Chicago’s Political Dogs Walking Stiff-Legged Into Mayoral Race

By John Kass

August 30th, 2026

Years ago when I first began covering Chicago politics–first for The Daily Calumet (America’s oldest community newspaper)– we had a wild dog problem in the South Chicago neighborhood.

The Cal had offices at 91st and Baltimore. From the corner window near my desk, you could smoke–the smoke drafting out through bullet holes in the window–and look down upon my favorite lunch place, Sonny’s Inn restaurant–great burgers and beer and tips on the horse races.

And from that window you could see the packs of feral dogs.

Sometimes only three or four, sometimes more. Sometimes big-headed pit bulls, raised to guard drug houses, prone to kill kids and bred for fighting. Sometimes yellow dogs wild for generations, some well-fed pets that escaped from their backyards. All did the same thing before fighting. They presented by walking in circles, sniffing, tails up, stiff-legged, the way candidates for mayor of Chicago present themselves.

Even viciously game though now delusional presidential hopeful and angry  Chihuahua former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the Tiny Dancer, flash their millions and millions in political cash wielded out of mostly Jewish sources, and this cash is trumpeted by establishment political reporters and combine mouthpieces picking winners and losers even before the people get a chance to cast ballots. Now that Rahm has joined his friend and fellow Obama apparatchik David Axelrod in betraying and disavowing  Israel, those fat campaign coffers are expected to shrink.

And well they should. Tiny Dancer can’t credibly run for president with the Laquan McDonald issue around his neck, but perhaps he and Axelrod can star in a new movie “The Democrats Without a Country.”

Et tu, David Axelrod?

Readers have been messaging me on “X” asking my thoughts on the Chicago mayoral race as Chicago circles the financial drain. And I’ve got some views to share.

The city’s finances are a disaster, broken by a series of poor left wing Democrat management and corrupt politics. Chicago has been savaged by predatory machines  from the Chicago Teachers Union to the radical Marxism of Cook County Democratic Party chair Toni Preckwinkle –who with her ally George Soros and protege Kim Foxx–are most responsible for the massive home building boom in Northwest Indiana as Chicago refugees hope to flee all that Preckwinkle legacy caused with violent crime in Cook County. All of this has contributed to a sense of exhaustion and helplessness of the people. As my late friend Tom Donovan would say “People vote with their feet.” And this they have done in droves.

Chicago can’t pretend it wasn’t warned. I warned them as did others. But enough Chicago voters were happy to play racial and tribal politics. Paul Vallas was apparently too white for them. Though he’s a lifelong Democrat, leftists at the Tribune and Sun Times portrayed him as something of a MAGA Republican. It was ridiculous but Mayor Johnson and Chicago Teachers Union radicals won’t call foul on the media. Chicago media happily carries their water. There are no conservatives left in Chicago media, so the political prostitutes have no fear of being shamed.

So what is the status of the race for mayor of the once-great city that I still love? WGN-TV’s political editor Tahman Bradley and host of “The Point” asked me for the lede on the mayor’s race: “Chicago is broke and circling the drain and I don’t think there is anyone who can help it.”

That’s it. Want a happy party and balloons? Go ask Mayor Johnson and CTU boss Stacy Davis Gates. But I’m not celebrating with Chicago dying. I’m not gorging down plates of ice cream and candy. Besides, I’m recovering from yet another damn stroke. Yeah, that makes four at least. But like old Laertes, I still have a few spears left to throw and  columns to write and podcasts with WGN radio producer Jeff Carlin to do. The doctors have switched my meds, I’m now on stronger blood thinners and Repatha. I’m walking hard with Betty every day. I’m working with my therapists to improve. Why? I want to work and I want to live.

One of the things I can do is talk and use my big mouth to either get me out of problems, or help build new pathways for the brain and that’s what I’m trying to do right now. Bradley drove over to my house and we did an interview on politics on his program The Point on WGN. I leave the link active here and I hope you don’t judge me too harshly. Still recovering, and a day or so after appearing on The Point, I invited my friend Dan Proft to sit in with Jeff Carlin and me on the Chicago Way podcast and talk politics.

