Group opposing Mayor Brandon Johnson and allies raises $10 million, progressives decry ‘sucker politics'

Chicago Tribune

02-05-2025

The first well-funded shots against Mayor Brandon Johnson and progressive allies of his are already being fired, two years before they face reelection.
A series of mailers sent earlier this year by the dark money Common Ground Collective argue 'Chicago is in chaos' in a bid to beat up the mayor and four City Council members. The group behind the mailers is tight-lipped on where its cash comes from and what it plans to do next, but has a staggering amount of money to keep throwing punches.
The Common Ground Collective has raised $10 million, according to its executive director, Chuck Swirsky. It's a sum that's sure to grow but that is already similar to the combined amount Johnson received in his 2023 campaign from his top funders, the Chicago Teachers Union, Service Employees International Union and related unions.
The group, a nonprofit, is not required to publicly disclose its donor list, and Swirsky declined to do so. But he said the money came from around 90 donors, none of whom have contributed more than 5% of its total.
And Swirsky said among the contributors is GCM Grosvenor CEO Michael Sacks, a Democratic donor and close friend of former Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Sacks declined to comment when contacted by the Tribune.
The collective's first targets said the unspoken message — that progressives aligned with the mayor will face stiff opposition — would not change their course. Instead, they bashed the spending as, in the words of Ald. William Hall, 'sucker politics.'
'Show your face and your money,' said Hall, a key Johnson supporter. 'And your stance, which they don't have the courage to do.'
But as the mayor faces political turbulence of his own and early indications that some members of his progressive coalition are distancing themselves from him while looking at their own 2027 re-election prospects, it remains to be seen whether the dark money group's efforts to tie aldermen to Johnson make it tougher for him to pass his agenda.
In addition to Hall, mailers sent by the nonprofit and reviewed by the Tribune targeted Alds. Daniel La Spata, 1st, Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, and Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez, 33rd, each a Democratic Socialist who played a key role in narrowly passing the controversial January 2024 ordinance calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, among other progressive policy pushes.
The mailers reviewed by the Tribune could signal how the group might continue to deploy its funds. The cards feature a smiling photo of each alderman with the mayor and a message that says they 'refused to stand up to Johnson, raising our taxes while crime remains too high.' The mailers also share each alderman's office phone number and encourage recipients to call and tell the City Council member 'to show some courage and stand up to Mayor Johnson.'
On the other side, the mailers depict Johnson facing a black-and-white City Hall, his arms outstretched. 'Mayor Brandon Johnson is in over his head. And Alderman Hall has his back,' one read.
In a statement to the Tribune, Swirsky said the group aims to 'educate and mobilize local elected officials, build grassroots coalitions, and proactively engage voters around effective policies.'
'CGC will work to defeat extremist policies from both the far right and far left that seek and serve to divide our city,' he wrote. 'Common Ground Collective is supported by a large number of committed donors who care about Chicago and the State of Illinois.'
Swirsky previously served as a chief adviser to outgoing Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez, who spent much of the last year in a series of high-profile battles with Johnson before the mayor fired him.
He has repeatedly criticized Johnson on social media — with much of it focused on the mayor's schools policy and stances on the war in Gaza — and has also criticized President Donald Trump. Swirsky declined the Tribune's interview requests.
The group is likely to continue painting Johnson in a harsh light in the coming months. But its deep pockets might also give the mayor an opportunity to present himself as a working-class-champion foil to the powerful and rich.
Amid the beginnings of the well-funded effort to discredit him and his allies, Johnson has in recent weeks fired off his own criticism of Emanuel and 'the neoliberal agenda' with little prompting.
Asked last month about Trump's expected cuts to federal education funding, Johnson said Trump 'is running the playbook Rahm Emanuel executed in the city,' a reference to Emanuel's sweeping school closures.
'We didn't get here because you just happen to have a tyrant in the White House,' he said. 'We got here because someone gave him the script.'
Emanuel declined to comment when contacted by the Tribune about the mayor's comments.
The group appears to have so far only targeted progressives, some of whom will soon face potentially close reelection campaigns.
In 2023, Hall, the only City Council rookie against whom Swirsky's group has so far sent out a mailer, earned a spot in a runoff with 23.82% of a primary vote and won election by just under 1,800 votes in the South Side ward that includes the Chatham neighborhood and surrounding areas.
La Spata avoided a runoff by just 15 votes, while Rodriguez-Sanchez and Sigcho-Lopez respectively dodged runoffs by 499 and 233 votes.
Hall and Sigcho-Lopez, both among the most outspoken City Council members, blasted the group that targeted them, even before hearing the eight-figure sum it says it has raised.
It's 'pretty early' for such attacks to be made so far from an election, Sigcho-Lopez said.
'The big money behind it reflects what I'm hearing in circles: that billionaires aren't happy that they don't have a mayor that does their bidding,' he said. 'These are people who do not believe in democracy, they believe they can buy their way into government.'
Hall called the group's work a 'millionaire tantrum' and said its backers are spending to sow 'seeds of division.' The mailers were sent to every voter in his South Side ward, he said. But he pledged the offensive would not move him.
'I was built for this. This is what I was born to do,' he said. 'They want what they don't have, and what they don't have is power. What they don't have is relevancy.'
La Spata said he was also targeted with similar digital ads linking to what he called the group's 'nothing burger of a website.' He believes the mailer targeting him was widely distributed across his Northwest Side ward.
Asked about the mailer, La Spata says he 'has not been shy' about disagreeing with Johnson on important issues, even if he sides with the mayor more often than he sided with former Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
'I do not do this work for Mayor Johnson,' he said. 'I'm not going to let those mailers determine how and why I govern. I'm going to continue to listen to my ward. I'm going to continue to act on the values and vision I ran on.'
La Spata, who has further distanced himself from Johnson in recent months than the other mailer targets, said he doubts the mailers would lead to a 'productive' conversation. He reached out to Swirsky for a meeting to discuss the issues the group raises, but did not hear back, he added.
He said he did know who funded the group, but added there is 'no one in the city that I think of as my enemy.'
'I have yet to meet anyone in the city that there isn't something that we agree on,' he said.