09-05-2025
County Treasurer Pappas makes big announcement
Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas made a big announcement at our Hideout show Thursday night.
Why it matters: Pappas is widely rumored to be planning a mayoral run and told WGN last week she thinks "the city needs a grey-haired grandmother."
The latest: The 75-year-old curator of Chicago's best free Christmas tree show, a prize-winning baton twirler and star of the county's most prized calendar, tells Axios she is now… a professional senior model.
What she's saying: "I went on the internet and was fascinated by Elon Musk's [model] mother and I'm like, 'Really? I look better than her,'" Pappas tells Axios.
"So I got all dressed up, took a copy of my calendar and a bunch of photos from Victor Skrebneski's studio where I'm lying on a couch in phony fur jackets to Lily's Talent Agency and I signed up."
What's next: Pappas also announced the fall release of her biography, a new report from her office on tax increment financing and a video series documenting her visits to cultural institutions like the Balzekas Museum, Saturday Polish school classes and the Mongolian consulate.
