Ask The Mayoral Candidate: Susana Mendoza

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
WBEZ is supported by the Gynecology Research Lab at Endeavor Health. Period pain affects millions of people. Researchers want to learn from those experiencing period pain. The NIH-funded study wants to know whether a common over-the-counter medication can reduce period pain over time.
Compensation is available. Learn more at cureperiodpain.org.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (0:34)
Hey Chicago, I'm Sasha-Ann Simons, and this is In the Loop.
Time now for a new series we're kicking off, where candidates in the crowded field running for Chicago mayor will join me in studio and answer my questions and yours. First up is Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza.
The city's next mayoral election is six months away, but candidates are hitting the streets to collect the thousands of signatures they'll need to secure a place on the ballot. And it's a mixed bag from current and former elected officials to community leaders to political newbies. There are several people vying for Chicago's top job after a particularly turbulent few years for the city. So in this episode of the pod, we will ask Susana Mendoza, who's taking a second shot at the mayoral race, by the way, why she wants to run again and what she plans to change. Now, some listeners and voters know her and some don't. So I asked her to start with an introduction. Who is Susana Mendoza? Here she is.

**Susana Mendoza** (1:37)
I am the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants, born in Little Village. I served six terms as an Illinois state representative. In fact, when I was elected, I was the youngest member in the chamber. That was back in 2001
One of my proudest moments as a state rep was passing the school breakfast bill to make sure that all our kids in Illinois, who were going to school hungry, didn't have to worry about their rumbling bellies and could just focus on their studies. I served six terms, as I said, and then moved on to become the first woman elected city clerk at Chicago. And perhaps my proudest achievement there was delivering progress when it came to getting rid of the long lines at City Hall. We used to have three to four hour long lines, people waiting in this terrible situation, and no fun ride at the end like at Great America, you know? I mean, you just kind of feel like you were taken for a ride, having to pay for an expensive city sticker. And so I got rid of that because I really felt that it was wrong for anyone to have to take a day off of work or lose a day's wages or eat a vacation day to go wait in a long bureaucratic line. So for me, it's always been about delivering progress and making government work better at lower cost. Then from there, I stepped up to run, I served two terms as city clerk of Chicago, and then went on to run for office to be the state controller during the worst part of the state's fiscal crisis. So we were experiencing the worst crisis in state history.
I walked into that office after being elected state-wide to take on and get really faced with this tremendous situation that many people thought would be impossible to fix. Nearly $17 billion backlog of unpaid bills. We used to delay payments to our vendors, and that means hospitals, nursing homes, hospice care, speech therapists, doctors, you name it, anyone doing business with our state. 210 business days was the average the day I walked in.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (3:37)
You also ran for mayor in 2019 You finished fifth out of a huge field, 14 candidates. So tell me, what are you bringing to the table today that might be a little different from what you brought seven years ago?

**Susana Mendoza** (3:49)
Well, I'm bringing incredible financial expertise. I mean, you know, I started telling you about what I face, but the more important answer here is what I did. So I took our state from having nothing but 20 years worth of credit downgrades to 10 credit upgrades on my watch, paid down that bill backlog from $17 billion to down. We've paid all our bills and we pay faster than the private sector now, down from 210 days to 13 days. So and we've increased our rainy day from $48,000 to $2.5 billion. The point is that we have never had a mayor leading this city who has the financial expertise that at the most critical time, which is right now, we absolutely desperately need. Because Chicago, as you know, is facing a financial crisis, a public safety crisis and a crisis in confidence. And out of anyone running for this position, I'm the only candidate who brings a trifecta of experience, legislative, executive management as city clerk, and also the financial expertise that we need at this moment.