Ald. Daniel La Spata Wins Second Term
For Immediate ReleaseContact:
Chris Ridgeway
Campaign Communications Director
chris@chrisridgeway.net
LOGAN SQUARE, CHICAGO—Official results released Wednesday afternoon have confirmed that Alderman Daniel La Spata has won a second term to represent Chicago’s 1st Ward in City Council.
“I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve the 1st ward for four more years and profoundly humbled by the sacrifices so many made to get me here,” said Daniel.
The result was not close—La Spata won with 50.11% of the vote, over double the votes of any of the three challengers.
But the race was not immediately called because of the chance of a runoff election being triggered: Chicago law requires 50%+1 of the vote. On election night Feb 28th, with 25 of 26 precincts reporting, Daniel had 49.11% of the vote.
Securing an outright win came down to mail-in ballots, which were requested at unprecedented numbers in the first Chicago municipal election after a pandemic. 4,420 mail-in ballots were unreturned in the 1st Ward as of election night.
The Chicago Board of Elections received and processed mail-in ballots from February 29 to March 13, delivering nightly updates to the closely watched race, which Daniel dubbed a “mail biter.”
On Mar 6, 2023 supporters celebrated when the daily vote count put La Spata over the 50% mark, but the La Spata campaign waited to declare victory while additional votes were potentially eligible.
“Feeling encouraged by the ward’s support but saving ‘confident’ till the last vote is counted,” said Daniel.
Only 25 additional provisional ballots were counted, and there were no write-in candidates in the 1st Ward.
March 14 was the final day by law for the Chicago Board of Elections to receive and count ballots. They made official results available on Wednesday, Mar 15, 2023:
Results from Chicago Board of Elections dated Tuesday, March 14, 2023 4:24 PM
The 1st Ward race had some tense moments, with challengers flooding resident mailboxes with negative attacks on the first term Alderman. La Spata’s was the only campaign who refrained from negative charges, choosing to keep messaging positive.
“Most of the attacks led with fear and were misleading or provably false,” said Chris Ridgeway, campaign communications director, “but we didn’t believe it served the ward residents to get into a fight, which can lower community trust in government across the board. Daniel asked us to stay above it. In the end we trusted 1st Ward residents to see through the noise.”
The most shocking moment of the campaign was overnight February 3th, when two vandals dressed in all black attacked La Spata’s campaign offices, shattering windows. Police responded to 911 calls, but were unable to locate the suspects. Nothing was stolen, seemingly ruling out robbery. Campaign windows remain boarded up, serving as a reminder to weeks of campaign volunteers that a certain generation of Chicago politics has a history of hate.
“It didn’t stop us for a minute,” said Josh Kaufman campaign manager.
Over 248 volunteers were involved in the campaign, who championed Daniel’s record on housing affordability, participation and ethical transparency in government, violence intervention programs for public safety, and strong endorsements from transportation and environmental action groups.
