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Liam Stanton: Chicago Mayor Race & City Hall Red Tape | The Pat McGann Show Summer Special · The Pat McGann Show

0:00
SPEAKER_02: It's the summer special of the Pat McGann Show.
0:02
SPEAKER_02: This week, Pat welcomes Chicago mayoral candidate Liam Stanton and Dwayne Kennedy.
0:07
SPEAKER_02: The Pat McGann Show, as always, is brought to you by Tiege Hanley, Uncomplicated Skin Care for Men.
0:11
SPEAKER_02: And now, here's Pat.
0:13
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0:36
SPEAKER_03: All right, let's get into this episode.
0:38
SPEAKER_03: Thanks for tuning in.
0:39
SPEAKER_03: Here we go.
0:41
SPEAKER_03: All right.
0:41
SPEAKER_03: Well, this is interesting and fun and a little bit different.
0:45
SPEAKER_03: We haven't had a politician on or a mayoral candidate, but we do today.
0:51
SPEAKER_03: We have Liam Stanton joining us, who's running for mayor of Chicago.
0:55
SPEAKER_03: Liam, what's up, dude?
0:57
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me, man.
0:58
SPEAKER_03: Good to see you.
0:58
SPEAKER_03: Good to be here.
0:59
SPEAKER_03: I gotta, we just gotta dive right in.
1:02
SPEAKER_03: Have you started making your posters?
1:04
SPEAKER_03: We got the posters.
1:05
SPEAKER_01: We got the posters.
1:08
SPEAKER_03: What's the slogan?
1:09
SPEAKER_01: You know what?
1:10
SPEAKER_01: We're going with Chicago's choice for a real change, which is, I think, you know, indicative of we want to do things differently, but could also be like a jewel, like you know, Chicago's choice could be like a jewel steak, which is just as good.
1:21
SPEAKER_01: No doubt.
1:21
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:22
SPEAKER_03: Chicago's choice.
1:23
SPEAKER_03: Well, that is a uh it seems to be a pivotal time.
1:26
SPEAKER_03: People are people are ready, maybe, to look at some candidates, and uh it probably will be a big field.
1:32
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
1:33
SPEAKER_03: You're one of them.
1:34
SPEAKER_03: You've announced early.
1:36
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
1:36
SPEAKER_03: Are you going out, Camison?
1:37
SPEAKER_03: Like what is the process?
1:38
SPEAKER_03: How do you, first of all, how do you get on the ballot?
1:41
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, it's surprisingly not uh not as official as you might think of kind of running from here.
1:46
SPEAKER_01: You kind of announce it.
1:47
SPEAKER_01: We announced it in February, we went to the Irish American Heritage Center and we did a big announcement, and that was great.
1:51
SPEAKER_01: And you know, ever since then, we've just been we talk to people, we go all over the city, we make a lot of social media videos, which is great.
1:56
SPEAKER_01: We got to kind of use that to compete and get our name out there.
1:59
SPEAKER_01: But we meet with people all over the city.
2:01
SPEAKER_01: We uh we work on building our coalition, we fundraise all that.
2:05
SPEAKER_01: The the kind of thing is.
2:06
SPEAKER_03: So you have like a team, you have uh people with you.
2:08
SPEAKER_03: Yes, but this is you, dude.
2:10
SPEAKER_03: Yes, you're doing this.
2:12
SPEAKER_03: We're going to we're doing this.
2:13
SPEAKER_03: Can you knock on doors?
2:14
SPEAKER_01: Is that you can knock on doors, yeah, for sure.
2:16
SPEAKER_01: It's a little early.
2:17
SPEAKER_01: You know, people we just we can't we got out of a last election cycle, but you know, you knock on doors for sure.
2:21
SPEAKER_01: We do that.
2:22
SPEAKER_01: We go to we show up at events, we have events, we're we're all over, man.
2:25
SPEAKER_04: Like you didn't have to sign anything and isn't that crazy?
