Lobbyist, mayoral candidate John Kelly says Chicago has had enough of career politicians

Chicago mayoral candidate John Kelly on Wednesday said the city has had enough of career politicians, and took some of his opponents to task for running for two offices at once.

Kelly is a lobbyist who owns All-Circo Inc., and represents the Bally's casino currently under construction in Chicago. He is also co-founder of Sentinel Security, a private security company.

According to his campaign website, Kelly is running for mayor because he believes city government is broken. Speaking on CBS News Chicago Wednesday morning, Kelly added that career politicians are not the ones who can fix it.

"Chicagoans want a problem solver, not a politician, and there are a lot of career politicians that are going to be in this race, and they have been here while these problems have existed," Kelly said. "And as a lobbyist and someone that like to solve problems for clients, I've spent 30 years bringing business to Chicago."

Kelly is one of nine candidates now in the race. A tenth, small business owner Liam Stantion, withdrew this week and endorsed Alexi Giannoulias.

But Kelly castigated Giannoulias and Mike Quigley for running for reelection as Illinois Secretary of State and U.S. representative, respectively, while also launching bids for mayor.

"The people that want to be the next mayor are too political, because they're running for two offices — two at the same time. Chicagoans don't want someone to plot out their life career by what office they run for," said Kelly. "I don't know how Chicagoans are letting them get away with running for two offices at the same time, and the reason I say that to you is because that's what people tell me when I campaign."

On the subject of running for two offices, Giannoulias said earlier this month: "Running for mayor is like interviewing for a job — a really hard job — and just like anything else, you don't quit the one you're in while you're interviewing for that one."

Kelly said running for office is not the same thing as interviewing for a job.

"And I think he needs to pick the office he wants to run for. Chicagoans do not like a politician plotting their course and running for both offices," Kelly said. "If his dream job was secretary of state, or is, he should stay there. If his dream job is being mayor of Chicago, he should run for that. But he should pick just one office."

Public safety, and safety on the Chicago Transit Authority system, are a major priority in Kelly's platform. He said regardless of statistics stating that crime is down, Chicagoans do not feel safe.

"All over the city of Chicago, and that's the number-one concern: 'We need more police officers. We do not feel safe,'" he said. "Residents of Chicago don't look at stats and polling for crime. They base how they feel, and people are not feeling safe in the city of Chicago, because that's what they tell me."

Kelly is also seeking to stabilize skyrocketing property taxes by growing the tax base.

"If you… have a growth strategy for downtown, and you fill up these businesses, you are able to bring property taxes down, and at least, at the very least, stabilize them," he said.

Kelly has spent his career as a lobbyist representing special interests. But he emphasized that this would not affect how he would handle being mayor.

"For 28 years I've done lobbying, we've never had an ethical concern. It's something that's very important. I'm prepared to tell former clients and friends and family no as mayor of Chicago, and that's what Chicagoans want," he said. "You've got to put Chicagoans first, and when you're mayor, you have to tell a lot of people no, because the number one job of mayor is to have clean and safe streets for the city of Chicago and for the residents."

Current Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has not yet announced whether he is running for another term.