Former 12th Ward Ald. George Cardenas formally launched his long-shot bid for Chicago mayor, framing his campaign around budget triage and pension survival as he keeps his seat on the Cook County Board of Review. One week after Illinois Comptroller Susana Mend
When George Cardenas stepped into the race on Tuesday, he did it the way he says he’s lived his political life: starting from the edge, with questions hanging over the center.
Cardenas. a former alderman turned commissioner on the Cook County Board of Review. formally launched his long-shot campaign for mayor of Chicago. insisting he has the experience to confront what he calls an urgent $1 billion budget shortfall and a $36 billion pension crisis. Chicago voters. he knows. won’t be giving him the same doubt he once allowed himself to carry into a contentious City Hall decision.
One week after outgoing Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza became the first Latino candidate to formally enter the race, Cardenas became the second to jump in. He is also trying to retain his seat on the Cook County Board of Review.
At launch, Cardenas acknowledged the odds and said he needs “a couple of million dollars” to stand out in a crowded field of roughly a dozen candidates seeking to deny Mayor Brandon Johnson a second term.
“I’m starting from the parking lot. But it’s always been like that in my entire life. So I’m not afraid of that… I’ve always been the underdog,” said Cardenas, 61. “You’ve got a guy who has 20 years of experience in the City Council. who was an accountant. an auditor. a management consultant… When I had to help corporations save money. I did that… In a crisis like this. that’s the guy who’s been there all along. That’s my path to victory… I’m gonna go to funders and say. `You’ve got the right guy… who is going to execute this plan and bring the city back.”.
The campaign pitch is built to travel fast: position papers, proposals meant to show “ideas, experience and guts,” and a central message that Chicago has to get control of spending before the pension math becomes impossible.
That message comes with a personal flashpoint. During the period when City Council rubber-stamped Mayor Richard M. Daley’s 75-year, $1.15 billion plan to privatize Chicago parking meters, then-Ald. George Cardenas (12th) abstained. He said then that he “didn’t have the numbers” to make an informed decision.
Now, he’s asking voters to see that abstention as proof of how he thinks.
For Cardenas, the heart of his agenda is to slow the bleeding. His proposals include capping runaway city spending at the rate of inflation; freezing exempt hiring while conducting a “citywide position” audit; consolidating health insurance contracts. rebidding benefits and exploring the possibility of self-insurance; increasing city employee pension contributions; and identifying “permanent replacement revenue” for four city funds.
He also pointed to a period he says changed the city’s spending trajectory during the pandemic. Although Cardenas served as City Council floor leader under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot. he accused Lightfoot of using the avalanche of pandemic relief funds to increase city spending by 54% while inflation grew by just 27%.
“If the wage growth keeps at this trend line. we will never keep up with the payments into the pension system. ” Cardenas said. “The contribution levels will have to increase. My analysis will prove that and say. `This is how we can do that.’ That’s one way of being honest with the taxpayer and honest with the staff. That’s reality.”.
His campaign ties those budget goals to a procurement-focused approach, casting the city’s contracts as a place where savings can be found without a promise of easy cuts.
Cardenas, who describes himself as a “procurement expert,” is promising to hire 500 more Chicago police officers. He says he would do that in part by freezing professional service contracts over $500. 000. “triaging contracts above $1 million using a “red/yellow/green alert system. ” terminating all red contracts. and releasing what he calls a “public vendor consolidation and performance scorecard.”.
He estimated that $245 million in savings could be generated by consolidating health care contracts and rebidding benefits.
“Tell me why the 50 ward yards left empty when we decided to go back into the grid are still barely utilized, yet we still have this cost that hasn’t been addressed,” Cardenas said. “We have ward superintendents reporting to an empty building… There’s a lot of money being wasted.”
Cardenas also staked out his political foundation in economic terms, framing his race as a fight for taxpayers who feel squeezed before any reform can take hold.
“Nobody else has put a plan together or analyzed the numbers and come up with really hard ideas of what to do… My political base is that taxpayer who doesn’t have any more to give, who sees his property tax bill rising and rising and can’t make ends meet. That’s my base.”
At the same time, he knows opponents may focus less on his budget spreadsheets and more on the moment he abstained from the parking meter vote.
Cardenas’ 2008 decision to dodge that vote could be read by critics as a lack of political courage—something voters often look for in a mayoral race that demands decisive leadership.
But he says it showed the opposite.
“I abstained. I took a pass… It shows that I’m a numbers person and I look at the efficacy of the package,” he said. “That’s the position I took and I will defend that position.”
George Cardenas Chicago mayor race Cook County Board of Review Brandon Johnson Susana Mendoza Richard M. Daley Lori Lightfoot parking meter privatization Chicago budget shortfall pension crisis police hiring procurement city contracts