On the last day for 2027 candidates to turn in their nominating petitions, mayoral hopefuls lugged in their stacks of signatures Monday with some personal flair.
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Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza brought with her a red cooler of chicken and pork tamales and a spork. Cardiologist Dr. Lisa Nee and her team strolled in wearing physician white coats.
They were the two contenders to show up early Monday morning, entering them into a lottery for the last spot on the February ballot, which experts and superstition say affords a modest boost.
Others who indicated they will drop their signatures before the end of business Monday were attorney William Quinlan, Cook County treasurer Maria Pappas, Cook County Board of Review Commissioner George Cardenas and businessman Joe Holberg.
Should they all follow through, that would leave the Chicago mayoral race at 12 candidates, after Mayor Brandon Johnson turned his sheets in Friday, forfeiting entry into the last-slot lottery, and other challengers went a week ago.
Mendoza, for her part, said she brought in over 26,000 signatures, putting her at the bottom of the pack so far. But she stressed it was quality, not quantity that matters.
“I always want to do things at the lowest cost and the maximum impact,” she told reporters inside the Loop Super Site. “That’s how I’m going to run this city.”
Candidates need a minimum of 12,500 valid signatures to get on the ballot, but most gather more than twice that to guard against petition challenges knocking them below the threshold. Mendoza on Monday would not say whether she would go after opponents’ nominating sheets, only answering, “Who knows? We’ll see.”
Coming before her with taller stacks of signatures were Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias at about 60,000, followed by U.S. Rep Mike Quigley with 42,000 signatures, lobbyist John Kelly at 36,000. Then Johnson at 33,000, Chicago Housing Authority Commissioner Matt Brewer at 32,000 and business Willie Wilson at 30,000.
Mendoza sought to wave away those concerns with her spork that she says is a contrast to candidates who are “bought and paid for.”
“The majority of the people in this city weren’t born with a silver spoon in their mouth; they were sporkers too,” she said. “Think of me like a human spork. I’m going to get to work, and I’m going to multitask.”
She displayed a moment of sentimentality when she dropped off her sheets, sighing, “It feels weird to not have my clipboard with me.” Then she continued offering her red cooler of tamales, asking election workers, Nee’s team and TV camera crews, “Chicken or pork?”
Nee said she turned in 31,000 signatures, a feat she said was difficult and made her believe the nominating petition process was outdated and “probably killed half of our Amazonian rainforest.” But it also informed her of what everyday Chicagoans want to see in City Hall, she said.
“It told us early on that people want something different,” Nee said. “They want less of a machine politick. They want less money in politics, and they want people that are really going to speak for them.”
The objection filing deadline is on Nov. 2.
Chicago mayoral election 2027: Who are the candidates so far?
Also on the ballot next year are all 50 aldermanic seats and the city clerk and treasurer. If no one wins the majority of votes during the Feb. 23 election, a runoff between the top two vote-getters will be held April 6.