If elected to Congress next year, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss says he plans to resign from his city job in time to give voters a chance to elect a new mayor in April 2027.
Pressed at a candidate forum Thursday night about his transition plans, Biss clarified that he would leave the mayor’s office after the Nov. 3, 2026, general election, but before Nov. 27. Legally, the mayor wouldn’t have to resign until Jan. 3, 2027 – the day he would officially take office in Washington.
However, under state law, if Biss were to resign later than Nov. 27 (less than 130 days before the next scheduled municipal election), an acting mayor would be appointed by the city council from among its members and serve until 2029, rather than facing voters in 2027. Until now, Biss had been noncommittal about his transition plans.
The issue was raised Thursday evening by an Evanston resident and Northwestern University student, Madeline, at a town hall event featuring four of the top candidates in the race for the Democratic congressional nomination. Madeline, who wished to keep her last name private, pressed Biss on his decision to run for reelection. She referenced an article in Evanston Now, which stated that Biss’s campaign had “no plans to step down” as mayor during his congressional campaign.
“There are issues in Evanston that need to be addressed,” Madeline said after the forum, describing Biss as a “bad mayor.” She expressed disappointment in his response, noting that he said he never promised to serve his full term. When asked the same question in January—months before Rep. Jan Schakowsky announced her retirement—Biss called it a hypothetical situation but said his “expectation is to serve out [a second] term.”
On Thursday, Biss told Evanston Now he would have remained mayor had Schakowsky chosen to seek a 15th term in Congress. With her retirement announcement on May 5, however, he said he was “confronted with a decision of what’s the best way to serve the community.” “The idea that I would just pass up a chance to, on behalf of our community, go to Washington and make a difference doesn’t make any sense to me,” Biss said.
**How Would the Transition Work?**
Questions around appointing an acting mayor will remain hypothetical, at least until March 17, the date of the Democratic primary in the 9th Congressional District. The field includes 16 other Democrats, but given the district’s deep blue political leaning, the primary winner is almost certain to win the November general election.
Biss says he would wait to resign until after the general election and the certification of the winner by the state board of elections, expected to occur around Nov. 24, following the counting of provisional ballots. “If that’s correct, I would resign before that,” Biss explained, adding, “I probably wouldn’t resign long before that, because I think the idea is to try to minimize the amount of time we have an unelected mayor.”
**Choosing an Acting Mayor**
Selecting an acting mayor has become more complicated. In June, the City Council Rules Committee decided a two-thirds vote—rather than a simple majority—would be required to select an acting mayor. Due to this supermajority requirement, and the frequent 5-4 ideological split on the current council, Biss predicts the acting mayor will likely need to be a consensus pick or a caretaker who pledges not to run for election to the position.
Biss said resigning as close to the Nov. 27 deadline as possible would “maximize the amount of time that the mayor is the person that the people of Evanston voted for.”
https://evanstonnow.com/biss-commits-to-mayoral-succession-plan/