One thing is clear: Businessman Willie Wilson is in the race. I admit bias here. I like the man and I like his story. He grew up terribly poor and worked on his daddy’s farm in Louisiana. As a kid his job was to plow the fields so the family could eat. Wilson’s mule was named “Mister Charlie.” All the black people in Louisiana named their mules “Mister Charlie,” as a protest against racism. They called all the white men Charlie.

My father plowed his family’s fields in Greece with their mule named Truman, out of respect for the 33rd president who provided the Marshall Plan.

Mayor Brandon Johnson is a clueless jester with that pointy head.

I will say Susana Mendoza is an impressive candidate. I like her, and her heart  is in the right place, and she loves the city. She’s not doing it for cynical reasons.  She’s a worker, not a show pony like Alexi Giannoulias, I don’t wonder about Alexi.

About Mendoza, . I’ve always liked it when she confronted Dick Mell’s tough guy John Quarters Boyle. I got a kick out of that. Quarters was a tough guy from the northside political 33rd Ward Democratic machine run by the Dick Mell, the father-in-law of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.  Susana chased him down after an accident. Apparently he would try to flee and she called the cops on him and I thought if all the people of the city had her attitude there would be no crime anymore, so that’s Susana her heart’s in the right place, and Willie’s heart is in the right place too.

What about Alexi Giannoulias? I’ll never forget the photo I saw a year or so ago, from Alexi’s twitter feed on the carpet with his cute socks like an adolescent girl.  Someone must of told him it was a good way for him to connect with voters. I thought of my father and his father both shouting at him “ You should act like a man”

What would Chicago Heights mob associate Michael “Jaws” Giorango say?

And this one thinks he can run Chicago? What a joke. Go pose for another photo, go hang out with Barack Obama, but stay out of the race for mayor.

-30-

About the author: John Kass spent decades as a political writer and news columnist in Chicago working at a major metropolitan newspaper. He is co-host of The Chicago Way podcast. And he just loves his “No Chumbolone” hat, because johnkassnews.com is a “No Chumbolone” Zone where you can always get a cup of common sense.

Merchandise Now Available: If you’re looking for a gift for that hard-to-buy for special someone who has everything, just click on the link to the johnkassnews.com store.

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Comments 52

    1. Keep up your PT. It will save your sanity! As for your statement about voting with your feet….. we did. All the way to the Florida Gulf Coast where taxes are 5 times cheaper on a similar home. We miss Chicago…not what it is now but what it was. Praying for your recovery.

  2. The Lion can still gnaw on this pack of feral dogs!

    Alas, the Lion of Saint John ignored the lilliputian louse, Mike Quigley. This bumptious Bolshevik is responsible, along with Forrest Claypool and Cook County Clerk David Orr, for the fraudulent Sequoia Voting Machines in 2006 – doing the work of Obama’s pal Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.

    The Lion might have sniffed Quigley’s presence in the loop of feral canines and contemptuously shake his mane in disgust,

    Great to hear the Lion’s roar!

  4. Sad that the young have become Socialist which is Communism and they forget that the Minorites want America to be their Country. Sad that young people do not realize they will be the minority some day. Obama was the worst and his bubbies are still working for him. Other Presidents have gone away but not him, he was a Black America. Good Lock young people. We are older now and we will not be here to see it thank the Lord our God. He is in charge. Period. Wake up if you want America to be what we made it coming to America. We love it, Assimilated, Learned the Language and work hard to built this once great Country. Everyone wants everything free now. Health Care is a tough one we have paid thru the nose for it and now the want almost 300 million people to have it free that means Socialism and no Drs. Awful what is happening John. I would not Vote for the Secretary of State for Mayor, neither would I Vote If I could for Johnson.

