that not being a progressive does not make 70 year old, lifelong Democrat Paul Vallas a Republican
- Roadrager - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 1:26 pm:
==Maybe after 5 1/2 months the citizens of Chicago have learned the hard lesson that not being a progressive does not make 70 year old, lifelong Democrat Paul Vallas a Republican==
What do repeated statements of Republican policy positions, repeated fawning Fox News appearances, a sinecure with the Illinois Policy Institute’s Best Team in America ™, and cozy wintertime snuggles with the Tribune Editorial board make him, then?
As for Johnson, it is not only stupefying how bad a long-time organizer is at building his office and putting in the necessary work, but how the people of Chicago keep trying to elect a new mayor and get a slightly worse Xerox of the last one instead. And who’s a better option out there that actually wanted the job in 2023, or will want it in 2027? It’s an awful trend.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 1:31 pm:
===keep trying to elect a new mayor and get a slightly worse Xerox of the last one instead===
Well put.
- Shytown - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 1:32 pm:
To quote The Who…meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
- Lucky Pierre - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 1:55 pm:
Do you think Paul Vallas changed from the moderate pro business democrat in the tradition of Rich Daley and Rahm Emanuel or do you think that powerful factions of the Illinois Democratic party became much more progressive?
Criticizing progressive policies which are obviously not effective, appearing of Fox News does not make you a Republican but I can see why progressive would accuse him of being one.
Much easier to demonize your opponent than defend the failed policies you supported.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 2:01 pm:
===moderate pro business democrat in the tradition of Rich Daley and Rahm Emanuel===
Get back on topic. But to answer your question, the man changed during the pandemic. And it was a very weird change.
Again, get back on topic.
- Jerry - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 2:52 pm:
==Pleasant and at ease in talking to others==
I think thats probably a good skill set for anyone to have (besides just at the dinner table).
- Excitable Boy - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 2:55 pm:
- moderate pro business democrat in the tradition of Rich Daley and Rahm Emanuel -
I thought they were terrible mayors as well. I hoped as Rich and others have mentioned that Johnson would use his organizing abilities to build a consensus for his platform, but am disappointed in what I’ve seen so far.
Johnson still has time to change, but he and his team are going to have to recognize the problem first.
- Michelle Flaherty - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 3:04 pm:
I always wondered what Mayor Pat Quinn would be like.
- ??? - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 3:29 pm:
==- Michelle Flaherty - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 3:04 pm:
I always wondered what Mayor Pat Quinn would be like.==
So has Pat Quinn, I’m sure. Just as he’s wondered what Secretary of State Pat Quinn would be like, what Attorney General Pat Quinn would be like, what U.S. Senator Pat Quinn would be like….
- Stuck in Celliniland - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 4:22 pm:
=I always wondered what Mayor Pat Quinn would be like.=
We would have had a press conference yesterday morning for sure, for one.
- DHS Drone - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 4:46 pm:
“I always wondered what Mayor Pat Quinn would be like.”
Squeezy would have a tank on the fifth floor.
- Tinman - Monday, Dec 4, 23 @ 9:15 pm:
Time for the mayor to get his house in order and work with the governor . Waiting to see where the chips fall is not leadership . This city needs strong steady hand, always has. Maybe he is still struggling with thinking he is a union organizer. He needs to know he is now the manager.