CHICAGO - Welcome to 2025 where the drama from Mayor Brandon Johnson’s inability to answer even some of the simplest questions continues. Mayor Johnson was confronted about the role he continues to hold with Chicago Public Schools as he is on leave to serve as mayor. Being on leave means that he is still an employee of the Chicago Public Schools, which means that he would directly benefit from the contract with the Chicago Teacher’s Union that he, as mayor, is currently negotiating. 

When asked about the seeming conflict of interest, what is his response? 

“There is no conflict of interest.”

Well THAT cleared things up! He might want to consider calling Governor Pritzker for his thoughts, unless he lost the Pritzker’s direct line.

In case the mayor needed a refresher, here’s a tidbit on what constitutes a Conflict of Interest from Harvard’s Kennedy School: “A conflict of interest is thus best understood as a set of circumstances that is reasonably believed to create a substantial risk that an official’s judgment of a primary, public, interest will be unduly influenced by a secondary interest which typically though not exclusively involves financial gain (Thompson, 1993 see also chapter 2 of Institute of Medicine, 2009). A conflict of interest thus increases the risk of corruption. We have learned from common experience that secondary private interests can taint official’s judgment about how best to advance the public interest.” 

Bottom Line: While the Mayor represents the people of Chicago, Brandon Johnson is out here working to advance his own interests, and those of his cronies in the Chicago Teacher’s Union to the detriment of Illinois taxpayers.