The Tribune billed the Friday event as the union’s response to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s “last, best and final” offer on resuming some in-school instruction that turned out to be clickbait – a gathering of politicians spouting CTU talking points rather than an appearance from union bosses Jesse Sharkey and Stacey Davis Gates.

A mix of boredom and curiosity — “Who is state Rep. Lakesia Collins?” — inspired a quick search of campaign finance records while the aforementioned mix of aldermen and state legislators took part in the virtual news conference moderated by Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, who moonlights as a six-figure lobbyist for CTU.

As it turned out, the panel didn’t only share staunch support for the CTU’s cause.

Coincidentally, they also took the CTU’s money — taxpayer-funded union dues filtered through the union’s political action committee. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

I tallied up and tweeted the total contributions collected by the elected officials at the news conference — $348,126.01 — and begged the question: “Is this fight about safety or politics?” I threw in a hashtag for good measure: #FollowTheMoney

Some folks thought that by tweeting out public records about the campaign donations CTU made to public officials I was implying that the exchange of money between the union and politicians was some kind of unethical quid pro quo.

My old friend (and kick-ass education reporter) Sarah Karp of WBEZ. “Why don’t you ask these politicians if their opinions have been bought?”

Well, whether CTU “bought” politicians opinions wasn’t my point.

To me, the money trail — from taxpayers to teacher salaries to CTU coffers to political action committees to politicians spouting union talking points at a news conference — is a reminder that the looming threat of a teachers strike is about more than negotiations over how to safely offer parents the option to return students to classrooms.

This CTU vs. City Hall showdown is big money, bare-knuckles Chicago politics funded by taxpayers.

And the least Chicagoans can do is openly recognize that’s the game being played.

On Thursday, for instance, a group of elected officials sent Mayor Lightfoot a letter demanding that she side with CTU on outstanding issues related to the return to in-person learning.

Taken together, the lawmakers, aldermen and county commissioners who signed their names to that letter and those appeared Friday’s news conference have collected $795,796 from the CTU’s political action committee, according to campaign finance records. And that doesn’t include donations from other political action groups funded by CTU, including United Working Families, which counts the teachers union as it’s No. 1 donor and lists Davis Gates as its leadership “chair.”

Well, what’s so wrong about that? Twitter trolls with fake names asked.

Absolutely nothing, according to state campaign finance laws.

The CTU leaders — and Davis Gates, separately, with union funding — are legally allowed to spend money building political might to push their overarching, socialist political agenda.

MORE ON PATCH: CTU Shadow PAC Pushes Pritzker To ‘Intervene’ In CPS Stalemate

What I don’t understand is why would anyone get their underwear in a twist at pointing out that’s what CTU leaders are doing, even during negotiations over school openings.

While combing through CTU PAC contribution records — the $106,864.01 donated to state Sen. Robert Martwick and $133,000 in campaign cash for Johnson, both allies of CTU’s preferred pick for mayor, Cook County Democratic Party Boss Toni Preckwinkle, for instance — the band of elected officials on the Friday Zoom call publicly lobbied for things on the union’s agenda that have nothing to do with kids returning to school safety during the pandemic.

The politicians with CTU campaign cash in their political piggy banks pontificated about the importance of winning an elected school board, for instance. They attempted to pressure Gov. J.B. Pritzker for a quick signature on a house bill that’s only benefit would be to clear legal hurdles for a strike since the public school system officials are negotiating issues that current state law doesn’t require them to consider.

No matter what your opinion is on whether Chicago public schools should reopen to in-person learning, the money trail and CTU’s tactics for negotiating in public rather than at the bargaining table — with lobbying help of elected officials that have no vote on the workings of city schools — exposes the union for what it is: A voting bloc and budding political party trying to put its foot on the neck of a rookie mayor who doesn’t operate like a stereotypical Chicago boss.

See, Lightfoot’s campaign fund expenditures doesn’t show evidence of CTU-like political spending. You won’t spot blocks of cash transfers like those found in the political war chest of her predecessor. Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel rewarded loyal ward bosses with cash and wrote $50,000 checks to political action committees controlled by former House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Lightfoot has said all along that she won’t operate like the Democratic Party Machine mayors who came before her. And CTU leaders consider that Lightfoot’s weakness.

To me, traipsing out a gaggle of elected officials who count the teacher union PAC among their top 25 donors to push their agenda is a confession: CTU leaders are playing old-school power politics.

They’re dolling out money to politicians they’ve hired as lobbyists. Their vocal supporters are elected officials who can be counted on to sign their names to letters or appear at virtual news conferences in solidarity to give the appearance of widespread public support for their cause.

CTU bosses say their fighting for the safety of Chicago families.

Unlike the candidates they support, the union isn’t accountable to voters and taxpayers that fund their political operation.

Like corporations and billionaires, they’re an election-season funding source for the purpose of influencing government policy.

CTU leaders are neither engaged in an illegal quid pro quo nor a noble fight to save lives.

They spend money to gain power — the Chicago Way.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series, “Time: The Kalief Browder Story.” He was a producer, writer and narrator for the “Chicagoland” docu-series on CNN, and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary, “16 Shots.”
More from Mark Konkol:

• Lies, Damned Lies and Gov. Pritzker’s COVID-19 Vaccine Statistics
• CTU Shadow PAC Pushes Pritzker To ‘Intervene’ In CPS Stalemate
• IL Ranks No. 47 In Vaccine Percentage, Pritzker No. 1 In Excuses
• Chicago Teachers Union Strike Threat Just Another Power Play
• Former Top Cop Eddie Johnson’s Cop Out Has Ring of Untruth