Mayor Brandon Johnson’s campaign last quarter returned $120,000 from two political action committees both led by developers with active city contracts, the latest instances of his political fund giving back money amid ethical and accounting issues.
At the end of August, Johnson’s campaign fund gave back $71,000 to Leaders for Tomorrow and $48,500 to ZPACT, according to the latest round of state elections filings that were due last week. That’s almost a full refund of what both groups gave, but came about 10 months after their latest contributions to the mayor’s campaign committee were reported, meaning Johnson’s campaign had access to that cash for that duration.
Since being sworn in for the mayor’s office, Johnson’s campaign has refunded almost $290,000 in contributions, has made several amendments to its reports and spent another $120,000 for compliance services. Together those two pots make up nearly a quarter of his campaign fund’s $1.8 million spending since he was sworn in as mayor in May 2023.
His political team has previously described the errors as an “oversight” while arguing it maintained full compliance with campaign finance law. But whether the Johnson campaign’s most recent contribution returns were to comply with city ethics laws is unclear; his political spokesperson, Christian Perry, did not respond to multiple inquiries on the latest refunds this week.
Steve Berlin, executive director of the Chicago Board of Ethics, declined to say whether Johnson’s committee was issued any formal warning or guidance, citing the board’s confidentiality rules. Illinois State Board of Elections spokesperson Matt Dietrich, whose body mostly does not enforce city ethics rules, said it did not instruct the mayor’s political fund on those two refunds.
Regardless of why Johnson’s campaign refunded the money, good government experts said his committee’s ongoing pattern of issues with campaign finance reporting was concerning. They called for further ethics reforms restricting city vendors.
“Candidates should not take months to return illegal contributions from city contractors, especially contributions of this size,” Reform for Illinois Executive Director Alisa Kaplan said. “That essentially lets them use the money like a loan to their campaign — a big benefit they’re getting from someone who might expect the favor to be returned later.”
Leaders for Tomorrow was first launched in 2019 by Cornelius Griggs, also the founder of GMA Construction Group, a Chicago-based firm that’s been awarded a plethora of city contracts. They include projects at the much-coveted O’Hare International Airport expansion and various affordable housing developments receiving taxpayer funding.
His PAC contributed a total $74,000 to Johnson’s political fund, $50,000 of that coming after he became mayor. Johnson’s campaign received its most recent $11,000 contribution from the PAC in June 2024 but did not report it until mid-October of that year. The full $71,000 refund didn’t come until this August.
The Tribune also found that the PAC’s top contributors were overwhelmingly tied to active city vendors. The biggest donor was Griggs at $37,400 total; his company gave $27,400 in February 2024, while Griggs himself contributed $10,000 to his PAC this July.
Other top contributors who benefited from doing business with the Johnson administration include a pastor whose nonprofit was awarded contracts to run migrant and homeless shelters, and local businesses hired as food vendors for asylum-seekers, though some of those payments came after the PAC’s last contribution to Johnson’s campaign.
Griggs did not respond to multiple requests for comment this week.
His company, GMA Group, is subject to a $1,500 cap on donations to mayors from companies with active city contracts. But that rule is murky given that Chicago’s ethics law usually defines an entity doing business with the city separately from its executives, or a PAC run by one of them.
Berlin noted there are exceptions to the $1,500 limit if “the PAC is effectively controlled by a person or entity that is doing or seeking to do business” with the city. Or “if a person or entity that does business with the City contributes to a PAC in a single calendar year, and that PAC donates more than 50% of its annual intake to a particular candidate or their committee in that same calendar year … that person’s or entity’s contributions to the PAC are then considered direct contributions to that candidate,” he wrote.
Griggs’ firm is part of the joint Turner Paschen Aviation Partners team that stands to reap billions in the O’Hare revamp under a contract inked by Johnson’s predecessor Lori Lightfoot, who has also received contributions from his PAC.
GMA Group has so far netted $625.6 million from the city in the O’Hare contract on revamping the taxiway, per city records, but it’s unclear how much of that went to GMA versus its other businesses.
Under Johnson, GMA Group was also tapped in several major affordable housing developments that receive money from tax-increment financing districts or other city taxpayer assistance. Those include the downtown LaSalle Street office-to-residential conversions, as well as CARE Manor on the West Side that will be the first recipient of Johnson’s Housing and Economic Development bond money.
One of the top donors to Griggs’ PAC is the Rev. Torrey Barrett, founder of the K.L.E.O. Community Family Life Center nonprofit that’s been awarded tens of millions of dollars in contracts help run Johnson’s joint migrant-homeless shelter system.
Barrett contributed a total of $25,804 to the PAC, either directly through in-kind contributions and a $3,300 check from November 2023, or via an LLC, Advance Consulting Services, which donated just over $13,800 in July. He also gave $2,000 to Johnson’s political fund directly this March.
Because Barrett and K.L.E.O. are considered separate entities under the city ethics ordinance, that contribution would be above-water “provided they are not reimbursed for their contributions by the entity,” Berlin said.
Kaplan added Johnson and members of City Council have blocked efforts, most recently from Ald. Matt Martin, 47th Ward, the Ethics Committee chair, to fix that loophole.
“It’s ridiculous, for example, that contractor companies can’t donate big amounts to candidates, but their owners and executives can,” Kaplan said. “Other cities have closed these loopholes and the Board of Ethics and some brave council members have tried to do it here, but they keep running into the wall of elected officials who are too cozy with the status quo.”
Meanwhile, the other PAC whose contribution was recently returned by Johnson’s campaign is dissolved entirely.
ZPACT, created by Ashlaur Construction CEO Zollie Carradine in August 2023, contributed $50,000 to Johnson’s fund that September. Johnson’s committee gave back $48,500 this August, 10 months after it reported cashing the check.
State campaign finance records show ZPACT was no longer active as of January 2025.
Reached by the Tribune, Carradine said “I have no idea” why Johnson’s campaign returned his PAC’s money.
Asked further about his PAC’s dealings, Carradine responded he didn’t have a “reason” to talk to the Tribune, before hanging up the phone.
Ashlaur Construction is building the Fifth City Commons affordable housing project on the West Side, where Johnson and Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th Ward, appeared for a groundbreaking in July 2023 — a month before ZPACT launched.
A news release from main developer Preservation of Affordable Housing said the site will be built by both Carradine’s company and Skender Construction — another donor to ZPACT — and “the City of Chicago provided the bulk of the financing for the development in the form of Tax Increment Financing” and other assistance.
Johnson’s fund also went through a leadership shuffle. Months after pledging to do so, county Commissioner Tara Stamps officially stepped down as chair of Johnson’s political committee following concerns over her employment with the Chicago Teachers Union. The latest filing shows Johnson himself listed as his campaign chair.
Meanwhile, the fund’s treasurer, Lisa Schrantz — a former longtime Johnson aide who was discharged by the mayor’s office last year — was replaced by ex-Service Employees International Union official Crystal Gardner, per the filing.
Schrantz in August wrote to the State Board of Elections asking to be removed as the official treasurer of Johnson’s political committee, saying she had not occupied the role for the last two years and “was under the impression that I had been removed” already.
The Illinois State Board of Elections requires political committees to update their officers within 10 days, but there is no penalty unless an outside individual files a complaint. In August, Perry rejected the idea that Johnson’s committee erred in listing Schrantz for the last two years because she had been delegating the “day-to-day” of her role.
“The paperwork was not incorrect. Your understanding is incorrect,” Perry said then. “The paperwork is in process. The decision was made some time ago.”
The Tribune’s AD Quig contributed reporting.
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