2:28
SPEAKER_04: You just say, hey, I'm running for mayor, and then people say, Okay.
2:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
2:32
SPEAKER_01: I mean, so this 100% that's the first part.
2:35
SPEAKER_01: The second part is you do have to get 12,500 signatures at a minimum to get onto the official ballot.
2:40
SPEAKER_01: Oh so that starts in July.
2:42
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna be out everywhere, we're gonna have teams of people getting signatures.
2:46
SPEAKER_01: I've got two signatures right here.
2:47
SPEAKER_01: I think I hope.
2:48
SPEAKER_01: We'll see how this goes.
2:49
SPEAKER_01: Are we allowed to sign ahead of time?
2:51
SPEAKER_01: No, you can't.
2:51
SPEAKER_01: You know, we had someone uh knocking carbon test the ink in time.
2:56
SPEAKER_01: They could.
2:56
SPEAKER_01: This was you signed it in May.
2:59
SPEAKER_01: Disqualified.
3:01
SPEAKER_01: They could.
3:02
SPEAKER_01: We had uh we had someone knock on our door the other day, ask my wife for a signature for mayor, and she was like, Well, you know, my husband's running, and also you can't collect this signature until July 28th.
3:11
SPEAKER_01: And he was kind of like uh okay, and just kind of moved on.
3:13
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, it's kind of funny.
3:14
SPEAKER_04: And he has it, I gotta be honest, I wasn't even really running for mayor.
3:18
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
3:19
SPEAKER_03: Who knows?
3:19
SPEAKER_03: You should have come to the door too and said, I'll debate you right now in front of my wife.
3:25
SPEAKER_03: Right here on this porch.
3:26
SPEAKER_01: I'd be a little I'd be a little nerve-wracking.
3:28
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I want to debate.
3:29
SPEAKER_01: I'll debate in front of anyone else, maybe not my wife.
3:30
SPEAKER_03: There's gonna be some debates coming up, though, I would think, right?
3:33
SPEAKER_03: For sure, it'll be a lot of debates.
3:34
SPEAKER_03: So, how does that work?
3:35
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you get up there and you just scream at everybody else.
3:38
SPEAKER_01: Uh no, you get up there, you know, there's gonna be a lot of different types of people running and different experiences, and and I'm glad it's a big field.
3:43
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's a it's it's indicative that like people want to see change in Chicago, and I think more people taking part of this pro part of the process is great.
3:50
SPEAKER_04: What changes do people want to see?
3:52
SPEAKER_01: I think you know, for me, it's it's it's uh it kind of comes down to three things, like three or four things.
3:57
SPEAKER_01: The first is that I get from a lot of people is you know, safety is a big issue across the city, wherever you are, safety, they want to feel safe in their neighborhoods, they want good quality schools, you know, they want all the things that we've kind of always traditionally wanted as Chicagoans.
4:09
SPEAKER_01: They want opportunity for jobs, yeah, and they want to, you know, they want to make sure that it's affordable to live here.
4:14
SPEAKER_01: Increasingly, you know, we've had this big advantage over New York and LA for so long.
4:17
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you can live in Chicago and it's affordable.
4:19
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of slipping away.
4:20
SPEAKER_01: So I think we gotta focus on how do we keep Chicago a place where working people can actually afford to live here and have a great life.
4:27
SPEAKER_04: So, what's the plan?
4:28
SPEAKER_01: Well, on affordability, there's a there's a couple things we focus on.
4:31
SPEAKER_01: We gotta build a lot more housing.
4:32
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, rent and mortgage that's a big part of people's paycheck right now.
4:36
SPEAKER_01: And it's because we have a housing shortage, we don't have enough housing, and I specifically focus on family housing.
4:41
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, the starter home is kind of gone from this country.
4:44
SPEAKER_01: So I think we can replace that with row homes and town homes, which is great.
4:48
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's a little bit cheaper alternative to like tenements?
4:51
SPEAKER_01: What'd you say?
4:52
SPEAKER_01: Like tenements, we're gonna stay away from tenements, we're gonna stay away from those.
4:56
SPEAKER_01: But you know, it's a it's a good way to get more families to stay in the city and and to put down roots here.
5:03
SPEAKER_01: I'm working on your signature.
5:04
SPEAKER_01: I'm almost there.
5:05
SPEAKER_04: I mean, if I can sign and still vote for somebody else, right?
5:09
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
5:10
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
5:13
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why you to do that.
5:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh I'll sign if that's the case, just to see you run.
5:17
SPEAKER_01: You know what?
5:18
SPEAKER_01: We take it steps at a time.
5:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, signature is the first piece.
5:20
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
5:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
5:21
SPEAKER_03: Just put your first name down.
5:24
SPEAKER_03: Who's this?
5:25
SPEAKER_03: Dwayne.
5:26
SPEAKER_03: Dwayne McGill.
5:27
SPEAKER_03: It's printed in crayon.
5:29
SPEAKER_03: Dwayne.
5:31
SPEAKER_03: The um the process has got to be one part of it.
5:36
SPEAKER_03: The other part is ambition and um a feeling that you could be the guy.
5:42
SPEAKER_03: You could be mayor.
5:43
SPEAKER_03: Like, have you really thought about like that would be an awesome responsibility and something that um you know would take take over your life.
5:52
SPEAKER_01: Oh, totally.
5:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I think you you uh anyone who does this and does it well, you you you don't do it, it's yeah, sure.
5:57
SPEAKER_01: My name's on the ballot, but there's lots and lots of people.
5:59
SPEAKER_01: So you have to build a huge movement, you have to have tons of support.
6:02
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're gonna do it, like it's just gonna be me, that's gonna be impossible.
6:05
SPEAKER_01: But I think one thing that people are seeing and we hear a lot is people are tired of kind of the you know, for lack of a better word, the oxygenarian candidate that's always been a career politician.
6:12
SPEAKER_01: They're ready for newer people and next generation.
6:15
SPEAKER_01: So that's where I step in and say, listen, we've got some different ideas, we've got a different approach, we're gonna shout about them, we're gonna try to build a coalition and see what happens.
6:22
SPEAKER_01: But you know, it's it's all part of the game.
6:25
SPEAKER_03: It is, and it seems like you mentioned the social stuff.
6:27
SPEAKER_03: I've seen some of your social videos, good stuff, and that's the game.
6:31
SPEAKER_03: You gotta go, like, you gotta be looking for almost for like try and go viral, get a moment, you know, which is not really where we want our politicians to be focused, right?
6:41
SPEAKER_03: Um, how do you bring it back to like a little bit normal?
6:45
SPEAKER_03: And do you think people are also craving that?
6:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think you social media is a means to the end.
6:51
SPEAKER_01: And right now it's like we could debate discuss about how we wish people read.
6:55
SPEAKER_03: I think Dwayne wants to debate you.
6:56
SPEAKER_03: Let's get into this whip.
6:57
SPEAKER_01: No, I I think it's just we we try to use it to get across policy ideas and things in a in a modern way.
7:03
SPEAKER_01: You know, people are on their phones all day.
7:05
SPEAKER_01: They don't want to read a 10-page manual about how you're gonna fix pensions or get us back on a better financial footing.
7:11
SPEAKER_01: But if you position it away with a good hook and a nice message and a and a a couple good ideas, it could be really effective.
7:17
SPEAKER_04: What would you uh say you're uh you are politically in the I so I Are you a democratic socialist?
7:24
SPEAKER_01: I'm not a democratic socialist.
7:26
SPEAKER_01: So I tr I try to not be uh I'm not a democratic socialist, but I I really don't fit in a lot of buckets.
7:31
SPEAKER_01: You know, and I think most people don't.
7:32
SPEAKER_01: You know, we want to think, oh, everyone's a democratic socialist or their MAGA.