  6. As much as Soros/Preckwinkle are the problem in this wretched town, their problem originated with the SCOTUS Citizens United decision that lifted campaign contribution limits and allowed Soros to buy any and all elections he wanted to.

    It’s all been downhill from there.

  9. You have a face for radio Mr. Kass🙂Awesome interview, let’s hope it gets more people to get involved and pay attention.
    Keep up the hard work and continue to worship Mrs. Kass. You’re in my prayers .

  10. Welcome back Kotter.
    Speaking of strokes, the pack of feral mayoral candidates other than a couple of exceptions reflect the race to the bottom that this once proud city has taken. As I say to my offspring, does it really matter who the next “genius” is who will run the city.
    Kasso is in the house.

  11. John, great to get your perspectives again. Keep up the physical and mental work in your road to recovery.
    It seems that these two have lost their abilities to see the that the worlds they operated in have moved on. Hard to imagine how they can think they are relevant.
    We are all better that they have been cast out as both were and remain bad actors across many dimensions.

  12. Welcome back John! Thank you for battling to keep going, and thank you Betty for encouraging him! Praying you avoid further stroke complications! Your team of writers is doing great! Mendoza cares! I hope she can win it, though the mess to sort out is as deep and wide as the Pacific!

  14. Another brass tacks to the point column. Thank you. Could not agree more. I’ve met Willie Wilson during the early debates and he has my respect. He is a good and constant man. I have also met Susanna Mendoza, another respectable person. In a race I would have to give the nod to Willie.

  15. Alexi is running TV ads for mayor during Cubs broadcasts on Marquee Sports Network.

    JB Pritzker is recycling the same attack ads about Bailey too on Marquee. And those attack ads will work. Bailey may be a good man but he’s a terrible gubernatorial candidate. The Illinois GOP is rudderless and hollowed out.

    I don’t watch much TV but those are the ads I’m seeing.

  16. Happy to see your byline! Happy to read your South Side style no BS take on the mayoral candidates. Continues prayers for your recovery.

    The CTU hasn’t told Panic Attacks what to do yet, so we don’t know if he’ll be among the rest of the Chicago swamp creatures flying around like buzzards waiting to feed in what’s left of the city we still love, even though we no longer live there.

    (I cringed when I read David Orr’s name. He was my aldercreature when I lived in 49, and was at the helm managing the deterioration of a once fantastic neighborhood. Being located on the North Side lakefront, that ‘hood has had something of a renaissance since his departure, but one still needs to have one’s head on a swivel when out and about.)

    And so it goes.

  17. Great to see your name on the column today- it made my Sunday. As always, your views on the politics of this once great city are spot on, and are based on years of both observation and involvement.

    Reading the truth makes me think every day of how much I’m worried about the world and country that my grandkids are going to inherit. Please keep up the therapy and meds, a day at a time, as we need you now to help us retain our sanity. You continue to make your Greek ancestors proud, and you are in my prayers.

  19. I’m sorry about your health, but I’m glad to see you’re still throwing haymakers at the Democratic politicos who’ve destroyed a once great city. Alexis may be Greek, but he’s a clown. Rahm is actually talking sense, he’s right about Israel, but he cannot win. Axelrod is a political whore. He’d support anyone who would line his pockets as most pols do.

    Scott Bessent, the fannochio Treasury sec was Soros point man in London when they trashed the currency and helped usher in a Great Recession. He’s busy trashing our dollar now, and wrecking our economy. Trump is clearly being handled.

    You should stick to Chicago. Your have great perspective, expertise and can write honestly.

    Nationally, you are weak and perpetuating a Fox News echo chamber. Trump is being handled, blackmailed and has give the nation over to the neocons who are fomenting wars and building data centers.

    1. The Clean Break Memo conveniently intersects with the primary objective of our Military Industrial Complex. One wants to make money for it’s investors and control resources, the other wants to solidify a nation in the Middle East by weakening its foes and creating a center of power controlled by Jewish oligarchs.

