Neal Runs For Mayor

Go inside the Board of Elections hearing room on Thursday, January 17 as Neal makes his case (again) to get on the ballot. Come for the emotional roller coaster, stay for the Dragon Ball Z references!

Show Notes

• Our previous episode, "The Sky Would Have To Open Up" (00:30)
• Chicago Tribune article "Willie Wilson ends fight to keep Dorothy Brown's name off mayoral ballot" (1:07)
• Rickey Hendon last turned up in the episode "A Cesspool for Human Error" (6:00)
• Campaign lawyer Ed Mullen (11:42)
• Dragon Ball Z (12:30)

Today—Thursday, January 17—is the day of Neal's final hearing at the board of elections to determine whether he'll get on the ballot. When we last left off, he was about 2,400 signatures short and waiting to hear an official ruling from a handwriting expert on how many disputed signatures would be converted to his favor. Listen to this episode to find out that result and hear about the unprecedented digital effort Neal undertook in his last-ditch effort to overcome Willie Wilson's petition challenge.

Neal and his team spent long days at the board of elections, defending their 18,000 signatures from a ballot challenge mounted by candidate Willie Wilson. Now the future of Neal's candidacy depends on a ruling from a handwriting expert and whether Neal can track down—in person—a few hundred to a couple thousand Chicagoans who signed his petitions. And if that's not enough stress, Neal and Wailin get into a friendly argument about transparency and why he didn't release his tax returns to the Chicago Tribune.

Show Notes

• Listen to "Neal Files For Mayor," the episode where Neal turns in his signatures (0:34)
• Listen to "A Cesspool for Human Error," the episode about the first stage in the petition defense process (0:41)
• The Chicago Tribune's 12/13/18 article "Financial Secrecy: 10 of 16 top Chicago mayoral candidates refuse to release full tax returns" (12:34)
• Neal's Questionnaires app (15:18)

Neal filed over 18,000 signatures to get on the ballot, but they were challenged by mayoral candidate Willie Wilson. Now Neal and a team of volunteers have to defend each challenged signature before the board of elections, a time-consuming and difficult process. Hear from Neal and two of his volunteers, including a Chicago high school student, on what it's like to analyze handwriting and stay on the good side of records examiners.

Show Notes

• Our previous episode, "Neal Files For Mayor," covered what it was like to turn in the petition sheets (0:41)
• Willie Wilson had talked previously about his plans to challenge fellow black mayoral candidates' petitions, and in November had called for them to "get out of the way" (0:47)
• Rickey Hendon's Wikipedia page (0:55)
• Rickey Hendon's Facebook Live video (1:03)

Neal has filed his signatures to be an official candidate for Chicago mayor in 2019. Now it's time to tackle petition challenges from other candidates trying to keep him off the ballot.

Show Notes

• To learn more about signature collection, listen to our episode about the process (1:19)
• Neal's "Leaders of the Future" hoodie had this design from local brand Leaders 1354 (4:40)
• Sam Letscher on Twitter (4:51)
• Neal talked about Chance the Rapper and Kanye West's support for Amara Enyia in a previous episode (8:10)
• A 2014 news story about Enyia withdrawing from the mayoral race (8:16)
• Steve James is probably best known for the documentary Hoop Dreams (8:44)
• Troy Laraviere dropped out of the mayoral race in mid November (13:44)
• Willie Wilson's Wikipedia page (14:15)
• Candidate Ja'Mal Green held a press conference to decry the petition process and Willie Wilson's challenges (19:45)

Happy Thanksgiving! Today we have a short conversation between Neal and Wailin that didn't fit into our previous episodes. They discuss how progressive candidate Amara Enyia scored high-profile endorsements from Chance the Rapper and Kanye West, whose teams had also contacted Neal.

