Ald. Emma Mitts is asking for an eighth City Council term, and four challengers have filed for the 37th Ward seat she has held since January 2000. The ward takes in parts of Austin, West Garfield Park and West Humboldt Park. Before anyone debates the next four years, the nominating petitions are already in a fight.
Block Club Chicago reported Wednesday that Mitts faces Carmelita Earls, Michael Murphy, Kobey Lofton and Howard Ray. The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners lists the general municipal election for Feb. 23, 2027.
A Vacancy Born in a Bribery Case
Mitts did not win her way into the job the first time. She was appointed in January 2000 after predecessor Percy Giles was sentenced to prison for taking bribes. She had already worked in multiple city government positions and has lived in Austin for more than 20 years.
The appointment stuck. She won a first full term in 2003 and has been reelected at every election since, most recently in 2023. That year she took 61 percent against Corey Braddock, Jake Towers and Howard Ray, according to Block Club's earlier campaign coverage and its new tally of the result. Ray, the runner-up, got 26 percent.
The vacancy was a scandal. The tenure that followed has been remarkably uninterrupted.
The Objectors Are Also Candidates
Every candidacy in the race is facing a challenge to its nominating petitions, Block Club reported. Election officials plan to hold hearings and finalize the ballot by mid-December. A sustained objection can take a name off that ballot. Nothing in the public record yet says who, if anyone, will be removed.
The board's objection list is more specific than a generic warning, and it is not a tidy outsider-versus-incumbent story. Carmelita P. Earls is recorded as the objector to Howard Ray, Michael Patrick Murphy and Kobey Lofton. Dwight M. Davis Sr. and Gerline Fisher jointly challenged Lofton, Ray and Earls. Sherwood Grant challenged Lofton, Earls, Emma M. Mitts and Murphy.
Read that twice. Mitts is on Grant's list, not on the others. Ray is challenged by Earls and by Davis and Fisher, but not by Grant. The first round is candidates and allies arguing over one another's signatures.
Four Resumes, Four Sets of Priorities
Earls has lived on the West Side for more than 50 years and spent more than 30 years with the Chicago Fire Department, rising to deputy chief. She has also taught as an adjunct in the City Colleges system and sits on the 15th District police council, a civilian police-oversight body. She did not file to keep that council seat. This February she is running only for City Council.
She has been here before, in a different ward and with a messier ending. In 2011 she ran for the 28th Ward seat. The Illinois Appellate Court disqualified her days before the election. She still appeared on the ballot.
Ray's campaign site calls him "Mr. 37." He has lived and worked on the West Side for more than 25 years and counts more than 30 years in government and public service, including more than 28 years as a police officer, five with the Postal Service and two with the CTA. His Better Way plan, as described by Block Club, emphasizes lower property taxes, public safety, youth education and greater government accountability. In February 2023, the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board endorsed him and noted 25 years with the Police Department, 18 of them on the street. Voters gave Mitts the term anyway.
Murphy is an IT systems engineer, a community advocate and chair of the Libertarian Party of Cook County. He most recently ran for Cook County Board president as a Libertarian, with his party's endorsement and support from Chicago Flips Red, and lost to incumbent Toni Preckwinkle. His stated priorities include ending school closures, more housing development, transparency in tax spending and maintaining vacant commercial properties.
Lofton is a North Lawndale native who has worked more than 10 years as a youth advocate and in violence prevention. He is running on public safety, youth mentorship and opportunity pathways, and support for local businesses. He has said the ward's next chapter should be written together.
What Mid-December Actually Decides
None of those biographies is a ballot line yet. Hearings come first, then a finalized ballot the election board expects by mid-December, then a Feb. 23 vote in a ward that has returned the same alderperson since the Giles vacancy. A court can disqualify a candidate and a printed ballot can still carry the name. West Side voters have already seen that happen.
