Dock Walls for Mayor of Chicago

First and foremost this is my first post here. I wanted to see if I can come up with something good and I think I found it. I want to thank Mr. Rich Miller for the invitation.

In any event I read an article from the Chicago Defender today with Dock Walls being the first announced contender for mayor this past Sunday.

I've heard about Dock Walls with in the last three or four years. He attempted to run for city clerk against Jim Laski but that fell through his petitions weren't in order. So he was a write in candidate but he still lost. In addition you'll hear a lot about him and the late great Harold Washington. This is what the Defender says about him...

Surrounded by hundreds of cheering supporters, William “Dock” Walls III, an attorney and protégé of the late Mayor Harold Washington, Sunday announced his
candidacy for mayor of Chicago.

Months before this announcement Mr. Walls talked about this Committee for a Better Chicago. He's been working with this group for the past three years. Only time will tell if he is able to mount a credible challenge against Mayor Daley. The only thing that I'd count as a strike against him is that no one really knows who he is. That of course can change.

Here's a little more on his stated platform in his article...

Walls said safety, education and jobs are key planks in his "One Chicago" campaign. He called for a police force that reflects the ethnic composition of the city, charged that Daley, Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan and school board president Michael Scott failed the citizens of the city with failing schools. He said Renaissance 2010, Daley’s plan for reformation of public education, “must be stopped in its tracks.”

Walls said he would end the privatization of city jobs by implementing a “hire Chicago first” program. “These are our tax dollars,” he said. “People from Iowa, Wisconsin and Indiana shouldn’t be able to come here and take these jobs. We need jobs like we need oxygen.”

Walls said he would also opt for less mechanization of some jobs, such as street cleaning, in order to provide work for people.

Cheers rose from the crowd when the candidate announced that he is in favor limiting public office holders to two four-year terms. “To the career politicians,” he said, “we can’t stand your weight on our backs.”

And finally I saw something that caught my attention about the challenge this campaign faces...

Ezra McCann, an outspoken captain in the Chicago Fire Department said the city needs a mayor who understands Black people are part of Chicago. But he and other supporters agree Walls has a steep hill to climb to attract a majority of Black voters, many of whom became disenchanted with other African American mayoral campaigns.

“The toughest challenge is to get people to believe that we can do it,” said co-campaign manager Bruce Crosby. “Daley has decimated other candidates. But it’s significant that (Walls) is the only person in Chicago, outside of Mayor Daley, who can say they were trained to be mayor of Chicago. Harold Washington told (Walls) that there’s no school for mayors while he was actually training him every day.”

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