Show Notes

• "Chance the Rapper brings his star power to a long-shot campaign, backing Amara Enyia for Chicago mayor" (Chicago Tribune) (0:27)
• "Kanye cash follows Chance praise, boosting Amara Enyia mayoral bid" (Chicago Sun-Times) (0:40)
• "No plans to have Kanye West teach, says School of the Art Institute of Chicago" (Chicago Tribune) (5:56)
• Neal's Facebook page (9:18)

Neal takes a short pause from signature collection to discuss what he noticed around voter turnout and engagement on midterm election day. He also shares a significant change in strategy around incentivizing volunteers as the process to get on the mayoral ballot reaches its critical final weeks.

Show Notes

• Our last episode, "Signature Moves" (0:14)
• Roxane Gay's op-ed in the New York Times, "You're Disillusioned. That's Fine. Vote Anyway." (5:34)
• The unofficial turnout in Chicago for the midterms was 55.6%, potentially the highest rate since 1986 (7:00)
• Neal's "Donate" page (14:30)
• Fundraiser scene from The Dark Knight (30:21)
• Beto O’Rourke broke the quarterly fundraising record for a U.S. Senate candidate (28:43)

Every candidate for Chicago mayor needs 12,500 valid signatures to get onto the ballot. That’s already a huge undertaking before you even get to the potential legal challenges, ballot order lottery, and other shenanigans that are part of this process. In this episode, we dive into the messy details of what it takes to even get on the ballot in Chicago and how Neal is taking on the challenge.

Show Notes

• Sam Letscher on Twitter (2:12)
• Bossy Chicago (2:40)
• 478,204 people voted in the February 2015 mayoral election (4:32)
• Neal’s MAYOR merchandise (7:36)
• JB Pritzker is the Democratic candidate for Illinois governor (12:58)
• BallotReady (13:23)

This is the story of how Neal decided to run for mayor of Chicago, with cameos from a famous computer scientist, Neal’s parents, and others who encouraged him to seek the city’s highest public office.

Show Notes

• CrossRoads conference (1:17)
• Alan Kay's biography (1:24)
• Basecamp, formerly 37signals (2:00)
• Jason Fried, co-founder and CEO of Basecamp (2:08)
• Basecamp invested in Starter League in 2012 (3:05)
• Neal and his Starter League co-founder Mike McGee sold Starter League to Fullstack Academy in 2016 (3:09)
• Michael Slaby's website (4:20)
• JB Pritzker's website (4:52)
• Nick Kokonas, CEO of Tock (7:53)
• Morgan Malone, program manager, Englewood Quality of Life Plan (9:53)
• Local activist Ja'Mal Green said he decided to run for mayor after failing to persuade Ken Bennett to do so (12:04)
• A wonderful This American Life episode about late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington (15:25)

Neal sits down with Shaun to share his reaction to the October 5 guilty verdict in the Jason Van Dyke case. The Chicago police officer was convicted of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery in the 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald. It marked the first time in almost five decades that a city police officer was convicted of murder in an on-duty shooting. Neal talks about the impact that the McDonald case had on its decision to run for office and looks ahead to the work that still needs to be done in public safety and police accountability.

Show Notes

• The Chicago Tribune’s timeline of the murder of Laquan McDonald through the October 5, 2018 verdict in Jason Van Dyke’s trial 
• Van Dyke was found guilty of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery, one for each shot. This Chicago Sun-Times story has interviews with the jurors about their decision-making process. (1:18)
• The release of the video in November 2015 revealed that the shooting happened much differently than the narrative that police initially provided to local media. (2:23)
• Chicago paid $5 million to the McDonald family in April 2015. (3:05)
• Several Chicago police officers are facing a separate trial over accusations that they lied in their reports about what happened during the shooting. (6:01)
• Garry McCarthy, who was fired as Chicago police superintendent after the release of the video, is running for mayor. (6:39)
• Neal’s platform on public safety (10:02)
• Chicago police union contracts have come under intense scrutiny, particularly officers’ right to amend past statements to investigators. (12:30)
• 181,000 black Chicagoans left the city between 2000 and 2010. (15:42)