No One Likes Conehead

And the polling numbers are reflecting it:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson has yet to announce if he'll seek re-election next year, but a new poll reveals he faces a tough road ahead if he does run for another term.

  The gold standard poll commissioned by the University of Chicago's Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation delivers an education on how poorly Chicagoans view Johnson, and the uphill climb he faces if he runs for re-election.

  The city that delivered him a victory in 2023 is delivering a starkly different message in the final year of his first term.

  The poll found just 13.6% of Chicagoans want Johnson to run again, and 58% of Chicagoans say they're not excited by another Johnson campaign.

  Johnson's job approval rating dropped to 23%, down from 25% in December.

And that 23% is a combination of "great job" and "okay job" numbers. His "great job" numbers have never climbed much higher than 6%.

The anointed one is burying Conehead in campaign dollar totals:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson spent nearly three times as much money as he raised in the second quarter of this year, and has just over $631,309 in the bank just two weeks before mayoral candidates start circulating their nominating petitions.

  Johnson already faced a huge fundraising disadvantage, having closed the first quarter of 2026 with $813,125 in campaign cash on hand — compared to $18.3 million for Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias.

  Giannoulias, a prolific fundraiser, has continued to widen that gap. In the three-month period ending June 30, he took in about $3.65 million and spent about $106,000, leaving him with about $21.85 million in cash on hand, according to the quarterly fundraising report filed Wednesday.

  That gives him a roughly $21 million lead over Johnson.

No word on how many of those millions are from the taxpayer bailout of Broadway Bank, but hey, putting someone who used to run a failed bank in charge of a city that can't balance the books or keep taxpaying citizens and businesses in town....what could go wrong?