Senior advisor to Brandon Johnson voted in Texas this November, raising questions about residency

Senior advisor to Brandon Johnson voted in Texas this November, raising questions about residency

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s senior advisor Jason Lee cast his vote in Texas this November, but Chicago city government requires its employees to reside within city limits.

One of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s top advisors cast a vote in another state this year, records show.

Jason Lee is one of Johnson’s closest advisors and earns a taxpayer-funded salary of more than $189,000. 

But Harris County, Texas, records show Lee is an active registered voter in Texas, and cast a vote in the 2024 presidential election there. Records from the Chicago Board of Elections show Jason Lee registered to vote in Chicago on the day of the March 2020 Democratic primary, cast a vote in that election, and had his registration canceled on Sept. 6, 2023.

The city of Chicago’s residency requirement states that “all officers and employees of the city shall be actual residents of the city.”

And according to Texas election code, a voter’s residence “means domicile, that is, one’s home and fixed place of habitation to which one intends to return after any temporary absence.”

Lee previously served as political director of United Working Families, a political group chaired by Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates. The CTU and its affiliates are Johnson’s top financial backers.

When Chicago Tribune reporters presented Lee with his Texas voting record, which indicates he gave confirmation to a poll worker that he still lives in Texas, Lee responded: “I don’t know what they asked me. I don’t recall what they asked. It doesn’t matter what they asked me. You think that every single interaction at a polling location goes exactly by what they mark?”

Lee’s is far from the first personnel controversy Johnson has faced as mayor since taking office in 2019. 

Johnson hired four top staffers who support abolishing the police, ousted all seven members of the Chicago school board after they refused to issue a $300 million high-interest loan, and appointed a 9/11 conspiracy theorist as the new school board president – the board president was later forced to resign.

Lee’s behavior as one of Johnson’s top lieutenants also calls attention to Chicago’s lack of a city administrator

This position was created in 1954 with the responsibility to “supervise the administrative management of all city departments, boards, commissions and other city agencies.” 

The administrator can “establish reporting procedures, require the submission of progress reports (and) provide for the coordination of the activities of (city) agencies.” Further, the Municipal Code of Chicago demands the mayor “shall appoint” the officer, who must then be confirmed by City Council. 

But this provision has been ignored for decades. And since Chicago is the largest American city lacking a city charter, or municipal constitution, citizens have no legal standing to force compliance.

Johnson has resisted calls for greater City Council oversight of his hires and appointments, telling the City Club of Chicago: “I’ll be doggone if someone tries to reduce my power after the people of Chicago voted [for] me to transform this city.”

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