BRIDGEPORT — The first time John Kozlar ran for 11th Ward alderman in 2011, his campaign budget was all of $520, enough to pay for 150 yard signs and some fliers.
This time around, the 26-year-old law student has a larger (but still modest) war chest, a centralized campaign office and a small army of 70 volunteers evangelizing his mission of "togetherness."
He knows some critics view his youth and lack of real-world experience — he'll graduate from The John Marshall Law School in spring — as a liability.
To the doubters, he offered up a lengthy retort that boils down to this: The city's broke and many sitting aldermen are responsible.
"If having experience and navigating City Hall means that, I don't want any part of it," he said. "I think we need a fresh approach to City Hall. We need new ideas on how we conduct things Downtown and in our communities and I think we need a spark plug at City Hall."
Kozlar is taking on progressive activist Maureen Sullivan and Patrick Daley Thompson in the fight to become the next alderman of the 11th Ward, which for decades was home to the Daley family and its political power.
The stakes are different this year. It's the first time since the late 1960s residents in the 11th Ward, expanded to include parts of University Village and parts of East Pilsen, will elect an alderman who wasn't appointed through political maneuvering.
Sullivan has staked almost her entire campaign on blasting the "old-boy leadership" of the Daleys and current Ald. James Balcer. Her platform aims to offer a new collaborative leadership style.
Thompson, a zoning attorney and commissioner for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, has also pledged some degree of change in ward politics and aims to be more inclusive. Subtly, he's criticized his opponents by saying he has "real" ideas for the ward.
Kozlar doesn't understand the jab.
As evidence, he continually points to his website, where he's laid out some ideas for jumpstarting business, including creating a glass-domed bowling alley, finding a cheaper alternative to the city's plan to renovate Morgan Street and bringing a publicly financed youth sports stadium to Canaryville, not far from the Canaryville Little League youth ballclub he leads.
This week, he rolled out a plan for an updated 11th Ward website that would include a section for connecting local employers and job seekers.
To Kozlar, all of those ideas are within reach.
"They're not even proposals. They're things that I'm saying that if you elect me alderman, I will do," he said.
He's withheld any endorsements in the mayoral race and declined when asked to give Mayor Rahm Emanuel a letter grade.
He wants more transparency in tax increment financing, particularly when it comes to sprucing up the area around the shuttered Ramova Theatre.
He promises to be a solid "no" vote if asked to raise property taxes, regardless of the city's budget circumstances.
If elected, he said he'll keep his law degree in his back pocket and won't seek a career as an attorney.
On the divisive issue of of charter schools, Kozlar's stance is a bit iffy.
He's against putting the taxpayer-funded, privately run schools in Bridgeport or Canaryville but would support one in the University Village area, even if it meant the charter would potentially siphon students away from Bridgeport and Canaryville public schools.
"I am 100 percent for Chicago Public Schools. But again it depends on where you're at in the ward. We have a lot of really good options in Bridgeport and Canaryville and along Pilsen. But when you get to University Village and University Commons, they want grammar schools.
"If they wanted a CPS school I would 100 percent support it. Or if they wanted a charter school I would be hesitant to [support it,] but if that's what the communities want on the north end of the ward, you have to listen."
Still, Kozlar said he'd "rather risk saying no to a charter school than having a teacher lose their job" because enrollment-related budget losses at public schools.
As the race enters its final stretch, Kozlar is shooting down any notion that Thompson, the front-runner in terms of fundraising, is running away with it.
The way he sees it, he's got as good a chance as anyone else. Better, even.
"I know everybody's thinking there's one candidate that's going to be an automatic win but I don't see that at all. Just by going door-to-door and talking to people, they're ready for a change.
"They're ready for a new direction. You can seriously just feel it and that's why I have all the confidence in the world that we're going to come together as a community and be victorious on election day."
This is the second in a three-part DNAinfo Chicago series looking at aldermanic candidates in the 11th Ward. You can read the interview with Patrick Daley Thompson here. An interview with Maureen Sullivan will soon follow.
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