Stacy Davis Gates’ scheming to oust Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez has marked another step in the power portfolio she has built since engineering Brandon Johnson’s election as mayor.

Exercising her unrivaled influence over Johnson, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union began setting her sights on Martinez weeks ago — evidently in hopes of controlling both sides of the table in contract talks.

This has all come at a delicate time for CPS. The system needed to close a nearly $505 million deficit to pass a $9.9 billion budget this summer. And it did so only by ignoring a pending $175 million pension payment that Johnson is refusing to pay, as well as the price of a new teachers contract that is expected to add tens of millions in new costs.

There is no precedent in recent memory for Davis Gates’ relentless, increasingly public attacks on Martinez in recent weeks. The campaign evidently achieved a Davis Gates objective last week when Johnson, her political protege, demanded Martinez’s resignation — a request the schools CEO bravely ignored.

Read more at chicagotribune.com.

David Greising is the president and chief executive of the Better Government Association, joining the BGA in 2018. For nearly a century, the BGA has fought for honest and effective government through investigative journalism and policy advocacy.