Let the Chicago Election Season Begin

Caption: Matt O’Shea announced his intentions to seek a second term as 19th Ward alderman on his Facebook page. O’Shea and supporters will start circulating nominating petitions on Aug. 26.

Like the sighting of the first spring robin, candidates for Chicago mayor, clerk, treasurer and aldermanic offices will begin soliciting signatures for nominating petitions to be placed on the Feb. 24, 2015 ballot starting this Tuesday.

Among them is Ald. Matt O’Shea running for his second term as 19th Ward alderman on the Chicago City Council. O’Shea announced that he will begin circulating nominating petitions for his re-election campaign on his Facebook page.

“This Tuesday, August 26th I will begin circulating nominating petitions for my re-election campaign. With your help, I promise to continue working hard each day to improve the very special place that we call home. As I begin this effort, I humbly request your support. Currently, we are looking for volunteers to circulate a petition on their block and help organize an upcoming golf outing.”

Chicago mayoral candidates must obtain a minimum of 12,500 signatures to get their names placed on the February ballot; for aldermanic candidates the minimum number of required signatures is 473, per the Chicago Board of Elections.

Should candidates fail to get more than 50 percent of the vote (e.g., “50 + 1”) runoff races will take place April 7, 2015.

The general rule is to acquire more signatures than the minimum number needed in case nominating petitions are challenged by an opposing candidate or candidate’s pal. Candidates have been denied ballot access for having too few signatures, signers who were not registered to vote, invalid addresses, filed a minute or two past the filing deadline, failure to number nominating sheets consecutively, etc., Oak Park election attorney Richard Means writes in “Nominating Petition Traps.”

Also, registered voters cannot sign multiple nominating petitions of candidates running for the same office.

The final day to for candidates to file nominating petitions for Chicago’s municipal election is Nov. 24.

At least one “undeclared” mayoral candidate happened to cruise through Beverly last week as part of a “listening tour.” Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis packed the Beverly Woods Banquet Hall at 115th Street and Western Avenue with over 400 fans, recounted Ben Joravsky for the Chicago Reader.

Billed as “A Conversation With Karen Lewis,” former Chicago TV news anchor Walter Jacobson “peppered” Lewis with questions, showing that he “still had the jab,” Joravsky reported.

Asked by Jacobson when she planned to announce her candidacy, Lewis replied, “I’ll announce when I’m ready to announce, and not a moment too soon.”

Meanwhile, 63 different candidates have declared early candidacy in 30 Chicago wards, many of whom wear the mantle of “progressives,” NBC Chicago’s Ward Room blog reports.

“Call it Anti-Rahm Fever or the beginnings of a true progressive movement in City Council. Either way, it appears more progressive aldermanic challengers are announcing their candidacy earlier in the 2015 political cycle and in more wards across the city than ever before,” NBC’s Mark W. Anderson writes.

A Facebook group that calls itself “Chicago Progressive Candidate 2015” seems to have thrown themselves behind community activist and perennial mayoral candidate William “Dock” Walls, who announced his run for Chicago mayor on Sunday.

Members of “Chicago Progressive Candidate 2015” describe themselves as a “Group of Concerned People that have had Enough of the Do Nothing City Government & to Run for Office!”

Fasten your seatbelts because Chicago might have itself a real election.