At about 6 AM on Monday, December 11, the doors of the County Building, at 69 W. Washington, swung open and aldermanic candidates poured in as the 2007 campaign officially began.

Meanwhile wannabes tried their damnedest to get on TV. Jim Ginderske, who’s running against Moore, had brought his campaign chair, Tom Westgard, dressed as a goose to draw attention to Moore’s role as the leader of the foie gras ban. “I don’t think it’s a serious issue,” Westgard said.

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For challengers, it’s a hopeful time, when victory still seems possible. Many predicted upsets. “I’m give-’em-hell Mell,” boasted Mell Monroe, who’s running against Dorothy Tillman in the Third Ward. “Dorothy’s going down.”

This year he’s determined to do it right (he even had a few dozen jackets made up with his name and ward emblazoned on the back). But a few weeks ago he discovered he’d been circulating the wrong kind of petitions. “We were using general primary petitions and we had about 1,800 signatures,” Rowans says. “But this is not a party primary–it requires different petitions. So we had to go out and circulate again with the right petitions.”

One Way to Trip Up an Incumbent? Untie His Shoelace

When 45th Ward alderman Patrick Levar filed his nominating petitions on Monday morning, several clerks from the Board of Elections commission leaned forward with curiosity to see how they were bound.

“When I cross-examined him I said in my experience shoelaces come in pairs. Do you have any idea where the other shoelace is?” says Ernst. “And Levar reached into his pocket and pulls out an envelope and brings out this blue industrial-strength shoelace. I couldn’t believe it–he had the shoelace.” Later Jaconetty called 36th Ward alderman William Banks, who testified that he’d been standing next to Levar in line and had noticed that his petitions were bound by a shoelace. “I asked Banks, ‘Oh, really, what color were they?’” says Ernst. “He said a dirty color. I objected. I said ‘dirty’ is not a color.”

“Just like he always ties it,” said Jaconetty.