Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown was removed from the ballot in the race for Chicago mayor on Tuesday, narrowing the field to the final 14 candidates. Mary Ann Ahern reports.
Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown was removed from the ballot in the race for Chicago mayor on Tuesday, narrowing the field to the final 14 candidates.
The Chicago Board of Elections ruled in a hearing Tuesday morning that Brown will not be allowed to appear on the ballot for the February election.
She was struck from the ballot based on an objection filed against her nominating petitions by associates of her opponent Toni Preckwinkle.
Candidates must submit at least 12,500 signatures of registered voters in order to appear on the ballot.
Willie Wilson had also challenged Brown's signatures, but had previously dropped that challenge.
The Board of Elections also dismissed Wilson's challenge to Neal Sales-Griffin's signatures, ruling that Sales-Griffin could remain on the ballot.
In total, Wilson's campaign challenged five other candidates' petitions: Brown, Sales-Griffin, state Rep. La Shawn Ford, Ja'Mal Green and Roger Washington. All five are African-American, like Wilson, and male, with the exception of Brown.
Ford and Sales-Griffin remained on the ballot, while Washington was kicked off the ballot and Green withdrew and filed to run as a write-in candidate.
For her part, Preckwinkle, the current Cook County Board president, challenged the petitions of five other candidates who are all women of color. Her campaign was successful in knocking Brown, Catherine Brown D'Tycoon and Conrien Hykes Clark off the ballot, while her challenges to Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza and Lori Lightfoot were overruled.
The challenges to Brown and Sales-Griffin's petitions were the final two outstanding in the race, meaning the ballot will have 14 candidates, down from the initial 21 who filed to run.
They include, in order of their appearance on the ballot: Jerry Joyce, Paul Vallas, Willie Wilson, Toni Preckwinkle, William Daley, Garry McCarthy, Gery Chico, Susana Mendoza, Amara Enyia, La Shawn Ford, Neal Sales-Griffin, Lori Lightfoot, Bob Fioretti and John Kozlar.
