Chicago’s 4th Ward Alderman Race: Candidate Profiles
Chicago’s 4th Ward is currently holding a special election to decide who will serve as alderman until May 2019. You can read more about the election and how to vote here. It’s a pretty important race and even Obama has gotten involved.
We put together some key facts about each of the five candidates running– their education, their job experience– and included some quotes of what they said at the candidate forum on February 21st. Check it out below!
Candidate Name: Sophia King
Current job: Incumbent 4th Ward Alderman
Education: Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Illinois
Master’s degree in Education and Social policy from Northwestern University
Key quotes from candidate forum:
“Over the last ten months, after going to a series of town halls meetings and other community meetings, it has become clear what our role should be. You are concerned about safety in the community first and foremost. And to that end, I think we need to take a comprehensive approach.”
“Nothing stops a bullet like a job. We need to make sure that our communities are vibrant and that our families have working and livable wages, that they can take care of their communities.”
Candidate Name: Gregory Seal Livingston
Current job: President of Coalition For a New Chicago
Education: Master’s degree in Divinity from North Park Theological Seminary
Key quotes from candidate forum:
“We got to Thanksgiving Eve, 2015. Mayor Rahm Emanuel releases the Laquan McDonald tape. All of a sudden, the city sees that. They see Laquan McDonald prostrated on the ground and the officer shooting 13 more bullets into his body… Thanksgiving and Black Friday will never be the same. Chicago had another great fire.”
“I got involved. I was out there. All these young people that you guys see on the news, I know them, I’ve mentored them, I’ve told them to take your frustration and your anger and to turn it into policy and program.”
Candidate Name: Ebony Lucas
Current job: Attorney at Property Law Group
Education: Bachelor’s degree in Education from the University of Michigan
Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management from Case Western University
JD from the University of Michigan Law School
Key quotes from candidate forum:
“As a parent and community member, I have been frustrated by the under-resourced schools, violence, and lack of commercial development throughout the 4th Ward. We cannot keep doing the same things and expecting different results. It is time for change.”
“I am the alderman that will ensure that the residents of the 4th Ward receive the services that your tax dollars are paying for.”
Candidate Name: Gerald Scott McCarthy
Current/most recent job: Attorney at the Law Office of Gerald S. McCarthy
Education: attended Roosevelt University and Northwestern University
JD from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Certified Public Accountant
Key quotes from candidate forum:
”Now people talk to me all the time when I say energy efficient living…this weather is nice, but that’s an indication something’s wrong. If we don’t start taking better care of our planet, we only got one planet.”
”What I am is alderman on the offense. There’s this old adage, that if you give a person a fish, they’ll eat for a day. If you teach a person to fish, they’ll eat for a lifetime. It’s our job to teach this community to fish…we teach them to be employers, not employees, to demand level-one schools in all places, to demand attention to the corridors on 43rd and 47th street.”
Candidate Name: Marcellus Moore
Current/most recent job: Attorney at Alliance Law Group
Education: BA in Business Administration from Morehouse College
JD from Northwestern University School of Law
MBA from J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management
Key quotes from candidate forum:
“I’m running for alderman not because of relationships I have, not because of business I own in this ward, but because I was born in this community, I came back to this community, raised my children in this community, and I have been actively working in this community specifically for the last eleven years.”
”Some of you here know me, I’ve been involved with Hyde Park Little League Legends for the last eleven years. In that capacity, I first came in, they needed coaches, so I stepped up to coach. They needed board members, I stepped up to join the board. When they needed a director of operations, I stepped up and have been serving as director of operations for the last 9 years.”
BallotReady is the only nonpartisan online voter guide that provides personalized, easy-to-use, and accessible information about your ballot. From the top of the ticket to the very bottom, BallotReady helps voters compare candidates based on stances on issues, biography, and endorsements. We make it easy to vote informed on every race and referendum. See every race and referendum on your Ballot here!
By Eileen Li, BallotReady Blog Intern
