Johnson lobbies for money for Chicago while Biden touts new jobs in Wisconsin

CHICAGO (CBS) – Wednesday featured two big political stories with President Biden in Chicago and Mayor Brandon Johnson in Springfield, both trying to drum up money.

Biden was doing so for his campaign, and Johnson for Chicago.

The president landed in the city for a late fundraiser.

The president started his day just over the Illinois border, trying to draw a sharp parallel between his predecessor’s promise of progress and what he said was an actual delivery for the people of Wisconsin, which is a crucial swing state and home to the Republican National Convention this summer.

In 2018, President Trump touted a $10 billion investment in southeast Wisconsin from Foxconn, a company promising 10,000 jobs. Trump came to the site with a golden shovel.

In the end, it never happened.

“They wasted hundreds of millions, your state and local tax dollars, to promise a project that never happened,” Biden said on Wednesday. “Foxconn turned out to be just that, a con. Go figure.”

On Wednesday, Biden was on the same site to announce a decision by Microsoft to build a $3.3 billion data operations center, which would come with 2,000 jobs.

“In fact, he came here with your senator, Ron Johnson, literally holding a golden shovel promising to build the eighth wonder of the world,” Biden said. “Are you kidding me? Look what happened! They dug a hole with those golden shovels, and then they fell into it.”

Johnson seeks $1 billion for Chicago

Meanwhile, 200 miles to the south, Mayor Johnson was in Springfield to talk to state leaders about a range of issues from Chicago school funding, plans for a new Bears stadium and helping defray the costs in the state’s biggest financial engine.

Johnson was expected to meet with Gov. JB Pritzker, Speaker of the Ilinois House Chris Welch, and Senate President Dan Harmon. 

The mayor was trying to argue Chicago is owed $1 billion from the state for schools and other programs and freeing up dollars to replace lead water lines in the city.

“There’s a real commitment from the State of Illinois as we’re getting leadership from our senators around lead service line replacement,” Johnson said. “So there are real specific demands and asks that we have that could actually help us address that.”

This all came on the same day the Senate Executive Committee approved plans to extend that moratorium. It’s unclear when the full Senate will vote on the measure. The Chicago Teachers Union, which had supported the plan, is now critical of the legislation even though it appears to be on track to be approved. Johnson used to work for the CTU.

Johnson and Pritzker were expected to meet Wednesday afternoon.

The mayor was also seeking dollars for the city’s response to the ongoing migrant crises and ways to change telecom rules for the city to generate more revenue for services that the city provides. But no hard deals appeared to be hammered out on Wednesday.

Chris Tye

Chris Tye is a reporter and fill-in anchor at CBS2 Chicago.