Brandon Johnson a 'woefully unprepared' mayor, City Council critic says

Mayor Brandon Johnson was portrayed Thursday as a “woefully unprepared” captive of the “radical left” who is well on his way to becoming a “one-termer.”

Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) said he has not decided whether to challenge Johnson in 2027. But his brutal assessment of the mayor’s first 16 months in office sure sounds like it’s coming from a mayoral candidate.

As the City Council member representing downtown business interests, Reilly is in almost constant contact with business leaders — and “all they want to talk about" is fielding a candidate to replace Johnson, he said.

“They’re very, very concerned about the trajectory of this city under socialist leadership. … Barring a dramatic turnaround — a miraculous turnaround, and I just don’t see that happening — Mayor Johnson is likely a one-term mayor,” said Reilly, who supported Johnson’s opponent, Paul Vallas, in the 2023 runoff.

“I’ve talked to a lot of folks who supported Mayor Johnson in the election who have buyer’s remorse. … They saw the slick TV ads and a charismatic, friendly guy and thought that was good enough to run the city. Now, they’re realizing experience matters … People are going to want a change from this … Whether or not I decide to run, we’ll see. [But] it’s very difficult watching the city suffer the way it is due to incompetence and lack of experience.”

Reilly also condemned the hiring freeze Johnson announced this week to begin to tackle a daunting financial crisis. He said the mayor ignored that crisis, balancing his first budget with one-time revenues to avoid raising taxes.

“Responsible budgeting would have called for a hiring freeze to go into effect at the beginning of the year and then also to start working on budgetary reductions in each of the departments, [with] 5% cuts now. But none of those things were entertained,” Reilly said.

“It just shows that this mayor was woefully unprepared to take this job. And unfortunately, taxpayers are facing some pretty serious consequences as a result. … He boxed himself in. He’s given himself very few options on how to balance this budget.”

Messages were left with several members of Johnson's leaderhip team requesting comment on Reilly's remarks. None were immediately returned. Among others, the Sun-Times reached out to Chief of Staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas, Chief Operating Officer John Roberson and senior mayoral adviser Jason Lee, as well as Christian Perry, Johnson's political director.

A veteran political strategist who cut his teeth as a staffer for now-indicted former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, Reilly said Johnson has “by far the weakest mayoral presence in Springfield” he has ever seen, as well as a “strained relationship at best” with Gov. JB Pritzker.

“When you’re a democratic socialist who has some very extreme, left-wing views, that closes off a lot of opportunities to grow relationships with centrists or even moderate Republicans. The city is suffering from that,” he said.

“The only way that you make up for the mayor’s lack of networking ability in Springfield is to buttress that with really experienced, capable government affairs staffers you can send to Springfield on your behalf to try and get help with these revenue streams. And frankly, that infrastructure doesn’t exist — literally. … I don’t think you could create a worse disaster if you tried.”

Reilly was referring to the political turmoil in the Mayor’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

Sydney Holman, the IGA director who essentially served as chief liaison to and lobbyist with the Chicago City Council, abruptly resigned this week after Johnson announced a reorganization that made Kennedy Bartley Holman’s new boss. Two of Holman’s top deputies followed their boss out the door.

Bartley, former executive director of United Working Families, then found herself in the eye of the storm for calling police “f---ing pigs” and talking openly about defunding and even “abolition” of police.

The timing of the turmoil could not be worse for the mayor.

It comes as Johnson struggles to erase a $223 million shortfall this year, close a $982.4 million budget gap for 2025 and round up the 26 votes neededto confirm progressive firebrand Byron Sigcho-Lopez as chairman of the City Council’s Zoning Committee.

Reilly said he can’t understand why Johnson is “wasting so much political capital” on a fight over the 25th Ward alderperson he is destined to lose.

“Sigcho-Lopez has been his own worst enemy. Going to these demonstrations where flags have been burned. Participating in anti-Israel protests during the actual DNC while it was here. All of these things raise red flags,” Reilly said.

“He’s known to be the person who wants to take on big business and, frankly, shake them down for revenue to expand social programs that he supports," Reilly added. "If I were advising the mayor, I’d tell him to find a fight worth losing."

 Sources said Johnson continues to lobby for Sigcho-Lopez, calling some Council members multiple times over the last week. Johnson's argument is that every other Chicago mayor has been allowed to choose their leadership team and he should be treated no differently.