By Andrew Davis
At one time, Chris Lawrence and Chris Persons were 48th Ward aldermanic
candidates who, according to some, were making the race against incumbent Mary Ann Smith look interesting. Then, Smith ( legally ) challenged their petitions; undone by filing mistakes, Lawrence and Persons were disqualified from the race. [ A third foe, Rosita Spane, also had to drop out due to a filing error that was revealed via a Smith challenge. ]
Lawrence and Persons recently talked with Windy City Times ( in separate interviews ) and aired their thoughts about the filing process and the ward.
Windy City Times: What is going on right now?
Chris Lawrence: I filed my Statement of Economic Disclosure and my City Ethics Statements in a timely manner. When you file your Statement of Economic Disclosure, you get a receipt. The law states that you must file that receipt with the Board of Elections. I take responsibility; I had a very good lawyer who advised my campaign manager about steps we had to follow. I failed to file that receipt.
As soon as we got the objection and it was pointed out that I needed to file that receipt, I attempted to file it late with the board.
WCT: It's just odd that both you and Chris Persons...
CL: OK. The situation with Chris Persons is fundamentally different and it's unfortunate that we share the same name, because we're very different people. If I felt that Chris Persons could provide the leadership this community needed, I would've never gotten involved.
Mr. Persons never filed his economic disclosure with the Cook County Clerk's Office. He took his city ethics statement and put it with his petition and filed them with the Board of Elections.
My position is that I erred and I take responsibility for that. But I have nothing to hide; the statement was filed in a timely manner. The alderman was basically hiding behind a technicality and saying that they wanted to remove my name from the ballot. She had a chance to do the right thing and withdraw her objection, and she would not do it.
I could show that everything was filed in a timely manner. Even a fine [ would make sense ] .
The ironic thing is that I don't do a lot of business with anyone who does a lot of business with the city. I worked at SOLO Cup. My partner and I own a home on Bryn Mawr [ and no other property ] . I sold a mutual fund that I had some capital gains on, and don't know what the mutual fund was invested in. I don't have any investments with any private businesses that work with the city.
The board was sympathetic during the hearing, but [ ultimately ] felt that decent people like myself had to be removed from the ballot. I understand the board's position, but wished they had exercised more judgment. It is up to the legislature, though. However, my legislator Mary Ann Smith chose to do the easy wrong rather than the hard right.
WCT: Some may see what she did as morally wrong, but it's not legally wrong.
CL: No, it's not legally wrong. I understand her position: This is politics, and she sees it as a game.
In the past four years, I've been deployed to Iraq and I've come back and worked on public-safety issues. I actually supported Mary Ann Smith as I was going to Iraq; I voted for her. I came back, and I felt that she wasn't engaged with the community and that she hides behind this community process that isn't accountable to the people it's supposed to serve.
I'm not saying that she's morally bankrupt because she deployed these tactics. From the LGBT standpoint, she's been a real advocate and as an openly gay man, I appreciate that history.
WCT: So if she's not morally bankrupt in your opinion, then...
CL: I think she tolerates the petty corruption that's pervasive throughout the state of Illinois. We have an obligation to stand up and insist on better representation. You can let two convicted felons on the ballot, but not a decorated veteran? The logic in this is just absurd.
With this, you're disenfranchising those who signed my petitions and you disenfranchise voters in the 48th Ward who do not have the opportunity to have a choice. This government belongs to us, not a few individuals born into the right family or those selected by king-makers ( such as Mayor Daley ) .
WCT: Here's a hypothetical: Suppose Mayor Daley wanted to appoint you. Would you still feel this way?
CL: I would. I didn't challenge anyone's petitions. I don't have the time or the energy.
I think Mr. Persons and Mrs. Smith have enough support to [ warrant ] being on the ballot. Would I waste time trying to knock them off on technicalities? It is a waste of time. There are real issues: property taxes, a CTA system that's falling apart [ and ] a public-safety system that they give lip service to. I don't think people know how their tax dollars are being spent.
WCT: What do you feel are some of Smith's biggest mistakes?
CL: For the past three years, she hasn't been engaging this community. And, clearly, what happened at Senn upset a lot of people. It wasn't the decision as much as the way that she conducted it. She said, 'The community sided on this.' The community was never asked, and they never had a say. The LSC ( local school council voted unanimously against the introduction of Rickover Naval Academy, and they [ put it in ] anyway. Who are these people who claim they represent the community?
Windy City Times: So you're out, correct?
Chris Persons: We're not on the ballot. All three of us [ challengers ] made similar mistakes in our filing. We could file suit to overturn the ruling, but the likelihood of [ the ruling being changed ] is small. My campaign and I have decided not to pursue anything in the courts.
WCT: Alderman Smith said that the whole process is a lot simpler than it used to be. CP: If she hadn't challenged, we all would've been left on the ballot.
It's actually pretty complicated to file a challenge.
I take full responsibility, Andrew. I screwed up; it was a mistake. The problem is that, although it may be easier than it was before, it's still a very confusing process. At issue is this Statement of Economic Interest; I think it's perfectly legitimate to ask if they have any economic stake in the city. It makes sense.
What doesn't make sense that a small mistake could just eradicate our electoral franchise. The big loser in this is the community; now, they don't have anyone to vote for. Chris Lawrence and I were running against Mary Ann Smith because she's made some big mistakes in her 17 years in office. Now, because of a very small mistake, those challenges will go unheard and there's no democratic process.
It's all about 'ballot access,' a term you hear a lot when you go through this process. We ought to be in a democratic society encouraging ballot access, so a guy like Chris Lawrence who's a decorated war hero should [ be able to run ] . No one should be able to commit fraud and I'm not saying he did but to be knocked off because he didn't file a receipt in the right place...
I think we need to take a close look at the system. It's not about getting me on the ballot before Feb. 27 ( and I don't plan on running any time in the future ) , but I want to live in a democracy where I [ can choose ] between five or six candidates, not have zero choice. Democracy in the city of Chicago is set up to limit choice and retain the people who have been in power.
WCT: Did you have an election attorney?
CP: Yes. We became confused by the statement of economic interest and the city ethics statement. We were told that the consequences were small if you didn't turn the [ ethic statement ] in on time.
We submitted the Chicago document to the Chicago Board of Elections; clearly, it was an error. We filed our 1,551 signatures the first day we could file. The clerk of the Chicago Board of Elections took the erroneous document and checked the box that for the Statement of Economic Interest, so we thought we had filed things correctly. We didn't find out that we had filed things incorrectly until a week later. It's like this game of 'Gotcha!,' and you're not told that you didn't do things right until it's too late.
I'll move on with my life, but the community loses its opportunity for a democratic process because of the challenge of one person. All of our [ supporters ] wanted us on the ballot; one person was able to take us off.
WCT: What do feel that Smith is or isn't doing?
CP: The fact that she put the naval academy in Senn High School without opening it to the community [ was big ] . Then, when the community voted overwhelmingly for the community process on the removal of the academy, she simply didn't order it. It's an advisory referendum; she's not legally bound to abide by that. However, if she's going to ignore the will of the people and the referendum, then she has to stop claiming that this is the most democratic ward in the city.
Also, last summer there was a huge uproar over a high-rise that was to go up at Catalpa and Sheridan. Some people wanted it because of the parking-lot deal; others didn't want it. In the middle of this, Mary Ann Smith accepted a $1,500 donation from Blue Water Group, who's developing the project yet there's supposed to be a community process working here. Those are the kinds of process mistakes that are made in this community all the time.
