John Garrido

First, I’d like to take this oppor­tu­nity to thank all of our sup­port­ers who worked so hard over the last 10 months; you should be proud of your
accomplishment. I also want to thank all who voted for me; every vote counts and I thank you for cast­ing yours for me.

We ini­tially set out to take on the Chicago Machine. We quickly dis­cov­ered we were actu­ally tak­ing on SEIU. Despite SEIU’s spend­ing over $250,000 on the Feb. 22 race, we were vic­to­ri­ous over their slated can­di­date; tak­ing almost 33% of the vote.

You again stood by my side in the run-​​off elec­tion. A very deter­mined
orga­ni­za­tion, SEIU spent another $250,000 on their cho­sen can­di­date.
The race became a bat­tle between Honesty & Integrity ver­sus Lies and Misrepresentations; and, on April 5^th, our cam­paign fell only 28 votes short of victory.

We were then faced with the deci­sion to recount or not.

Although we def­i­nitely had enough evi­dence to ini­ti­ate the process of a costly recount, we decided to move on and do what is best for the 45^th Ward and the City of Chicago. So in the best inter­ests of the 45^th Ward, I decided not to seek a recount. I am proud to say that we main­tained our Honesty and Integrity through­out our cam­paign and I will insist on never devi­at­ing from that per­sonal stan­dard in any future cam­paign or endeavor.

I wish the new Alderman the best of luck. We’re going to have some high expec­ta­tions here in the 45^th Ward.

Who knows, maybe even a rematch in 4 years.

Thank you all very much.

John Garrido