Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
“I don’t expect Daley to stay on the ballot,” boasted mayoral candidate William “Dock” Walls to the Sun-Times in December, after filing the first challenge to the mayor’s nominating petitions since 1989. Walls claimed that his supporters had found problems with up to 19,000 of Daley’s signatures, leaving him with fewer than the 12,500 required to stay on the ballot. Last week election officials decided to examine a sampling of about 1,200 signatures. The hearing is tomorrow.
In 1987, when Walls ran for city clerk, he was trounced in the primary by Gloria Chevere (a deputy commissioner under Washington, now a subcircuit court judge deemed unqualified by all Illinois’ bar associations). In 2003 he tried to run again, but incumbent James Laski (currently in prison on corruption charges) successfully challenged his nominating petitions and he was stricken from the ballot. Now Walls is taking a trick from the pros.
