By Ray Hanania
It truly is an act of unprecedented public arrogance for Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias to formally announce on August 2 his candidacy for Chicago Mayor for the February 23, 2027 election, a full three months BEFORE his re-election for his current taxpayer-paid public job, Illinois Secretary of State, goes to the voters on November 3, 2026.
Giannoulias can blame Gov. JB Pritzker, Daddy Warbucks, all he wants for creating the scenario for this to happen, but that doesn’t mean he has to go along with it. Although maybe it does, since several of Pritzker’s top aides have joined the Giannoulias campaign.
At his mayoral announcement — three months before his Secretary of State re-election — Giannoulias surrounded himself with money and clout, although he created an artificial backdrop of “regular people” to stand behind him for photos that was somewhat diverse.
What the voters should really know is the Cabal of Clout that was standing to the sides who will play a bigger role in his candidacy.
Instead of outlining in detail his solutions on how he will solve the city’s many problems, Giannoulias is focused on making his run easier.
Which, to me, is a bad sign.
Giannoulias’ campaign is already preparing to pull a “Jesus Garcia,” getting his attorneys and minions to challenge any petitions collected and filed by his rivals and throw them off the ballot. There are at least 10 other officials who plan or have announced to run.
That is his strategy to win the mayoral office. Do what Congressman Jesus “Chuy” Garcia did and have his paid staff challenge the petitions of candidate Mayra Macias and Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez.
Fortunately, Sigcho-Lopez has filed a lawsuit against the politically influenced Chicago Election Board decision to remove him based on Garcia’s silence-the-people petition challenge.
A real leader who cares about the public would not have snubbed 90 percent of the people he serves in the State of Illinois by brushing aside his re-election and instead directing his massive $22 million campaign war chest, compiled by his Cabal of Clout pals, to create generic TV Ads run in the weeks before his “Mayoral Announcement” that did not reference an office.
Clearly, the Ads were to prepare him for his focus, running for mayor, not for Secretary of State.
But in Illinois, no one cares about procedures trampled by the Cabal of Clout. They just move ahead, as Garcia did, to game the system to your own benefit, not to the benefit of the people.
The point is, I guess, no one needs to vote for Giannoulias for Secretary of State. They can vote for Diane M. Harris, who is taking the Secretary of State job far more seriously than Giannoulias is. She’s running just for Secretary of State.
What Giannoulias is doing is what all Cabal of Clout politicians with a lot of money do. They take public office for granted, running not to help the everyday citizens in Illinois who are oppressed by the massive taxes and fee hikes his buddy Pritzker has imposed on them over the years.
They care about themselves. They care about their careers, not the struggles of every citizen.
If Giannoulias cared about everyday citizens, he would have run for Secretary of State AND THEN announced for Mayor of Chicago. Or, he could have done what Susana Mendoza did this time: withdraw from re-election as Comptroller to run for Mayor.
Giannoulias could have still filed his petitions for Mayor by the Oct. 26 Chicago Mayoral deadline, and then announced for mayor AFTER the November 3 General election.
Why should voters vote for Giannoulias for Secretary of State?
It doesn’t matter that he avoided all the controversy that followed him from his banking days when his dad set him up to monitor loans and departments that he screwed up.
Asked about those screwups and controversies, Giannoulias denounced them as lies.
Lies? Do you really not respect the voters enough to call facts “lies?” Look these “lies” up online. They are there for everyone to see.
Broadway Bank Failure. Giannoulias was vice president and senior loan officer at Broadway Bank from 2002 to 2006. After leaving to become Secretary of State, the bank became heavily burdened with bad commercial real estate loans and was closed in 2010 by Federal regulators, with the burden covered by the FDIC, (the taxpayers), to the tune of $390-$394 million.
Giannoulias was the senior loan officer during the years when the bank greatly expanded risky lending.
And there is more. In an interview on WLS TV on August 3, Mendoza pointed out his loans to “mobsters.”
“I think when you’re applying for a new job, as he said he’s doing, you should present the whole resume to the city of Chicago,” Mendoza said, referencing his family’s Broadway Bank. “And that includes, you know, his job as senior loan officer of a failed bank that was seized by the feds for losing many people’s money and giving over 20 million dollars in loans to mobsters.”
What was Giannoulias’ answer? “Voters are tired of career politicians recycling the same old lies from more than 15 years ago to get attention. Alexi has assembled a coalition of support because he's focused on making the city safer and more affordable-- the things voters actually care about."
What does he know about what the voters care about? They are struggling in a terrible economy, concerned about paying their health insurance, mortgages, and putting food on their tables. But voters also care about truth. They care about character, and commitment to THEM being more important than politicians who often only care more about themselves and their careers.
The Cabal of Clout has a powerful magnetic way of pulling the powerful and the wealthy together, so that they can all benefit and enjoy the power.
Giannoulias basically pulled a “Raja Krishnamoorthi.” Instead of addressing the issues, Krishnamoorthi spent millions in his campaign for U.S. Senator, giving the voters a diversion instead of answers to their biggest concerns.
Giannoulias is doing the same thing. I won’t be surprised if he starts launching expensive campaign Krishnamoorthi-like TV commercials to help voters pronounce and spell his name. They’re only three letters different.
But in politics, they are exactly the same.
Krishnamoorthi didn’t address the real issues during his US Senate campaign, but instead used his millions to manipulate the voters’ perception away from the real issues.
Giannoulias is doing the same thing.
It’s a slap in the face of every voter that he is running for Secretary of State and Mayor of Chicago all at the same time, with the focus on mayor. He takes the Secretary of State race for granted. That’s what the Cabal of Clout does.
When it comes to politics and elections, the people I trust least are the ones with all the big bucks, like Pritzker, who can buy an election with his billions, and Giannoulias, who has $22 million.
Krishnamoorthi had $31 million.
Big money doesn’t and shouldn’t be allowed to buy elections. Truth. Honesty. A true dedication to making the interests of the voters and the taxpayers the real priority and the only real factor in this strange election that no one can really pronounce.
Terrific column!