Cook County Commissioner Tara Stamps says she’s stepping down as chairwoman of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s campaign fund, after facing questions about whether it was appropriate for her to be overseeing it at the same time that she’s on the payroll for the Chicago Teachers Union.
“It just made sense,” Stamps said this week. “For all parties involved.”
A Chicago Sun-Times reporter asked Stamps and Johnson’s aides earlier this month whether her employment with the CTU — which is in the midst of contract talks with Chicago Public Schools — presents a conflict of interest.
Not only does Johnson help oversee CPS, but the CTU’s teacher training and retention program Stamps oversees, called “We Care,” could be expanded under a new teacher contract depending on if and how the union’s hopes for more teacher mentoring are realized.
Stamps said her decision to resign from Johnson’s campaign fund “wasn’t just” spurred by the Sun-Times’ inquiry, but “you did help.”
“We’re both going into races and we know it’s going to be a lot of scrutiny, so we’re going forward,” Stamps said.
Johnson is in the middle of his first term as mayor. Stamps was appointed to fill Johnson’s Cook County Board seat after he won the mayor’s race in 2023. She won a race in 2024 to keep that seat.
“The most important work is preserving ‘We Care,’ whether I’m in the position or not,” Stamps said.
She and Johnson go back years, and they once taught at the same Chicago school. “Everyone knows Mayor Brandon Johnson and I have a long history,” Stamps said. “Before anything, he’s my friend.”
As Johnson geared up to make his run for mayor, he asked Stamps to chair his political committee. “I took it on,” she says.
Records show Stamps became chairwoman in late 2022. Since then, Friends of Brandon Johnson has raised more than $14 million, though it’s unclear how active Stamps was in fundraising.
Johnson’s aides didn’t respond to questions.
Besides being a longtime member of the CTU, Johnson also was an organizer for the union, which bankrolled his run for City Hall — all of which has led critics to question his independence. Johnson has denied he’s beholden to the group.
Stamps confirmed that, like Johnson, she is formally on leave from CPS, meaning she’s technically still employed there but not actively working or getting paid.
“I get no benefit, no pay, no nothing,” Stamps says, calling such leaves a longstanding practice.
“I don’t think it’s a potential conflict” of interest “if there’s no way to benefit from it,” she says.
Those on leave, however, can benefit from elements of a new contract if and when they return to CPS.
Between late 2022 and late 2023, the CTU pumped more than $2.3 million into Johnson’s campaign fund, while state and national teacher unions gave another $3.3 million, according to campaign filings.
Other labor groups put in another $5.7 million, so altogether more than 80% of what he raised in that period came from organized labor and affiliated organizations, as the Sun-Times has reported.
In January, the CTU reported donating $2,000 to Johnson’s campaign, though an official says that money involved tickets purchased by the union for an event for Johnson and distributed to members.
Stamps’ campaign fund received roughly $100,000 in donations from the CTU and a related group in 2024.
Like others in Johnson’s political orbit, Stamps has publicly criticized CPS leadership — including CEO Pedro Martinez — that Johnson inherited upon becoming mayor and that’s been negotiating with the CTU.
And the CTU has publicly backed her, saying after she was chosen by Democratic leaders to fill Johnson’s County Board seat, “We celebrate Commissioner Stamps’ dedication to our communities that brought her first to the classroom and now to expand her service to the people of the first district of Cook County. Whether it be now or months down the road, we know the students, educators and families of this county will have a true advocate, organizer and leader in Stamps.”