In a deep-blue congressional district where the Democratic nominee faces accusations of heavy-handed political maneuvering, Lyons Mayor Chris Getty has pitched himself as a middle-ground alternative.
Not a Republican. Not a Democrat, this time. Getty says he jumped into Illinois’ 4th Congressional District race to forge compromises the two major parties haven’t been able to reach.
“I am giving the people a choice by running as an independent,” he told viewers during the race’s lone televised debate last month.
Despite the nice ring, Getty’s campaign faces a host of challenges as it tries to tap into widespread frustrations with the status quo. Chief among them: no major party backing and no clear precedent for how he would build power in Washington as a member of neither party.
The insurance broker, first elected mayor in 2009 and Lyons Township supervisor in 2017, has often gone into more detail describing problems than explaining how he would solve them. He also carries political baggage, from a father imprisoned for corruption and a 2019 FBI raid on Lyons village hall that included his office to questions about his use of state campaign funds.
Still, Getty, 44, maintains he can succeed as the rare member of Congress who doesn’t caucus with either party.
“We have a broken system where we have this great divide in America between Democrats and Republicans,” he said during the debate. “Nobody goes there to represent the best interest of the American people. That’s my plan. That’s what I intend to do.”
An opening in a contested race
Getty was one of three prominent candidates who sought to run as independents on the November ballot after favorite Patty García, 41, secured the Democratic nomination under controversial circumstances. He was the only one who made it, submitting nearly 20,000 voter signatures, almost double the 10,816 required.
Like Democratic operative Mayra Macías and Chicago Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, Getty said he decided to run after four-term Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García announced, just before the November filing deadline, that he would not run again. Thanks to a three-day heads-up from her boss, only Patty García, his then-chief of staff and no relation, had time to gather enough petition signatures to get on the March Democratic primary ballot.
Macías and Sigcho-Lopez, both progressive Latinos, were knocked off the general election ballot after people tied to the congressman and his preferred successor challenged their signatures.
Despite his independent label, Getty has long been active in local Democratic politics. He was twice elected township supervisor as a Democrat and is even pictured on the township party’s website.
In an interview with the Tribune, Getty accused Patty García of trying to “game the system.”
“She thought it was just a coronation. They thought they had outmaneuvered everybody, they had outsmarted everybody, they fooled everybody. We’re proving that it wasn’t a coronation, that you got to work at these elections and that you have to respect the people of the district,” he said.
Getty argued that García, whom allies praise as a veteran behind-the-scenes leader in the congressman’s office, is a stranger to voters and lacks know-how in elected office.
Voters “don’t want an individual that they don’t know, that doesn’t communicate with them, that has no experience,” he said. “They also want to choose their own representative.”
Money, megaphone, middle ground
Getty’s bid remains a long shot, but modest name recognition and strong fundraising give him a measure of viability. He has raised $400,433 since entering the race and had $138,500 on hand at the end of September, placing him nearly neck and neck with García, who has raised $468,209 and had $172,570 on hand, according to federal campaign records.
Getty pointed to outraising García in each of the last two quarters as a sign of his “connection to the district.”
For some contributors, the connections include jobs on the Lyons village or township payroll, over which Getty has authority as mayor and supervisor. The village’s police chief, fire chief and directors of its building and parks departments are all donors, as is a director of the township’s Mental Health Commission.
Also on the contributor list are at least five individuals named in the federal search warrant executed at Getty’s office in 2019, though never charged with wrongdoing, including Black Dog Corp. President Amit Gauri, construction materials magnate Michael Vondra, and Mike Kucharski of JKC Trucking and Summit Cold Storage.
Support has also come from outside the district, including from former GOP strategist and current independent governor candidate Collin Corbett, former Chicago Police Superintendent and Willow Springs Police Chief Garry McCarthy, and former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic.
Getty’s elected roles also give him ways to reach voters. The village of Lyons recently mailed flyers advertising village events, with his name featured prominently, to homes outside the village but inside the congressional district. Getty said the village has long advertised events such as its Blues Festival that way, though he did not respond to questions about how much the mailing this fall cost taxpayers.
As he stakes out space between the political parties, he has pitched himself as an eager listener who would put constituents’ input ahead of ideology.
