COOK COUNTY BUILDING (WBBM Newsradio) -- Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas is preparing to run for re-election, and she's increasingly open about the *next job she wants: Chicago mayor.
Pappas was sharing details about her office's new analysis of property tax increases affecting Chicago homeowners, as well as personal projects that include a modeling contract and a possible reality T-V show, when she said this.
"It's no secret that I'm going to get in the mayor's race. The city NEEDS a grey-haired grandmother!"
Pappas is 76 years old, and may be best known for her baton-twirling appearances in parades across the city ... but she's been county Treasurer since 1998, and says she's the right person to put the city on a good financial track.
"The train's off track," she told WBBM Newsradio during an interview at her office on November 14, "and I don't know anybody more qualified than the lady you?re lookin' at to do it."
She says she'd bring in a team of experts ... "stallions," she calls them ... to go through the city's operations and figure out how to fix them.
"The city's salvageable. It can be fixed. But you need a plan," Pappas said, adding that she and her team would take a "fork and a shovel" to Chicago's budget.
"Get down to all the dirt, dig it up, and go 'Oh, this is the mess we've created? How am I gonna fix it?'" she said.
Beyond that, Pappas also highlighted her knowledge of the city and its neighborhoods: "I know how to hit the neighborhoods and I know how to talk to people, because you're looking at a mayor who's gonna be out in the streets."
But before that, she's up for re-election. She's unopposed in the Democratic primary for Cook County treasurer, and faces a Libertarian opponent next November.
By then, the mayoral race is expected to be crowded, and could include Chicago Congressman Mike Quigley and state Comptroller Susana Mendoza, as well as Mayor Johnson himself.
But Pappas says she's confident she'll stand out: "Don?t you think people need a character?"