Maria Pappas
Cook County Treasurer. Candidate for mayor of Chicago, on the ballot February 23, 2027.
County Treasurer since 1998 and a county commissioner before that; 77, born in a Greek family restaurant in West Virginia, with four degrees including a PhD and a law degree. Filed just under 40,000 signatures on the last day and says her campaign starts in earnest after the November treasurer race.
Campaign money
- Committee: Committee to Elect Maria Pappas
- Raised: $0
- Spent: $52K
- Cash on hand: $226K
- Raised July 1 to Sept. 30, 2026; spent Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, 2026. Her committee was running for county treasurer, not mayor, through September. 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
3.3% of likely voters in the ChicagoSpeaks poll, Sept. 2026 (Mansueto Institute / NORC). 63 points of support per $1 million spent.
What they would do
- Says the city can be fixed but needs a plan, and that she would be a mayor out in the streets.
The city's salvageable. It can be fixed. But you need a plan.
(WBBM Newsradio, Nov. 14, 2025) - Would dig through the budget line by line and promises a tsunami once she is in the office.
When I get in [the mayor's office], it'll be a tsunami,
(Sun-Times, Nov. 18, 2025) - Argues that what happens to the Loop decides what happens to every neighborhood's property taxes.
When the Loop gets a cold, the rest of the city gets pneumonia,
(Sun-Times, Nov. 18, 2025) - Pitches herself as the grandmother the city needs.
The city NEEDS a grey-haired grandmother!
(WBBM Newsradio, Nov. 18, 2025)
AI summary
Main points
The pitch: A long-serving county treasurer who says the city is salvageable with a plan, and that she would be out in the streets rather than in the office.
Money: Take a fork and a shovel to the budget, dig up the mess, and fix it; her office's property tax studies are the evidence she points to.
Not published yet: No platform, no website, and no detailed positions on police, housing, schools, or transit as of early November.
Next to the others
Only Pappas: Runs on property tax data from her own office rather than a published platform.
Budget review: Pappas and Mendoza both promise a line-by-line reading of the budget.
Not covered: Police, housing, schools, and transit, which most of the field addresses.
On money
Would go through the city budget with what she calls a fork and a shovel, and ties the whole city's property tax burden to the health of the Loop.
Get down to all the dirt, dig it up, and go 'Oh, this is the mess we've created? How am I gonna fix it?'
(WBBM Newsradio, Nov. 2025)When the Loop gets a cold, the rest of the city gets pneumonia,
(Sun-Times, Nov. 18, 2025)
Pizza
No position on record.
Also on the record
- A prize-winning baton twirler who twirled a plunger on camera when no baton was handy. (axios.com)
- Filed her petitions wearing a shirt that read No biceps, just brains. (chicago.suntimes.com)
Compiled from public sources: