George Cardenas
Cook County Board of Review commissioner, former alderman. Candidate for mayor of Chicago, on the ballot February 23, 2027.
On the Board of Review since 2022 after twenty years as 12th Ward alderman; 62, born in Durango, Mexico, a Navy veteran and former auditor who lives in McKinley Park. Filed 31,500 signatures within an hour of the deadline.
Full platform, open to comments
Campaign website (cardenas4chicago.com)
Campaign money
- Committee: Cardenas4Chicago and Friends of George A. Cardenas
- Raised: $174K
- Spent: $149K
- Cash on hand: $208K
- Raised July 1 to Sept. 30, 2026; spent Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, 2026, both committees combined. His older committee from the City Council did most of the year's spending. Source
Money figures are each committee's quarterly reports to the Illinois State Board of Elections: spent is total expenditures from January 1 to September 30, 2026 (or since the committee formed), cash is funds available on September 30.
Support
0.5% of likely voters in the ChicagoSpeaks poll, Sept. 2026 (Mansueto Institute / NORC). 3.3 points of support per $1 million spent.
What they would do
- Fiscal controls first: when they are weak, neighborhoods pay.
When city government is disorganized, families pay the price, and when fiscal controls are weak, neighborhoods will suffer,
(CBS Chicago, June 16, 2026) - Support the police and police accountability at the same time.
- Build the whole housing ladder, from supportive housing to starter homes.
- Pay parents to take part in their children's schooling, the way the city already pays teens.
Paid parenting participation for structural engagement, we do it for teens. We're gonna do it for parents,
(ABC7 Chicago, June 16, 2026)
AI summary
Main points
Finances: Put the numbers on the table, control spending, cut the number of vendors, and rebuild confidence in city finances, with a hard look at what TIF money has bought.
Safety: Support the police and police accountability together.
Housing and families: Build the whole housing ladder, from supportive and affordable housing to starter homes and ownership, and pay parents to take part in their children's education.
Next to the others
Only Cardenas: Paying parents to take part in their children's schooling.
TIF: Cardenas, Mendoza, and Quigley all question how TIF money is spent; Johnson counts the TIF surplus sent to schools as a win.
Renters: Cardenas and Brewer stress protecting renters from displacement.
On money
Would control spending by cutting the number of vendors the city pays, demand results for the TIF money already spent, and rebuild confidence in city finances with the numbers out in the open.
We've got too many vendors; your expense is all over the place because you are just patching things up,
(ABC7 Chicago, June 16, 2026)Put the numbers on the table, control spending and rebuild confidence in city finances.
(cardenas4chicago.com)
Pizza
No position on record.
Also on the record
- A four-year Navy veteran and Lane Tech graduate who came to Chicago from Durango at 13. (en.wikipedia.org)
Compiled from public sources: