Jan. 05--Chicago mayoral challenger Willie Wilson on Monday tried to jump-start his campaign by lending $1 million to his bid, less than two weeks after Mayor Rahm Emanuel dropped a challenge to Wilson's nominating petitions.
With the news media in tow, Wilson deposited the money at a downtown bank where his campaign fund has an account, then took reporters' questions. The money, he said, will be used to pay for campaign ads starting Tuesday on network and cable TV stations as well as urban radio stations.
"We are here to prove that we are serious about this election," said Wilson, 66, who made millions in the medical supply, fast-food restaurant and TV production businesses. "It is time for this mayor to go. I would say he's got less than 50 days in office. He has totally disrespected our community and all the citizens of Chicago. We need to do something about it."
The ads will focus on Wilson's idea to reopen some of the 50 or so neighborhood public schools closed by Emanuel's Chicago Board of Education as well as Wilson's suggestion to get rid of red light cameras, said the Rev. Gregory Seal Livingston, who is Wilson's campaign manager.
"We're going to deal with the closing of these schools, let the community decide how many they want to open back up," Wilson said. "We want to make sure that's taken care of. We want to see all the red light cameras out of Chicago."
Last month, Emanuel backed a challenge to Wilson's nominating petitions to try to knock him off the ballot, but the challenge was dropped Dec. 24. Wilson said his campaign was preoccupied, both in terms of focus and money, on defending the challenge but would now start his run for mayor in earnest.
During a wide-ranging news conference, Wilson sounded some of his early campaign themes and showed his affinity for the short quip.
The challenger said he would get 75 percent of police officers out of their squads and onto the sidewalks, "L" trains and buses to make citizens feel safer and save money on cars and gas. "If a citizen can walk, (get) on the bus, in the cold out there, and the citizen's paying the police officers, they should be cold too," Wilson said.
Wilson also said he would fire police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, the top cop under Emanuel. "This superintendent of police has to go, but the mayor has to go first," he said.
He favors a limit on politicians to two terms in office. "You're in there a couple times, get rid of ya," he said.
"The reason I haven't asked anyone to support me personally is because I don't know how much anyone is indebted to this mayor, and I don't want to mess up anyone's livelihoods -- you know," he added.
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