Neal Runs For Mayor

In the last of our election post-mortem bonuses, we hear from a data scientist, a filmmaker, and Neal's mom about the work they did on the campaign and what surprised them about the experience.

Kina Collins is a Chicago activist who's focused much of her work on gun violence prevention and criminal justice reform. In this bonus episode, she reflects on young voters' disenchantment with the citywide election, the tumultuous events that led up to it, and the work that continues. 

Wailin sits down with former mayoral candidate and friend of Neal, Paul Vallas, to discuss his public support of Lori Lightfoot for the April 2 run-off and pull back the curtain on the endorsement process.

As Chicago awaits the mayoral run-off on April 2, Neal isn't wasting any time in getting to work. He drops by to share his plans for what he's working on next. Plus he invites two friends—fellow candidate Paul Vallas and activist Kina Collins—to the studio to reflect on Neal's campaign and his next chapter.

Show Notes

• "Paul Vallas Really Loves His Broom," a Chicago Magazine profile published in the run-up to the election (0:57)
• "Young Chicago Activists Have A Plan: Take Over City Hall," a WBEZ story featuring Kina Collins (0:58)
• Neal's faculty page at Northwestern (2:36)
• CodeNow (2:43)
• Mike McGee on Twitter (2:52)
• "Two Graphs Show Why the Chicago Area Is Losing Population" (4:05)
• Chicago Tribune article on low voter turnout (4:37)
• The Daily Line (8:18)
• Our episode on Neal's launch event (13:30)

On February 26, Neal hosted friends and family for a party to say thank you and to watch the election returns. There was charcuterie, laughter, a few tears, and a lot of love. Not too shabby for a candidate who was never expected to get on the ballot. The first election may be over (Chicago is headed to a run-off in April), but the work is just beginning.

Show Notes

• New York Times story on the election (00:39)
• The Chicago Board of Elections' unofficial summary report put Neal at 1,426 votes, or 0.27% (2:45)
• Neal and fellow candidate John Kozlar graduated from the same Chicago high school (3:00)
• Voter turnout was 34.11 percent, close to a record low of 33 percent in 2007 (5:46)
• Candidate Willie Wilson handed out checks on Valentine's Day, ostensibly to help Chicagoans pay their property taxes, definitely not anything to do with trying to win an election, nope (8:25)

We've arrived at the final week for Neal, the longshot candidate who was the 14th and final mayoral hopeful to make it onto the ballot for this pivotal Chicago election. Neal and campaign manager Claire Feinberg talk about the projects they're pushing forward on that aren't just integral to the campaign, but are also laying a foundation for the work he wants to carry on past the February 26 election.

Show Notes

• The Chicago Tonight forum on WTTW and the Fox 32 debate (0:52)
• Neal's Questions app (2:29)
• Neal's itemized receipt for the city budget (2:40)
• Neal's video introducing the Questions app (3:06)
• An example of Paul Vallas' answer to a question about pensions (3:20)
• An example of Lori Lightfoot's answer to a question about criminal justice (3:25)
• Neal's response on Twitter to a question about his views on debt (3:34)
• WBEZ interactive mayoral questionnaire (4:06)
• The Chicago Tribune's quiz on mayoral candidate alignment (4:48)
• "Slingshot," our previous episode featuring Claire Feinberg (8:38)
• The City of Chicago's 2013 announcement about the Tech Diversity Council (11:34)

Neal is getting ready to unveil another big project—a visual explainer for how the Chicago budget works and where that $22 billion ends up. He's also starting to make the rounds at mayoral candidate forums and media interviews, making public his idea to give Chicagoans a receipt for their taxes.

Show Notes

• Chicago reporter Sarah Karp tweeted updates from the mayoral forum at Kenwood Academy that Neal attended (00:30)
• Neal’s appearance on Fox32’s Good Day Chicago (00:40)
• The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability "Chicago's city budget 101" blog post (6:03)
• The Chicago Tribune's investigative reporting project on the city's municipal bond morass (7:51)
• Denver's tax receipt generator (10:09)

Campaign tech wizard and behind-the-scenes fixer Raghu Betina sits down to talk about an app he's building that started as an internal tool for the campaign but is being turned into a publicly available voters guide. It's one of several projects that the campaign is working to unveil in the final weeks before the election. Neal is battling a cold but stops by to give a preview of what else is to come.

Show Notes

• The Chicago Sun-Times' mayoral endorsement interviews (1:35)
• Neal explains the tech behind the digital affidavits in "The Sky Would Have To Open Up" (2:57)
• The story of Code Academy, the school Neal founded with his friend Mike McGee (4:13)
• Neal's website in Spanish (6:18)
• Our post-mortem of Neal's launch event (8:39)
• OurPlatform.com, the first version of the Questionnaires app (24:51)

The Chicago mayoral ballot has been set at 14 candidates, with Neal as the last name added. He now has just four weeks to get out the vote. Hear from Claire Feinberg, who's stepped up as campaign manager, about how the team is embracing constraints and working on its own timeline, rather than racing to play catch-up. Neal pops in at the end for a nerdy cameo!

Show Notes

• The New York Times story about the extreme cold that hit Chicago and the Midwest (0:19)
• Our previous episode about Neal getting on the ballot (0:30)
• Claire's mom, Wendy Littlefield, appeared on this episode about signature defense (1:01)
• WBEZ questionnaire for mayoral candidates (5:24)
• Neal's platform page (13:40)
• Our episode about Neal's botched launch event (13:56)
• Neal's explanation of his "receipt for your taxes" idea (14:59)
• Watchmen (20:40)

We're here at the end of all things: Neal's final hearing at the Board of Elections. And in a twist that no one on his team saw coming, he lands a spot on the ballot for Chicago mayor. Hear how it all went down that morning.

Show Notes

• Our previous episode, "A Motion at the Eleventh Hour" (0:35)
• The Chicago Tribune's write-up of Dorothy Brown getting ruled off the ballot and Neal getting on (1:53)
• The Chicago Board of Elections commissioners (2:40)