Joining mayor's race, Giannoulias casts himself as a coalition builder, says Johnson ‘has not met the moment’

<p>Taking aim at Brandon Johnson’s revolving door of senior leadership, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias joined the <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/elections/2026/07/28/chicagos-mayoral-campaign-circulation-nominating-petitions-johnson-giannoulias-quigley-mendoza-pappas-brewer" >race for mayor </a>Sunday, portraying himself as the coalition builder needed to solve Chicago’s enormous problems.</p><p>Giannoulias enters the race as a presumed frontrunner with a political target on his back after raising $22 million from business leaders and building trade unions.</p><p>At the risk of biting the hand that fed his campaign, Giannoulias vowed to support the millionaires tax that Johnson has also championed.</p><p>But unlike Johnson, who has used his first three city budgets to shrink the Chicago Police Department by attrition, Giannoulias promised to hire 1,000 additional Chicago police officers by 2030 and bring back ShotSpotter, the gunshot technology contract that Johnson canceled.</p><p>Giannoulias argued that Johnson’s leadership “has not met the moment,” even though “his heart’s in the right place.”</p><p>“His administration has become a revolving door of senior leadership, making it harder for the city to get things done, reducing confidence in the city — and the whole world sees it,” Giannoulias told the Sun-Times in a recent, wide-ranging interview.</p><p>Effective leadership requires “forming coalitions and working with people,” and Johnson is “failing at this,” Giannoulias said.</p><p>“Jousting with the governor. Making demands at the end of session rather than working earlier to develop policy and build support… His attempt to raise property taxes was rejected by the City Council 50-to-0 and the City Council passed a budget 29-to-19 when he failed to back off the job-killing corporate head tax,” Giannoulias said.</p><p>“A mayor who cannot move an agenda through Springfield and City Council is having difficulty… looking out for the interest of Chicagoans.”</p><p>The <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2026/07/28/mayor-brandon-johnson-acting-cfo-steve-mahr-resigns" >abrupt resignation </a>of the city's chief financial officer, Steve Mahr, and his top deputy — just as Chicago prepares to host a crucial investors conference and the City Council gears up for a grueling election year budget season — is the most recent example of the “revolving door” at Johnson’s City Hall, Giannoulias said.</p><p>“He hired a longtime veteran of the city in Rich Guidice to have a steady hand when he got elected, and he left less than a year into the administration.