Evanston Mayor Biss Will Resign to Trigger 2027 Election, City Council Deadlocked Over Who Replaces Him

The resignation timeline

Daniel Biss has publicly committed to resigning as Evanston mayor in time to trigger a special mayoral election in April 2027. He made the statement during a City Council meeting on Tuesday night, closing weeks of speculation about how the city would fill his seat after he heads to Washington.

Biss won the Democratic primary for Illinois' 9th Congressional District on March 17. He is heavily favored to defeat Republican nominee John Elleson in November, according to the Chicago Tribune. That would leave his mayoral office vacant for the remainder of his term, which runs through 2029.

"My basic principle here is unchanged, I think that the guiding principle should be to minimize the amount of time that the city has a mayor who is not elected by the people," Biss said at the April 26 meeting, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Biss told councilmembers Tuesday he cannot name an exact resignation date until the Illinois State Board of Elections releases its calendar for the 2027 municipal election. That calendar is expected in June, according to the Chicago Tribune. The board will announce when candidates must file their petitions to appear on the April 2027 ballot.

Under a state law change passed last year, Public Act 104-434, a mayoral vacancy must occur before the petition filing period begins in order to trigger a special election. According to the Daily Northwestern, Biss must resign by October 19 to meet that deadline.

The power fight over acting mayor

With Biss' departure all but certain, the City Council spent Tuesday night arguing over the rules that will determine who runs the city in the interim. The council could not reach agreement and pushed the vote to its June 8 meeting, according to the Evanston RoundTable.

The core dispute is simple. Current Evanston rules require a simple majority of five votes to appoint an acting mayor from among the nine councilmembers. Four councilmembers on the opposition bloc want to raise the bar to a six-vote supermajority.

The math matters. A simple majority favors the Biss-aligned coalition of five councilmembers. A six-vote requirement would give the opposition bloc leverage, since it would need to win over at least one member of the Biss coalition to approve any candidate, according to the Daily Northwestern.

Ald. Bobby Burns, 5th Ward, proposed a compromise Tuesday night. His plan would require a supermajority for up to three rounds of voting at separate council meetings. If the council failed to reach six votes after those three tries, the threshold would drop to a simple majority, according to the Evanston RoundTable.

"The question becomes, if we're not successful at selecting an acting mayor at two-thirds, then what?" Burns said. "I would not feel comfortable having it default to seniority, I wouldn't feel comfortable having it default to our mayor pro tem schedule."

Burns' compromise failed 2-7, with only he and Ald. Juan Geracaris, 9th Ward, voting in favor, according to the Evanston RoundTable.

The incumbency problem

Councilmembers were blunt about what is really at stake. The acting mayor would hold all mayoral powers and responsibilities while retaining their council vote. Whoever fills that seat would gain visibility and name recognition heading into the April 2027 special election for the final two years of Biss' term, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Ald. Parielle Davis, 7th Ward, said her only criterion for voting on an acting mayor is whether the person plans to run for the full mayoral term afterward.

"I plan to vote in favor of whoever does not plan on running for mayor full time afterwards," Davis said, according to the Chicago Tribune. "You guys are super worried. I wouldn't care who it was on Council, as long as they don't plan on using the incumbency bias."

Ald. Clare Kelly, 1st Ward, suggested making the longest-serving councilmember the acting mayor or barring the acting mayor from running in the special election. Burns rejected both ideas, according to the Evanston RoundTable.

Ald. Matt Rodgers, 8th Ward, offered his own alternative. He proposed requiring a simple majority if a special election would follow the vacancy and a six-vote supermajority if no special election could be held. Rodgers argued the city should demand broader consensus when an acting mayor might serve a longer term, according to the Daily Northwestern.

"I'm gonna vote no, just because it doesn't need to be this complicated," Ald. Shawn Iles, 3rd Ward, said in response to Rodgers' proposal, according to the Chicago Tribune. "Every other municipality in Illinois does it with a simple majority vote."

Other business delayed

The council also tabled a final vote on a 30-unit apartment building at 1103 and 1105 Emerson Street until June 22, according to the Daily Northwestern. The project has faced criticism from the Preservation Commission over its visual contrast to a nearby historic church.

The council entered a lengthy debate on directives for the city's five tax increment financing (TIF) districts. Discussion centered on the Chicago Main TIF, which is scheduled to expire after 2037 but was recommended for termination after 2030, according to the Evanston RoundTable. Ald. Shawn Iles and Ald. Jonathan Nieuwsma, 4th Ward, argued the district had not yet achieved its goals and pushed to remove the early termination directive.

The acting mayor rule change and its companion ordinance will return to the dais on June 8 for final adoption, according to the Evanston RoundTable.