Presumed Mayoral Candidate Tough on ICE, at Ease with Car Dealership Cash

Secretary of State should face scrutiny for his donations, illegals obtaining licenses

Politics is filled with shallow and intellectually obtuse people, and Chicago pols are no exception. All things being equal, Chicago politicians are probably worse than average.

One of them, Illinois’ Secretary of State Alex Giannoulias, regularly posts images and videos of himself on social media lifting weights, presumably to distract voters from his cerebral shortcomings and his checkered history as a public official.

In a recent Chicago Contrarian, the Podcast episode, host Jim Bosco, mentioned Giannoulias.

“Did you see this? This is absolutely hilarious. So, it turns out that the ICE guys, the federal government, rented a Chevy Suburban from Enterprise Rent-a-Car. And then they took the license plate off and they put on like some other Illinois plate or something like that.

And they drove it around because they didn’t want the vehicle to be spotted in multiple locations.

And so, because the feds did this, Alexi Giannoulias revoked the plate from Enterprise Rent-a-Car.”

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Fellow panelist Jeff Fiedler then joined the conversation.

“And he (Giannoulias) had a press conference just to talk about it.”

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Yes, a presser about one SUV and one set of license plates.

We’ll return to Alexi’s time as state treasurer soon, but during his single term as treasurer, money from a doomed college savings fund for Illinois residents, Bright Start, was used to buy a Ford Hybrid Escape. That vehicle was issued the license plate number “6,” as were three others.

Four state treasurer vehicles — one plate number.

Giannoulias, a Chicago Democrat who has served as secretary of state since 2023, fails to mention whenever he condemns ICE enforcement activity that vehicles driven by ICE officers and other federal immigration officials are routinely and dangerously followed and harassed by activists. License plate numbers of vehicles used by these federal officers are collected by at least one leftist group and posted online.

What happens if a week later a family rents one of those reported vehicles and they are encountered by left-wing radicals on wheels? Why isn’t Giannoulias complaining about that likely scenario?

Not to be outflanked on his left, Giannoulias has established a hotline to report tampered Illinois license plates — and plates that have been swapped out between vehicles.

As for dangerous situations, in October, two people, including a woman who was shot five times by Customs and Border Patrol agents in what they said was self-defense, allegedly rammed a vehicle with federal agents inside. The Department of Homeland Security called the frightening incident “an ambush.”

However, federal charges against the two people were dismissed last month.

As for that Chevy SUV belonging to Enterprise, it has probably been replated, perhaps in another state.

But Giannoulias got his press conference — mission accomplished.

A mayoral run?

Though he's running for reelection in 2026, Giannoulias is said to be also pondering a bid for mayor of Chicago in 2027. He pointedly doesn’t rule it out.

Currently, among the many faults of Chicago’s current Mayor, Brandon Johnson, is this one:  He rarely directly answers questions from a media that is for the most part friendly to him.

Giannoulias mastered that survival skill during his successful campaign for state treasurer in 2006. 

Four years later, when Giannoulias was running for the U.S. Senate — he lost to Republican Mark Kirk in the general election — the Chicago Tribune reported on $20 million in loans made to Michael “Jaws” Giorango and Demitri Stavropoulos, which were issued when Giannoulias was a senior loan officer at Broadway Bank. Both men were felons. Shortly after that story was published, Broadway Bank was seized by federal regulators due to lack of capital, costing taxpayers $394 million.

Another recipient of Broadway Bank loans was longtime political fixer Antoin “Tony” Rezko, who worked closely with then-Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. He later served a federal prison term for political corruption.

Giannoulias’ career in banking is no small matter. During his campaign for treasurer, he regularly repeated the mantra: “We need a banker as state treasurer.” However, during his Senate run, Alexi dodged questions about Broadway’s shady loans.

Let’s return to Bright Start. As mentioned earlier, Bright Start was a college fund for Illinois residents that Giannoulias administered when he was treasurer, and it was touted as fiscally conservative. Nonetheless, under Alexi it lost $150 million. The aforementioned Ford Escape was used, Giannoulias said at the time, to promote the money-losing fund and attract more investors.

It's fortunate the Treasurer’s office purchased just one vehicle.

Chicago’s next mayor faces major challenges. Crime is one, and on that issue, Giannoulias on social media offers only appealing platitudes. The other is the city’s enormous unfunded pension obligations. Mick Dumke, then with the Chicago Reader, reported in 2010 that four years earlier, when Giannoulias was asked by the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board if he was elected treasurer how he could confront state’s public worker pension sinkhole, he replied he was unsure.

So said the banker.

Automobile dealership campaign contributions

Government is the preferred safe space for people who fail upwards, and it is easier to do so now, because Chicago’s once hard-knuckle media has gone soft, particularly concerning investigating Democratic politicians.

So, it’s not surprising local media hasn’t reported on the contributions his campaign fund, Citizens for Giannoulias, has received from automobile dealerships and car dealer trade groups. According to Transparency USA, in the current election cycle, Citizens for Giannoulias has collected nearly $130,000 from auto dealers, led by $37,800 from the Illinois Auto Dealers Association — CAR of Illinois. Many individual dealerships contributed funds to Citizens for Giannoulias and many of them are familiar names in the car business.

Once again, this is no small matter. Giannoulias’ Secretary of State office is responsible for regulating automobile dealerships — and it also issues them licenses for them to sell cars. Naturally, the Illinois Secretary of State Police investigates accusations of automobile-related consumer fraud.

At the very least, one would presume Giannoulias would immediately stop accepting campaign contributions from automobile dealerships and dealer trade groups — as well as owners of car dealerships — while he remains as secretary of state. 

Not Alexi.

Donating his dealership-related political contributions to charity is preferable, but not Alexi.

As for a possible mayoral run, the incumbent is already compromised by a major contributor, the Chicago Teachers Union.

Will Chicago vote for more of the same?

Back to the Contrarian podcast.

Following some chatter and laughter about Giannoulias' press conference, panelist Paul Vallas then asked:

“Didn’t a large number of illegal migrants get their driver’s licenses that they weren’t authorized through [Giannoulias’ office]?”

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Host Jim Bosco then replied:

“Yeah, yeah, he’s correct. That’s going to come out and, you know, there’s a whole transparency issue that, you know, we’ve got to talk about that sometime.”

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There is also the issue of whether any illegals are registered to vote in Illinois. In July, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a “statement of interest” regarding a lawsuit filed by legal watchdog Judicial Watch. The suit is requesting information on how Illinois maintains its voter rolls.

One of the responsibilities of the Illinois Secretary of State’s office is to manage the state’s motor vehicle voter registration program.

Additional voters will probably prove useful to the Democratic Party — and Giannoulias — in future elections. 

What, me worry?

Giannoulias’ name is printed on every Illinois driver’s license and state identification card.

And don't forget, everybody who walks into an Illinois Secretary of State facility is confronted by a large picture of Alexi, with his perpetually messed up hair and his goofy grin, a face that is reminiscent of Mad Magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman. 

And as Neuman says, “What, me worry?”

But there is so much to worry about in Chicago and Illinois.