Getty said President Donald Trump is “not doing very well,” citing the war in Iran and inflated gas prices, but he avoided the sort of burning criticism most Democratic candidates lob at the president. Former President Joe Biden also oversaw higher gas prices, he said, and there is no clear path forward in the Middle East.
“I think that it’s imperative that our elected leaders speak up on those issues and inform the American people what’s really happening here,” he said.
Echoing many candidates nationwide, he called the high cost of living the most important issue. He supports expanding low-income housing tax credits and creating new federal incentives for housing construction. But he stops short of supporting federal mandates to encourage building more homes that also would strip local governments of their zoning authority.
More Top Picks Best Subwoofers
“You have to assess every single vote that is taken and assess it as far as, ‘How is this going to transition for working families back home?’” Getty said. “It’s a multifaceted issue, as far as getting into jobs, getting into other aspects, whether it’s gasoline, groceries, all these different issues that are driving up the price.”
In contrast with García, he said the nation does not need to raise taxes on the rich. Instead, the federal government should close tax loopholes to create a transparent, consistent tax system, Getty said.
“I am not a person that thinks we need to punish the successful and tax the rich and (that’s) going to solve all our problems,” he said.
Getty also named immigration as a top issue in a district once drawn in the shape of earmuffs after the 1990 census to all but guarantee the Chicago area would have a Latino representative in Washington. Its shape has since changed, now stretching from Pilsen to Oak Brook and from Franklin Park to Burbank. But the 4th remains the state’s only Latino-majority congressional district.
Even so, Getty has stopped short of fully rejecting Trump’s immigration policies. Unlike García, he would not seek to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
He called immigration a “governance issue” long overdue for modernization. He supports a path to citizenship for longtime residents who lack permanent legal status but said there also must be a “secure America.”
“The president talks about going after the worst of the worst,” he said. “And I think, by and large, people from this district and across the country are OK with that, removing criminals off the streets or gang members or cartels or drug traffickers and all these different national security-risk individuals.”
“But when they’re just indiscriminately grabbing people off the street, that they then in turn find out is a U.S. citizen, nobody supports that, especially when these federal law enforcement officers are masked and they have no identifiers,” he added.
A record — and baggage — at home
As for his qualifications, Getty points to his record as Lyons mayor, a job he won at 26. He said he has upgraded infrastructure, especially parks, roads and alleys, and put residents first. He also cited keeping his original campaign promise to stop a plan to sell the village’s Smith Park, across from village hall, for $1.8 million.
“I’m a man of my word. If I say something I’m going to do, I actually do it,” he said.
He has repeatedly won reelections as mayor and, in April 2025, was also reelected as township supervisor, running unopposed in both races. He earned $82,902 as mayor and $69,530 as supervisor last year, according to his federal financial disclosure.
His tenure has also drawn scrutiny.
In 2019, FBI agents raided Lyons village hall and seized wide-ranging evidence in a broad corruption probe that targeted politicians across the near southwest suburbs. A search warrant and a federal grand jury subpoena showed authorities sought records related to the Democratic Organization of Lyons Township and an Oak Brook hotel and resort where he still holds campaign events, among other subjects. Getty was never charged.
Separately, federal investigators examined how Getty used village funds to demolish a blighted property and buy the lot. The vacant lot was then sold to a construction firm that had contributed to his campaign, and Getty later bought the house the firm built there.
“The federal investigators looked into it thoroughly, and they found that there was no wrongdoing whatsoever, and I was cleared,” he said.
Federal prosecutors did win a conviction in an earlier case against Getty’s father, former Lyons Mayor Kenneth Getty, who died last year. The elder Getty served almost six years in prison after being convicted in federal court in 1998 of mail fraud, theft of government funds and money laundering in a bid-rigging scheme.
After his father’s release, Chris Getty appointed him to the village zoning board. The candidate defended the move by saying his father “lived and breathed the Lyons community.”
In her first answer of the WFLD-Ch. 32 debate, García tried to turn attention to Getty’s record, warning him he didn’t want to “go there.”
“Because you’ve got plenty on your rap sheet, from history of corruption to the FBI raiding the village and the misuse of campaign funds,” she said.
Getty brushed off the jabs and returned to García’s entry into the race.