      Barack Hussein Obama even participated. He destroyed Libya, he went into Syria, he kept the charade in Iraq going. He hated Israel so much he went along with 3 billion in perpetual aid to them. Netanyahu got invited to speak Congress and bashed Obama and his nuclear deal with Iran. Why on Earth would Obama let a UN resolution against Israel go through after that? I wonder.

      Netanyahu and his backers do not want a Palestinian state. When all is said and done, history will not be kind to them.

      We have wreaked havoc in the M.E and Africa. Intersectionality is not just among the Left.

      Common interests, greed, sprinkled with white supremacy and Jewish supremacy, backed by billionaires and weaponization of the tragedy of the Holocaust.

    2. More bullshit from little Bobby Both Sides. How about you try and stay on topic for once instead of bringing national news into what’s a local story?

      1. Lee: Notice how little Bobby Both Sides tries to commandeer the comment section? Two hundred word limit so the genius posts a reply to his own post. And as you point out its more of the same: Israel bad, Trump bad, Democrats bad, Republicans bad, everyone bad and stupid and corrupt except of course for little Bobby Both Sides who somehow thinks he was chosen by higher powers to assume the mantle of the “World’s Foremost Authority.”

        1. It wouldn’t be nearly as tiresome if he’d only stick to the topic and leave the both sides crap out of it. If I want to hear bullshit about Trump and the Republicans, all I have to do is turn on WGN.

  20. John, first and most importantly, I pray for your continued improvement in health and mobility. It’s good to hear you keep up with your exercising and that your wonderful wife Betty is there to help you through all life’s challenges. And as always, your columns are on the money and a treasure to read – straight to the point!

  21. Γιάννη,
    Good to hear your voice again, loud and strong! As we say, βάστα καλά! Meanwhile, Chicago heads to the city scrap heap of history, as Mayor Pannix spends us into oblivion, looking after illegals (aka new voters) that showed up on his doorstep! Don’t see any light on the horizon, save Paul Vallas, but as you said, he’s probably too white and too competent for Chicago’s inept voters. I won’t be around forever, and I fear I’ll never see the city come back from the abyss. Will probably become for real “the mistake on the lake!” I wish you υγεία και ευτυχία!!

  22. Finishing up “The Parallel Election”.
    Principle author Gregory Stenstrom who would have never gotten into combating election fraud without co author Leah Hoopes.

    I know better now what Kass means by the Combine. Stenstrom calls it the Uni Party, and what a surprise, tracing it’s roots squarely to Republican party dominance in the early 1870s. I tell you I almost tipped over I was so shocked to read this. The Yankee, and corruption and now election theft. Oh, and racism, yeah that too. Naaah.

    I look at Randi Weingarten, Anthony Fauci, Obama. If anyone cares to break free, just for a moment, from their cultural indoctrination, these freak shows, all Ivy League, was the proximate cause of the Civil War.

    A war the South won, as you can see by Massachusetts ripping down three more Confederate statues in Richmond.

    I mean, we won.

    Keep pumping you legs John, I will too. I have as many stents as you have strokes. Never stop fighting this raw garbage 😀

  24. Good to see the Kasso Lasso is putting pen to paper. Rehab is a bitch but beats the alternative by a country mile. Prayers for your continued recovery. I bailed on a close in suburb 8 years ago and am so happy. In a red state now. Can’t believe I’d actually long for the Daley days. But yeah the city WORKED. The cops weren’t hamstrung at every turn. And yes hickory shampoos were dispensed a bit too frequently but you could walk down the street without fear in most of the city. Yes there were areas where whitey didn’t go (Austin, Cabrini, Robert Taylor etc) but you could walk Stare Street with your kids to shop or Boul Mich to stroll or 6 corners or 63rd or 95th streets or Milwaukee Ave. CTU votes as a block. Who no wouldn’t vote to keep their cushy salaries and Bennie’s for little effort. We are starting to see this occurring within a specific immigrant group as well. No assimilation. That is our most pressing problem IMO. Happy Sunday John and fellow KASSO fans.

