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Jessica “Jesse” Maronto For Mayor of Chicago 2027, No Poli-Tricks!
Jessica “Jesse” Maronto is a dedicated community leader, IBEW Journeyman, business consultant, disability advocate, and candidate for Chicago Mayor 2027. Combining blue-collar grit with white-collar education, Jesse is committed to her no Poli-tricks agenda and service to Chicagoans. Learn more below or jump to the Press Release section.
Service to Chicagoans
Serving the people. Candor, clarity and culture shift. Service to Chicagoans is the most important part of implementing change in 2027. Expanded city service hours, teen nightlife clubs, playgrounds designed with inclusivity in mind are just a few culture shifts you will see.
Operational Accountability
Operational accountability is about kindness to each other. This isn’t a “heads will roll” ultimatum, it’s a support net across departments. Responding to the needs of our fast-paced city, system improvements will translate to better quality of life for the City Workforce and Chicagoans.
Neighborhood Networks
Neighborhood networks start with small steps. “Stadium-sized” solutions aren’t what Chicagoans need. Connection, the fabric that holds us together is. Chicago Spokes Networks, built to be walkable and public transit friendly, will create new partnerships across Chicago. The Sister-Wards initiative will shrink our 50 wards down to 10 citizen-led Cultural Committees each hosted by their 5 respective Alders.
Economic Transparency
Our economic transparency is dark. To eradicate complacency creep, we must justify every cost and evaluate our past spending. It isn’t enough to say it would be too cost prohibitive to start fresh. Valuation of our past investments and the concessions that individuals, workers, and citizens have made need to be highlighted. We can only address new revenues after we plug the holes, or that money will go down the drain too.
Press Releases and Downloads
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 31, 2026
Contact: Press and Media Inquiries Maronto For Chicago
Email: press@NoPoli-Tricks.com
Phone: 312.803.4973
JESSICA “JESSE” MARONTO ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY FOR MAYOR OF CHICAGO IN 2027 MUNICIPAL ELECTION City of Chicago Lineman and IBEW Local 9 Member Launches “No Poli-Tricks CONE Campaign” Under Banner of Strong Foundations. Strong Chicago.
CHICAGO, IL — Jessica “Jesse” Maronto, a City of Chicago Lineman, Journeyman Inside Wireman, and longtime advocate for working Midwesterners, today announced her candidacy for Mayor of Chicago in the February 23, 2027 municipal election. Maronto is running as an independent candidate under her “No Poli-Tricks CONE Campaign,” built on the platform of Strong Foundations. Strong Chicago.
“My No Poli-Tricks CONE Campaign will give Chicagoans a chance to have hope for a Chicago that starts with WE instead of ME,” said Maronto. “Service to Chicagoans is the purest form of community we can offer each other.”
A Chicagoan Shaped by Work, Community, and Grit
A Chicagoland native from Oak Lawn, Illinois, Maronto’s roots in hard work run deep. She began her working life on her cousin’s blueberry farm alongside migrant workers, siblings, and friends, learning early what it meant to earn every dollar through honest labor. That foundation carried her through years in restaurants, retail, and catering before she made a bold decision in 1996, while pregnant with her child, to pursue a career as an industrial electrician.
Maronto completed her five-year apprenticeship with IBEW Local Union 131 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, pushing through a male-dominated field with determination. She went on to earn an Associate’s degree from Kalamazoo Valley Community College, a Bachelor’s degree in Accountancy from Western Michigan University, and a Master of Business Administration in Management, also from WMU. Her career spanned multiple industries, including Silicon Valley technology companies such as Intuit and Birdeye, consulting work helping startups launch and grow, and a brief role with a Google-sponsored artificial intelligence initiative based in Boston.
Drawn back to Chicago by her love of the city, Maronto made her home in the Loop, by way of Logan Square and Lakeview East, where she can park her car and enjoy public transit, bicycles, and the walkability that defines Chicago at its best. Today she is a member of IBEW Local 9, serving as one of fewer than two dozen Field Lineman Traffic Signal Repairmen working seven days a week as emergency responders for the City of Chicago. She also serves as Vice Chair of Disability Forward CHI, the City of Chicago’s first and only employee resource group, which focuses on disability inclusion.
