With its field of 11 candidates, the Feb. 22 vote for alderman of the 46th Ward, home to one of the city's largest contingents of LGBT residents, was long anticipated to be a nail-biter.
Even so, when the race's frontrunners heading to the April 5 runoff vote—James Cappleman (seeking to become the city council's second openly gay member) and Molly Phelan—emerged from the preliminary race separated by only five votes, it was clear the battle to succeed outgoing Alderman Helen Shiller would provide plenty of excitement for political junkies right up until its very end.
Weeks before the runoff election, the Windy City Times met with Cappleman, 58, at his campaign office. The office was, expectedly, abuzz with staffers, friends, constituents and even Cappleman's former rival—Emily Stewart—on this particular Friday afternoon.
Stewart, one of two other openly gay contenders in the original race, received the third-highest number of votes last month and is one of the six former candidates who have endorsed Cappleman's runoff campaign to date. None have endorsed Phelan.
The support of his former competitors, Cappleman said, is just one of many reasons he is feeling optimistic as his campaign gears up for its final stretch in his second attempt to grab the aldermanic post. He narrowly lost his 2007 race against Shiller.
"We're following [our plan] like science and we've done everything we needed to do to run a very solid campaign," Cappleman said.
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