  25. Thank you for taking the time to write this column. It must be difficult to do as you regain your strength. Good luck with your PT.
    I still love my birth city. I have left the crazy. It’s refreshing not to see reports on the number of people shot and killed over the weekend.
    I’m not sure with new blood or better blood can fix the city. The sniveling cretins who hide in the shadows will find ways to continue to destroy.
    Take care of yourself we need you.

  26. Good to read you once again on a Sunday morning! May your Higher Power continue to watch over you.
    Willie Wilson’s editorial submittals are consistently insightful. Just wish more people would pay attention to him.

  27. Joining the Sunday morning chorus – Welcome back! and praise to the Lord who loves you.

    Here to suggest that in some large measure, the continued ignorance of the voters on both a local and national level, is the planned outcome, implemented and orchestrated by the CTU and their consiglieres. We talk about socialism, communism and some of the great tragedies of mis-guided government, but fail to recognize that those are just “words” to WAY too many of younger people today. Try to find one in a crowd who could accurately describe what those terms REALLY mean! They all have their own “sort of” definition in their heads, which is how I know none of them had Ms. Evelyn Demopolos or her equal for high-school Civics class! “It’s ethics, people! It’s all about ETHICS!” as she pounded the need for good government in our heads!

    What to do now? Stop talking in shorthand, assuming folks know what those terms mean – because they don’t. Until they’re explained (over and over again) the current beneficiaries of their ignorance will continue to hold sway – in the city, the county and the state.

  28. Glad to hear your back in action with all the prayers you got going for you you will be around for a long time.
    You brought back memories with you time at the Daily Calumet. A lot of 10th warders like Stanly Zima and the Mowen brothers were glad when you left.
    Politics in Chicago has never been for the faint of heart. It was always rough and tumble as you well know. Today two unions of government employees the CTU and the SEIU control and determine to a large extent who the local candidates will be. Before the local alderman and ward committeeman had some control as well as the trade unions and the Civic Federation.
    For my money we have two excellent candidates for Mayor of Chicago, Willie Wilson or Susan Mendoza.Take your pick.

    1. I bet it’s going to be Jonson again. He has both the Black votes and majority of Latino votes ( due to his vocal opposition to ICE, with the help of Chicago TV News Media). In the absence of whites like Vrdoliyak, whites won’t bother to vote as long as their wards are not infected with young black thugs.
      -Nambi

  29. Just get better, John. Glad to see you here today. Caught a little bit or your meeting with Tahman on You Tube.

    Happy and sad at the same time to say I have become one of those talking with my feet. First the city, then the county and now the state altogether. I’m done with the fraud, the arrogance, the communism, the lack of ethics. Keep it. And as long as foolish people keep voting for these morons (here and elsewhere), the drain will continue to swirl. We need some arrests, trials, convictions and punishment. Accountability.

    None of those you mentioned as mayoral candidates are worth anything. Especially Alexi who has failed as a Secretary of State, IMO. And you watch, that’s who the people of Chicago will vote in. More than likely, he would be a greater disappointment in the role than Rham was.

  30. John

    They are all crooks including Susana. Alexi is scum. Bank fraud galore. The only decent one is Vallas. But he can’t win. Too truthful and honest. Wants to make real change. Forget about him . It won’t happen for him. Rahm needs to put on his tutu and let Alexi back into him. Alexis likes sitting in mens laps…..while they are standing up.

  31. John:

    I just read this mornings column. I’m sorry to hear about your fourth stroke. Now I’m no Dr but I wanted to tell you about a device that my cardiologist had implanted into my heart called the “The Watchman “. It helps to reduce blot clotting which helps to reduce strokes. I was taking a strong anti blood clotting expensive medicine called Xarelto and was able to get off it. I have AFIB but fortunately have never had a stroke to date which makes your condition much worse. By the way, the procedure to implant the Watchman is easy. They go up through the South Pole (groin) and your back home the same day. This Watchman procedure has been around for thirty years and has a good reputation for success. Ask your cardiologist about it and check it out on the website.