Why She Is Running
Maronto’s decision to run grew directly from her experience working for the City of Chicago. What she observed on the job, and in conversations with hundreds of fellow trades workers and residents, was a city whose systems were straining under the weight of outdated processes, deferred accountability, and a growing disconnect between the people who needed services and the city structures meant to deliver them.
“City Hall is an inanimate object,” Maronto said. “Who is it that we need to talk to in order to fix this? The answer kept coming back to the Mayor. If the City of Chicago is so influenced by one position, then that one position is where I needed to focus my attention.”
From ignored repair requests and questionable water bills to 311 tickets closed faster than it takes to report them, Maronto believes Chicago deserves a mayor who treats service to residents not as a bureaucratic obligation but as the core mission of city government.
Her candidacy was announced today, though the campaign has been active since early August and has already begun circulating nominating petitions to place Maronto on the February 2027 ballot.
The No Poli-Tricks CONE Platform: Strong Foundations. Strong Chicago.
Maronto’s platform is organized around four pillars she calls CONE: Service to Chicagoans, Operational Accountability, Neighborhood Networks, and Economic Transparency.
Service to Chicagoans Maronto will overhaul the City’s service delivery systems, starting with a 311 reform that keeps requests open until they are resolved. She will empower frontline city workers to share their ideas and management to implement those solutions for our fast-paced city. She will establish Sister Wards, a community-led and alder-sponsored initiative to encourage the sharing of culture and commerce across ward boundaries.
Operational Accountability Maronto will implement goal-driven, disclosure-forward budgets that justify every dollar of city spending. She will establish paths to continued education and professional development for city management and leadership, build mentoring pipelines to develop the best talent in every city role, and change the city’s bi-monthly pay schedule to a Wednesday weekly payday for all Chicago employees earning less than $101,000 per year.
Neighborhood Networks Maronto will launch an “Oasis” program to address Chicago’s food deserts through a joint private and public partnership bringing rotating grocery chain onsite ordering and pickup to the city’s largest underserved neighborhoods. She will also establish sponsored teen nightlife clubs to give young Chicagoans safe, vibrant spaces of their own.
Economic Transparency Maronto will bring Silicon Valley-informed accountability to Chicago’s finances, ensuring that residents can see where their money goes, how it is being used, and what results it is producing. Transparency is not a talking point in her platform. It is a governing requirement.
“Diversity is Difficult. That’s Why It Starts With a D.”
Maronto’s campaign reflects the Chicago she has lived: a city of migrants and workers, of neighborhoods with distinct identities and shared struggles, of people who show up for each other when the systems around them fall short. Her journey from a blueberry farm in Michigan to the traffic signals of Chicago’s streets is not a political biography. It is a Chicago story.
“Diversity is difficult,” Maronto said. “That’s why it starts with a D.”
About the Campaign
The Maronto For Chicago, No Poli-Tricks CONE campaign is an independent, nonpartisan campaign for Mayor of Chicago in the 2027 municipal election. The primary election is scheduled for February 23, 2027. If no candidate receives a majority of votes, a general runoff election will be held on April 6, 2027.
Volunteers are currently circulating nominating petitions across Chicago neighborhoods. Chicagoans who want to sign a petition, volunteer, or learn more about the campaign are encouraged to visit NoPoli-Tricks.com or contact the campaign at CONE@MarontoForChicago.com.
About Jessica “Jesse” Maronto
Jessica “Jesse” Maronto is a City of Chicago Lineman Traffic Signal Repairman, IBEW Local 9 member, Journeyman Inside Wireman, accountant, and WMU MBA. She is a Chicagoland native who has made her home in the Loop. She is the Vice Chair of Disability Forward CHI, the City of Chicago’s first and only employee resource group. She is running for Mayor of Chicago in the 2027 municipal election as an independent candidate.
Paid for by The Committee to Elect Jessica “Jesse” for Mayor. 155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250, Chicago, IL 60606. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee other than The Committee to Elect Jessica “Jesse” Maronto for Mayor.
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