What started as an effort to create a mechanism by which to recall Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has now sparked a broader effort to reshape city government.
The new effort would aim to create a charter for the city that would allow for the same thing, along with other significant changes to the structure of government in the city.
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WATCH HEREThe Chicago Deserves Better PAC is behind the renewed push.
“For a long time, the Chicago government has been too big and out of control,” said D.J. Doran, the organization’s executive director.
At a Tuesday press conference, Doran announced a petition drive to call for a Chicago reform Commission which would draft a City Charter.
“We are the third largest city in the U.S.,” he said. “Yet unlike most other cities our size we are without a City Charter or constitution.
The commission would be free to look at other forms of government for Chicago rather than the "Cities and Villages Act," adopted in 1941. It could theoretically look at the roles of the mayor and the City Council and create new ways to hold them accountable, according to the group.
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It could even look at ideas like term limits, reducing the size of the City Council and making it possible to recall city officials for incompetence or malfeasance.
Dan Boland has been trying for the past year to collect enough signatures to get a mayoral recall provision on the Spring 2026 ballot. He said this signature drive is complimentary to his own.
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SIGN UP “The more exposure that we can get, the better. We are a grass roots organization, and we don’t have a lot of volunteers. And its kind hard to get signatures if you don’t have a lot of people.” Boland said. “It’s definitely a shot in the arm.”
NBC Chicago did reach out to Johnson’s office about the charter effort but has not yet heard back.
Getting either measure on the March 2026 ballot would require nearly 56,000 signatures. Both groups don’t have much time to get all of this work done. The deadline to get on that ballot is December 15.