7:35
SPEAKER_01: The vast majority of us are somewhere in between and we pick out certain things.
7:39
SPEAKER_01: There's things uh that the DSA advocates for.
7:42
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I love universal childcare.
7:44
SPEAKER_01: I think that's absolutely we should push for that.
7:45
SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
7:46
SPEAKER_01: You know, we we in Chicago we did a great thing.
7:47
SPEAKER_01: We have universal pre-K.
7:49
SPEAKER_01: Universal childcare is something we should, we can and should push for.
7:52
SPEAKER_01: It's a great, it's a big reason why families can't afford to stay here.
7:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's incredibly it's incredible, but we gotta figure out a way to pay for it.
7:59
SPEAKER_01: So the other side of me is saying, hey, we gotta fix our finances, we gotta figure out ways to get savings to fund some of those programs and to f to reopen mental health care clinics, to reopen to make sure we have quality schools.
8:09
SPEAKER_01: So it's kind of that uh and I think Chicagoans are like that, man.
8:12
SPEAKER_01: We don't fit into neat neat little buckets.
8:14
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
8:15
SPEAKER_03: Where does Chicago stand compared to other big cities with issues like this?
8:20
SPEAKER_03: And are we broken financially?
8:22
SPEAKER_03: Is there a way out?
8:23
SPEAKER_03: Are we do we look good compared to other big cities?
8:26
SPEAKER_01: Uh short answer would be no.
8:28
SPEAKER_01: Um, most big cities have financial challenges.
8:30
SPEAKER_01: Ours are pretty unique and pretty significant.
8:32
SPEAKER_01: Uh it just came out, we have around.
8:34
SPEAKER_03: Is that because of daily?
8:35
SPEAKER_03: We sell everything, all of our assets?
8:38
SPEAKER_01: You know, there's every every mayor has their good, good and bad.
8:41
SPEAKER_01: That was certainly a bad decision, but you know, Mayor Daly did it.
8:47
SPEAKER_03: The Bulls won six championships.
8:48
SPEAKER_01: That's right, baby.
8:49
SPEAKER_01: Uh that's right.
8:50
SPEAKER_01: That's all that matters.
8:51
SPEAKER_03: It was worth the 40 billion.
8:52
SPEAKER_03: Mr.
8:53
SPEAKER_03: Daily.
8:55
SPEAKER_04: I got you guys some savages.
8:57
SPEAKER_04: So what?
8:57
SPEAKER_04: I sold the toll way.
8:59
SPEAKER_04: And I mean, I sold the parking meters.
9:02
SPEAKER_01: But we signed Rodman.
9:04
SPEAKER_01: It was a hell of a signing.
9:06
SPEAKER_01: Uh but you know, we're we're we're not in a great place financially.
9:09
SPEAKER_01: And and we have a lot of debt, we have a lot of pension obligation that we don't have funded, we haven't done a good job managing the funds we have coming in for that.
9:15
SPEAKER_03: And you think most people are trying to tax their way out of that, or there's other ways to do it?
9:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think the the natural thought is we're just gonna tax our way out of it.
9:22
SPEAKER_01: Um, uh that's I think proven to not work.
9:25
SPEAKER_01: And in Chicago, that's definitely not gonna work.
9:27
SPEAKER_01: So I think we need to grow our way out of it.
9:28
SPEAKER_01: This is a working town.
9:30
SPEAKER_01: This is a place where, you know, my grandfather came as an immigrant from Ireland.
9:33
SPEAKER_01: He he got a job, cleaned his streetcars, he worked his ass off.
9:36
SPEAKER_01: My dad was Chicago cop, worked his ass off, had side jobs.
9:39
SPEAKER_01: Each rung of our family has done a little bit better because that opportunity has been present here.
9:42
SPEAKER_01: So I think the name of the game is really providing more opportunity so that we have more jobs, more people move here, and we can pay down this absorb, you know, huge debt a little bit faster and put ourselves in a better position.
