After Brandon Johnson elected mayor, some wonder if the CTU is Chicago's new political machine

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The Chicago Teachers Union has gained power pushing an agenda that focuses on social justice issues outside the classroom. It's a union that became a movement under the leadership of the late Karen Lewis, for the past decade.

"She said they didn't listen when we had a hunger strike, they didn't listen when we barricaded ourselves in schools," CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said. "They did not listen, but Chicago tonight."

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On Election Night, Chicago chose one of CTU's own: Brandon Johnson, a former Chicago Public Schools teacher and paid CTU organizer. It was the culmination of a movement to elect people who will champion the union's cause.

"This is an unusual thing in modern American cities that a labor union elects one of its own to run a major city," Democratic strategist Tom Bowen said.

The CTU funded and provided the ground troops for Johnson's campaign. As Davis Gates introduced the mayor-elect on Tuesday night, both spoke about the end of old style machine politics in Chicago. But, some would say the teachers union is the new machine.

"A machine by a different name by a different sense, a potent one," Bowen said.

During his first term, Johnson will have the opportunity to pick the first 12 people on the new elected CPS school board. He will also be faced with negotiating a new teachers contract next year. Davis Gates looks forward to labor peace compared with the last two mayors.

"I look forward to the mayor of the city of Chicago understanding preparation time for elementary school teachers and we don't have to define it and don't have to run a public relations campaign with that," Davis Gates said.

Johnson insists he is not beholden to CTU, but he believes people voted for him because of the social and justice issues the union supports.

"I'm uniting the city around a set of values that the people of Chicago obviously want," Johnson said.

Just how much influence the teachers union will have at City Hall remains to be seen. Political experts say mayors do change once they take office and govern.