Mayor Brandon Johnson submitted his election nominating petitions Friday, ceding the lottery for the last spot on the 2027 ballot to challengers in a surprise move that he said proves how confident he is.
Lugging in about 33,000 signatures on a blue trolley, the mayor arrived at the Chicago Board of Elections Loop Super Site lobby just before 1 p.m. with his 18-inch high stack of petitions, with one volunteer adding nine sheets at the last minute.
Johnson stopped before a group of photographers and held up four fingers.
“Four more years,” he said, a slogan that about a dozen supporters repeated once he marched out of the elevators upstairs.
Johnson skipped the first day to turn in petition signatures on Monday, meaning five of his rivals instead earned a draw in the lottery to be the first name to appear on the crowded mayoral election ballot: businessman Willie Wilson, lobbyist John Kelly, U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, Chicago Housing Authority Commissioner Matt Brewer and Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias.
Experts say being number one offers a minuscule boost to candidates at best, but minuscule can become monumental given the thin margins for mayoral hopefuls to try to win outright or finish in one of the top to spots to make a one-on-one April runoff.
“What do I need a lottery for? I’m the mayor of the city of Chicago,” Johnson said. “This is not a skip, right? Look, the circus of all of this, I get it, but I’m the mayor of Chicago, and I’m spending my time every single day delivering for the people of this city.”
The mayor said he does not plan to challenge any of the other candidates’ petition sheets. His attorney, Ed Mullen, added that he “always” expects to face challenges when he works with candidates.
Johnson’s team had said he was focused on his fourth budget address that he delivered Wednesday, a sign he was reluctant to share the spotlight with other contenders and wanted to appear above the political fray. With others in the 2027 pack such as Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza and attorney William Quinlan saying they will wait until Monday to file, Johnson now gets the Friday news cycle to himself.
He could sure use it. The mayor this week was dealt a double whammy of Giannoulias clinching the endorsements of two locals of the Service Employees International Union, hours before his 2027 budget plan leaked ahead of his speech and was roundly met with thumbs downs from aldermanic foes and the business community.
Good, Johnson retorted on Friday.
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“Do I look like I’m intimidated by rich people?” he said when asked about Giannoulias’ much larger campaign fund war chest.
Asked whether he expects the Chicago Teachers Union to muscle up millions to help his campaign, Johnson scoffed, “Why do you want to make it about one organization or one entity or one individual? It’s much bigger than that. Don’t miss the plot.”
The mayor made small talk as he waited for his petitions to be processed, telling the crowd he had “more than enough” signatures. Then he watched quietly as a board worker measured his petition pile and directed him to sign several sheets, a slow-moving process required of every Chicago candidate, from mayoral frontrunners to police board hopefuls.
As he signed a Board of Elections form, Johnson took a jab Giannoulias, a leading mayoral candidate who is also running for reelection in the November general election.
“Office of Secretary of State?” he said, miming confusion. “I’m not running for that. Office of Mayor, right, one office.”
Still, he is a prime target for his nominating sheets to be challenged. Wilson, on his fourth bid for mayor, said he would not spare any rival when reviewing whether to file objections. Giannoulias said Monday he hasn’t decided if he will challenge signatures.
The final day of filing is next Monday, Oct. 26, with the objection filing deadline on Nov. 2. If no one wins the majority of votes during the Feb. 23 election, a runoff between the top two vote-getters will be held April 6.
Johnson’s predecessor Lori Lightfoot filed more than 40,000 signatures on the last day of the filing period four years ago. This time, three candidates who already turned in nominating petitions have had higher counts than Johnson: Giannoulias at about 60,000, followed by Quigley with 42,000 signatures and Kelly at 36,000. Trailing him slightly were Brewer at 32,000 and Wilson at 30,000.
Candidates need a minimum of 12,500 valid signatures, but most gather at least three times that threshold to guard against petition challenges knocking them below that threshold. That bare-knuckle objection process is a holdover of the old-school political machine and could have devastating consequences for campaigns.
In the 2019 election for mayor, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle — who ultimately lost to Lightfoot in a runoff — succeeded in getting former Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown kicked off the ballot. That year, activist Ja’Mal Green also withdrew while facing a stiff challenge from Wilson.
Although Green and Wilson faced off again during petition challenges in the 2023 race, ultimately no one was kicked off the ballot during that cycle. Lightfoot was then knocked out of the running in the first round by a candidate who polled in single digits a month earlier: Johnson. And the rest is history.