    I’m glad to see you writing again and hope you feel better.

    1. The Watchman device (which closes off the source of most cardiac blood clots – the left atrial appendage) is only indicated for stroke prevention in folks with non valvular atrial fibrillation. It is not indicated – nor approved – for stroke prevention in people who are in sinus rhythm, whether they have had a stroke or not. The only other “occlusive” device that might be implanted in the heart to prevent stroke in someone with a persistent history of strokes despite being in sinus rhythm is a PFO occluder designed to close a hole between the left and right atrium which is associated with “cryptogenic” stroke (stroke of unknown origin). These holes (PFO, ASD) are usually diagnosed by an echocardiographic “bubble” study which I assume John – or anyone with his history of multiple strokes – would have or should have had done.

  33. Great to see you up and about and thinking and writing. Sure hope to see the Golden Moutza soon. John, seriously, you are required to recover. Understand?
    Best regards
    Andrew J Serafin

  35. Great column John, keep working on your health, we need your voice of reason.

    Went to a wake in St John’s Indiana Thursday. Took the rural route home.

    I counted seven areas with new homes under construction. Not one or two but multiple tracks of land with new construction. Carpenters working, cement trucks delivering concrete. They’re not building unless they’re under contract or know the market. New homes for the refugees from Illinois.

  37. I watched your interview & thought you did a great job, John! Even more impressive due to your health challenges. You truly are an inspiration. Keep up the great work & we’ll all keep praying for you & for the city of Chicago & the state of Illinois. 🙏🇺🇸🙏🇺🇸

  38. Harold Washington became Mayor because Rich Daley and Jane Byrne split the white vote. He went around the money, kind of like Trump did. There was a thriving back middle class then, which has been chased out and left Brandon’s welfare moms and scores of Latino immigrants.

    Willie Wilson pulled 10%. He is the wild card. If a white or Latino candidate could get together with Willie. There could be something there. Willie is a church going man and more of a traditional conservative Democrat like old man Daley was.

    Maybe Mendoza really wants to make a difference. In order to take down the CTU, one would need to be creative. If she could get Willie and Paul Vallas on board and use some of Paul’s position papers, which are excellent, and Willie’s connection to the church and families that are struggling, she might be able to pull it off.

    The CTU will call her a racist, and bigot, a phobe, they’ll even call her an anti semite. Any slur they can throw at her.

  39. DOGE. Where is the money? They’ve reduced the bureaucracy, which likely needed to be done, but where have the “savings” gone? Shhhhh. Don’t ask the conservatives where the money is.

    You campaign on peace. Where’s the peace? Shhh. Don’t ask the peace candidate where the peace is.

    You campaign with clergy and espouse the values of Christ. Where are these values? Shhh, Don’t ask about Christian values.

    We all know Christ came to make us rich. He would look down his nose at the homeless, the immigrants, the poor, the drug addicts, addicted by drugs our own government brings in or by friends of the government like the Sackler family.

    Medicare fraud? No one wants that, yet one of the largest fraudsters of Medicare sits in the US Senate. Rick Scott. He got caught, paid a small fine and got to keep most of the money.

    Very conservative, very Christian.

    Oh yeah! My team is better than your team!

    Shut up liberal commie!

    Look, Trans!

  41. Welcome back John…keep up with the PT and watching our White Sox. Say hello to Pat Fitz for me. I’ll place your name in the prayer book with the Sisters of Missionary of Charity.

  42. great stuff John ,it is all about the socks! I’m laughing because I can picture my old man (old Italian)saying look at this ______ yoyo! please don’t give up ! We all need read this kind of writing,thank you John.

  45. God bless you John and prayers for your health’s continued improvement. So good to read your thoughts on the mayoral race, and as usual, they mirror my thoughts.hang in there…we need you!

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