In the 2023 municipal elections, three candidates will be elected to councils in each of the city’s 22 police districts. Along with the citywide Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA), the councils are the result of decades of work by organizers for community oversight of the police.
District Councils are tasked with improving policing and public safety, getting community input on policing, expanding restorative justice programs, holding monthly public meetings, and nominating members of the CCPSA.
To be eligible, you must be a registered voter who will have lived in the police district you’re running in for at least one year on February 28, 2023. People convicted of felonies cannot run unless the conviction has been expunged; neither can people who owe the city money.
Candidates have until November 28, 2022 to collect and submit petitions signed by a required number of eligible voters. The minimum number of signatures is based on how many registered voters are in each district (see list below). To defend their petitions against Chicago’s time-honored tradition of challenging the eligibility of opponent’s signatures, candidates typically try to collect several times the required number of signatures.
Below, check out some of the candidates for police district councils who are already gathering petition signatures to get on the February 2023 ballot. Some are running as individuals; others have joined up as slates of three candidates with shared political values and goals. We will update this map periodically as more candidates enter the race.
Jason Huff, a city worker who supervises car booting for the Department of Finance, runs a neighborhood watch in the Eighth District on the far southwest side. Huff’s social media pages regularly tout his volunteer work with Chicago Police Department programs such as youth soccer events and catalytic converter anti-theft efforts. Huff established a campaign committee, Friends of Jason Huff, at the beginning of October, and has filed candidate disclosures. His campaign for District Council was endorsed by mayoral candidate and 15th Ward alderperson Ray Lopez. On October 22, Huff posted a photo of himself gathering petition signatures with 23rd Ward alderperson Silvana Tabares.
Tanya Lozano has been involved in local and national social justice campaigns for immigrants’ rights, workers’ rights, and against police brutality for her entire life. Her uncle was Rudy Lozano, the assassinated labor and political activist who was an aide to Harold Washington; her activist parents carried on his legacy. At Healthy Hood Chicago, a nonprofit fitness center Tanya founded on the first floor of her family’s Pilsen church, the walls are emblazoned with murals of Malcolm X and Angela Davis, and classes are designed to counter the life expectancy gap faced by Black and Brown people in Chicago. Lozano has indicated an intention to run, but has not yet filed any candidate disclosures.
Arewa Karen Winters is a community activist who founded the 411 Movement and has worked with Justice For Families and the Chicago Justice Torture Center. Chicago police shot and killed Winters’s 16-year-old great-nephew in 2016. She cochaired Mayor Lightfoot’s Use of Force Working Group, which released its report earlier this month. In August, Block Club reported that Winters said CPD needs to “confront its overwhelming tendency to police Black and Brown communities,” and that district councils “will afford us the chance to not only speak truth to power, but power to power.” Winters has not yet filed any campaign disclosures.
Dan Butterworth, a vice president of member experience at First Financial Credit Union, is currently enrolled in the Citizen Police Academy, a 12-week program run by the police department in suburban North Chicago. Butterworth’s social media posts variously express support for police officers—and also for the Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization that seeks to exonerate people who have been wrongfully convicted. In one such post, he wrote, “citizens must keep a watchful eye to ensure the fine line between safety and liberty is walked.” Butterworth has not filed any candidate disclosures.
A slate of candidates—data analyst Maurilio Garcia, parent Jenny Schaffer, and attorney Sam Schoenburg—are running for the 19th District Council. Schoenburg says policing is the government institution that is “least accountable and most shielded from genuine community input.” Garcia says he wants to ensure all residents’ experiences with the police are “positive [and] productive.” Schaffer says she wants to expand the umbrella of emergency services to include people like mental health care professionals, drug rehabilitation specialists, and homelessness response providers. Garcia and Schaffer have each founded antiracist community groups. All three candidates have filed candidate disclosures. The ONE People’s Campaign and 47th Ward alderperson Matt Martin have endorsed the slate.
Violence-prevention outreach worker Darrell Dacres, former precinct captain and 40th Ward Office volunteer Deidre O’Conner, and Jewish Council on Urban Affairs organizer Anna Rubin make up a slate of candidates running for the 20th District Council. The slate’s campaign website emphasizes building a community where “every resident is safe, feels safe, and is able to access the services and professionals they need to thrive.” Only Rubin has filed candidate disclosures so far. The ONE People’s Campaign and 40th Ward alderperson Andre Vasquez have endorsed the slate.
Three longtime community organizers—EdVetté W. Jones, Reverend Dr. Marilyn Pagán-Banks, and Veronica I. Arreola—have formed a slate running for the 24th District Council. Jones is a trustee of the United Church of Rogers Park and works with the Circles and Ciphers Youth Organization. Pagán-Banks is the director of the nonprofit A Just Harvest and is a founding member of the Coalition to End Money Bond. Arreola founded the 50th Ward Action Network and worked with The People’s Lobby during the 2019 municipal elections. The slate’s campaign website calls district councils “the most progressive community-led police accountability device in the country” and says “it is important to elect the most progressive voices possible.”
But despite delays, progressive alderpersons and activists remain hopeful on ECPS
Lori Lightfoot has hampered the process of installing a police oversight council, activists say, despite making it a major part of her public safety platform during her mayoral run.
Alderman Ariel Reboyras’s two proposals were decried as toothless at the last of five community meetings on proposed police reform ordinances.
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