> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.projectmiddleground.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # YES, AND… WHO’S CALLING THE PLAY FOR CHICAGO? - URL: https://www.projectmiddleground.com/intelligence/yes-and-whos-calling-the-play-for-chicago/ - Published: 2026-08-03T20:19:39.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-03T20:22:14.000Z - Author: Brad Spirrison **A crowded mayoral field, two would-be presidents and three frontier industries are not yet a 25-year plan.** Chicago did not invent optimism. We invented something more useful: a way to keep the scene moving when nobody knows exactly what comes next. **Yes, and…** The improvisational rule most closely associated with Chicago and the late, great Del Close is deceptively simple: accept what your scene partner has placed in front of you—and then contribute something that moves the whole thing forward. Not **yes, but**. Not **no, because**. Not **we tried that during the Daley administration and somebody important is still mad about it**. Yes. And. Like the blues, house music, skyscrapers and several other Chicago art forms, improvisation reflects our particular civic genius—and our occasional institutional inferiority complex. Chicago creates the form. New York turns it into an industry. Los Angeles makes the movie. Boston writes the case study. We eventually buy a table at the gala celebrating what we invented. The exact origins of the phrase “Yes, and” are somewhat hazy, although Chicago improvisation, Del Close and the Compass Players are central to its history. Which brings us to the 2027 mayoral election. ### **Yes, we have candidates. And…** This is not an embarrassing field. Donor-powered Alexi Giannoulias is officially in, carrying nearly $22 million and positioning himself as the competent-and-compassionate modernization candidate. There is public-safety-first Susana Mendoza. Renaissance man Matt Brewer. Congressman Mike Quigley. The never-boring Maria Pappas. George Cardenas, Joe Holberg, John Kelly, Dr. Lisa Nee, Liam Stanton, Mark Su and Willie Wilson. And then there is the incumbent, Brandon Johnson, who—as of this writing—appears to remain on the fence while people connected to his operation circulate petitions beneath him. Yes, Chicago has an impressive collection of people seeking the job. **And who among them can inspire us beyond the ballot?** Who can tell Chicagoans not merely what will be repaired during the next four years, but what this city intends to become over the next 25? What is Chicago in 2051? How do we confront artificial intelligence, climate disruption, historic inequity and an increasingly unforgiving fiscal reality without turning every conversation into a choice between growth and justice, downtown and neighborhoods, business and labor, police and community—or whichever two constituencies are scheduled to yell at one another that particular Tuesday? Daniel Burnham instructed us to make no small plans. Chicago politics often responds by producing a 19-member task force to study whether the plans require an environmental impact statement. ### **Yes, we have the pieces. And…** Chicago does not have to “win” every frontier industry. But we should be a central global player in at least three: **Quantum technology. Responsible artificial intelligence. Cannabis and emerging alternative medicine.** In quantum, the pieces are considerable: world-class universities, Argonne and Fermilab, the Chicago Quantum Exchange, major corporate users and an enormous public-private wager on the former U.S. Steel site. Local economic-development leaders project tens of billions of dollars in regional impact if Chicago converts today’s research advantage into tomorrow’s commercial ecosystem. In AI, we possess one of the deepest concentrations of large enterprises, regulated industries and working professionals anywhere in the country. Chicago may not build every foundational model, but we can help determine how AI is responsibly deployed inside health care, finance, insurance, manufacturing, logistics, government and education. In cannabis, Chicago and Illinois helped construct one of the country’s largest regulated markets while restaurants, retailers, music festivals and consumers are already pushing the culture faster than lawmakers can update the rules. Yes, candidates and public-private economic-development organizations can say that Chicago has all the pieces. Dave Wannstedt said that too. **Who is the quarterback?** Not necessarily the person who designs every play or receives credit for every yard. The quarterback is the person who commands the attention of the huddle, communicates the play, sees the entire field and still knows what to do when the protection breaks down and the original plan becomes irrelevant. Chicago has plenty of playbooks. We are less consistent at getting 11 institutions to break the huddle at the same time. ### **Yes, Illinois has presidential contenders. And…** Meanwhile, two Boomer politicians with Chicago credentials, national networks and enough potholes in their résumés to demonstrate authentic local experience are publicly pondering campaigns for president. Gov. J.B. Pritzker says he has not made a 2028 decision, although he is appearing in national polling, building relationships with state parties and strengthening his national profile. Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently pedaled through New Hampshire, held a series of town halls and explained that the real question is not whether he is running, but whether he has what it takes to address what ails America. Subtle. Yes, both possess the credentials, passion, financial relationships and political scar tissue to compete within what Democrats keep describing—but have not yet demonstrated—as a historically deep 2028 bench. Both also have agents, former staffers, allies and enthusiasts ready to explain why their principal was the true architect of Chicago’s emerging frontier-industry economy. **And what can either point to that is as original, dominant and enduring as the Obama campaign’s Chicago-built digital operation?** Harper Reed and the 2012 technology team treated the campaign as a startup and built tools intended to serve as force multipliers across organizing, communications, fundraising and field operations. It was not simply a campaign using technology. It was an operating system for converting participation into power. Arguably, it was one of the most consequential startups of the Internet era—which, for conversational purposes, began around Netscape in 1995 and may be ending right about now as AI starts answering questions nobody has finished asking. So yes, J.B. and Rahm can run. And before either claims Chicago as the proof of concept, we should ask: What civic machinery did you create that still operates without you? What globally significant industry did Chicago learn to lead rather than merely subsidize? Where is the next generation of talent? Who owns the playbook after the press conference? And how does the prosperity reach people who were excluded from the last several transformations? As Poi Dog Pondering taught us, it’s not that complicated. Except, obviously, it is. ### **Yes, Republicans matter too. And…** Chicago is a Democratic city inside a Democratic state. That does not mean Democratic politicians are entitled to the permanent ownership of anyone’s vote. Republicans matter. Independents matter. Progressives, moderates, conservatives, union households, business owners, young people, people who stopped voting and people who agree with Bill Maher just often enough to irritate everyone at Thanksgiving matter. Anyone who dismisses a voter who says their vote is in play is not defending democracy. They are ceding accountability to whichever team, squad, tribe or algorithm has already assigned that person a jersey. Project Middle Ground is not the absence of disagreement. It is the arena in which different voices compete to assemble a governing plurality of stakeholders—and are expected to earn that coalition again the next time. That is the balancing mechanism. It does not work when one side believes it owns the city, another believes it is permanently locked out and everyone else is asked to choose between two prepackaged versions of outrage. ### **The auditions are open** Project Middle Ground is not endorsing a mayoral candidate today. We are setting a higher bar for the audition. Tell us what Chicago should lead globally by 2051. Tell us who benefits. Tell us what institutions must work together—and what happens when they refuse. Tell us where the capital, talent and political will come from. Tell us what you will build that can survive your administration. And tell us who is calling the play. Yes, Chicago has the candidates. Yes, Chicago has the institutions. Yes, Chicago has the universities, corporations, neighborhoods, laboratories, investors, artists, workers and global alumni. Yes, Chicago has all the pieces. **And now somebody has to make them move.**