“I know Patty wants to attack me on other things, and she wants to move past this issue, but the issue at hand is that she started her election with a lie, and she’s perpetuating this lie to this day,” he said.
And during a joint candidate meeting with the Tribune Editorial Board, when Getty was asked why he blamed García rather than her former boss for the maneuvering, García interrupted with a backhanded reference to his family history.
“It’s like me blaming you for what your dad has done, isn’t it?” she said.
In addition to a complicated history in office, Getty’s use of his state campaign finance account has caught the attention of some political watchdogs.
His eye-catching expenditures on the state account, separate from his federal campaign committee, include loaning himself $245,000 to cover a federal tax lien, records show. The Sun-Times first reported on the loan.
He’s also used the state fund for a $1,695 monthly rent payment to the insurance company he owns for office space; about $35,000 in June for a car he said he also uses for his federal campaign; and more than $53,000 at Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse in Oak Brook for a fundraiser where he announced his congressional bid. That announcement was captured in a professionally edited launch video.
Together, the expenditures show a “troubling disregard” for separate state and federal campaign finance rules, said Alisa Kaplan, executive director for Reform for Illinois.
“When you subsidize a federal campaign with state money, you blur that line,” she said.
Getty maintained there is “clear separation” between the two campaigns, despite his efforts to remain politically active locally at all times. Explaining the high restaurant tab, Getty said the bill covered a $250-per-plate fundraiser attended by hundreds of supporters.
“You have 600 people at the event, you can easily spend $60,000,” he said.
While Getty thought it made sense to announce his candidacy for federal office at an annual event in front of a roomful of supporters, he said the event was paid for by and only raised money for his state campaign fund.
Getty said he was not sure whether his federal campaign will pay his state campaign for the use of the new car, but he said the car’s “primary function and purpose” is to support the state campaign. His family has long used the insurance company’s office as a political headquarters, and the rent reflects a reasonable price for year-round use by a political organization supporting 10 candidates, he said.
Going it alone vs. the rest of the field
Keeping with his run as an independent, Getty has pledged not to caucus with either party if elected. That would let him negotiate with both sides in a closely divided House to secure well-staffed borders and a humane, efficient immigration system, he said.
But it would likely leave him without committee assignments and staff funding, which the two major parties control, said Constance Mixon, a political science professor at Elmhurst University, whose west suburban campus is just outside the district.
That would make him not just a backbencher, but “I would say the furthest back ever,” Mixon said. “He won’t be able to serve his constituents very well if he doesn’t have an office and he’s not on any committees.”
More Top Picks Brain
Getty’s odds would have been better if Sigcho-Lopez and Macias were on the ballot to pull votes away from García, Mixon said. As it is, she said, Getty faces major challenges to win in the heavily gerrymandered district, which is packed with Latino, progressive and Democratic voters.
Also on the ballot are two candidates who unsuccessfully challenged Rep. García in the last general election.
Lupe Castillo, a 66-year-old retired pharmacy technician with no experience in government or elected office, won the Republican primary unopposed but is campaigning without meaningful party support.
The GOP candidate shared high praise for Trump in an interview and blamed high gas prices on Democrats previously blocking oil pipeline expansion.
A longtime resident of Little Village, a heavily Latino community that saw significant immigration enforcement actions last year during the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz, Castillo said she didn’t see any signs of the crackdown in the neighborhood and accused Democrats of “wanting to give everything to everyone.”
“I’m fighting for the citizens that are here that have worked hard, that deserve to get what they need; I don’t want to give it to just anybody,” she said.
Ed Hershey, a 47-year-old teacher at West Englewood’s Lindblom Math and Science Academy, is running a campaign inspired by the belief that Democrats and Republicans alike have failed working people. He hopes to bring more attention to the upstart Working Class Party.
“If you’re trying to walk somewhere, you take a first step,” he said. “Even pulling ahead of the Republican Party would be a big relative victory for us.”
Hershey also said he wouldn’t caucus with either party and would focus on pushing for better wages. He criticized Illinois Democrats for cutting state health insurance for noncitizen immigrants.
Neither Hershey nor Castillo has submitted an economic disclosure statement or a quarterly report detailing their fundraising, signaling the relative weakness of their campaigns.