Comptroller Susana Mendoza announced in July 2025 that she would not be seeking reelection for her current post, a classy move that has garnered her well-deserved praise — including from this board — in an election season in which others have decided to hedge their bets and run for multiple offices.

Running to replace her are Democratic state Rep. Margaret Croke of Chicago, 34, Republican Bryan Drew, 51, of Benton and Green Party write-in candidate Anna Schiefelbein. The last Republican to hold this office was Leslie Munger, a Bruce Rauner appointee. Mendoza beat Munger in a special election in 2016.

Drew is an attorney and a small business owner, as well as a trustee of the Rend Lake Community College Board. He ran for a Circuit Court judgeship in the 2024 Republican primary and finished second. He’s positioned himself (and the role of the office for which he is running) as a watchdog, and it’s true that the comptroller does have a full view of the state’s fiscal situation. Croke has raised significant funds — about $2.6 million — while Drew’s much more modest fundraising has not made it easy for him to compete with his Democratic opponent. Schiefelbein, who has run unsuccessfully for other offices, including Illinois House, has not mounted much of a campaign.

Croke, whom we endorsed in the Democratic primary, is a moderate Democrat. Her primary race was notable in large part because it pitted Gov. JB Pritzker, who backed Croke, against the Chicago Teachers Union’s muscle, which was deployed in favor of state Sen. Karina Villa, D-West Chicago. While Villa would have turned the job of comptroller into an activist position, Croke instead advocated for sound administration and transparency in the state’s finances, which struck a chord with us. Her tenure in the General Assembly also indicated to us she could be trusted to be independent, as evidenced when she fought to protect selective enrollment schools in 2024 from threats emanating from Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Drew questions Croke’s independence, given her reliance on the finances and political clout of her former boss, Pritzker. That’s a fair critique — we certainly said as much of Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton in her Pritzker-bankrolled bid for U.S. Senate — except that the comptroller is responsible primarily for managing the state’s checkbook. There’s a certain amount of politics that goes into any state office, and Munger certainly made headlines during the budget impasse under Rauner by pushing to stop elected officials’ pay until the passage of a balanced budget. Outliers aside, though, the function of this office is about as straightforward a job as they come in Illinois government. Or at least it should be.

Drew has also argued on the campaign trail that Croke won’t hold politicians accountable because she wants to keep climbing the political ladder. It’s more than fair to point out that the comptroller is often seen as a political steppingstone. (Just look at Mendoza.) But it’s not the comptroller’s job to hold politicians accountable beyond her fiscal management duties. Most importantly, Croke has proved competent in every role she’s tackled, and we believe she would provide a steady hand as comptroller.

Margaret Croke is endorsed.

Read all of the Tribune Editorial Board’s endorsements for the 2026 Illinois general election here.

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