9:53
SPEAKER_03: And now they're saying, though, that jobs are going away because of technology.
9:57
SPEAKER_03: And um I just read in my local paper, the Beverly Review.
10:02
SPEAKER_03: Are you doing that?
10:03
SPEAKER_03: Are you digesting local neighborhood papers from around the city?
10:06
SPEAKER_01: I've been doing that my whole life, man.
10:07
SPEAKER_01: Oh, your whole life?
10:08
SPEAKER_01: Really?
10:08
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you gotta Chicago junkie, like you got, yes, absolutely.
10:12
SPEAKER_03: Could you name most of the aldermen that we have?
10:14
SPEAKER_01: Pretty much.
10:15
SPEAKER_03: Really?
10:16
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
10:16
SPEAKER_03: You get you still have that down.
10:18
SPEAKER_03: You know how everything works.
10:19
SPEAKER_03: This the council.
10:20
SPEAKER_01: You don't want to be you don't want to be like here and saying I know everything, but I've got a pretty good handle on it.
10:24
SPEAKER_01: I think.
10:25
SPEAKER_03: Have you done any stuff close to politics?
10:27
SPEAKER_01: Have you I've worked on campaigns a little bit in the background.
10:30
SPEAKER_01: Um, for the last couple of years, we've had a nonprofit called the Chicago Style Project, and we work with small businesses throughout the city to really help them stay in the city because it's it's something that you know you look at a small business now, the natural thing is why is this business in Chicago?
10:43
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna move it to I'm gonna move it out to Rockford, I'm gonna move it to Nevada.
10:47
SPEAKER_01: So we try to find ways for them to stay in the city.
10:49
SPEAKER_03: Is that true, like across the board?
10:51
SPEAKER_03: Because I've also heard that there are still a lot of companies moving to Chicago.
10:54
SPEAKER_01: Oh, we want more of those, yeah.
10:55
SPEAKER_01: It it depends on the business, but like there's a lot of I would say small and medium businesses, there's a lot of pressure on them, especially if you're making a product, which Chicago has been great.
11:04
SPEAKER_01: We're unbelievable at making it.
11:06
SPEAKER_03: Everything dope comes from Chicago.
11:07
SPEAKER_03: We learned that from Dilla.
11:09
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
11:09
SPEAKER_01: He's great too.
11:10
SPEAKER_01: Uh so it there's a lot of pressure on them, and and you know, that the city government doesn't make it easier.
11:15
SPEAKER_01: So we want to find ways to make it easier on small businesses to thrive here, you know, to have a place where they can provide more jobs and provide that opportunity.
11:22
SPEAKER_03: And that you're talking about just red tape, bureaucracy, they make people go through.
11:26
SPEAKER_01: I'll I'll give you an example.
11:27
SPEAKER_01: So I was with a small business owner the other day.
11:29
SPEAKER_01: Um, she has an unbelievable business.
11:31
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I won't mention it because she kind of complained about it, but so great business.
11:34
SPEAKER_01: And she bought this building right in the heart of this northwest side neighborhood.
11:38
SPEAKER_01: It's on a corner, and she's got multiple addresses.
11:41
SPEAKER_01: And she used to work for the city, and she mentioned you know, I need a liquor license.
11:44
SPEAKER_01: Which address should I get it at?
11:46
SPEAKER_01: And she navigates the city and she knows how to do it, and she puts it at one address.
11:50
SPEAKER_01: But two months later, she gets 10 people from the city coming out, shutting down her business, saying, You this liquor license, you have you've been selling liquor at the wrong what we're gonna put you in jail, we're gonna shut down her business for 10 days, all that revenue she can't get back.
12:03
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, I work for the city, you told me to do this, it's just because you didn't talk to this other department, and that happens all the time.
12:09
SPEAKER_01: This city department's not talking to each other, and they're doing stuff like this.
12:13
SPEAKER_01: They're shutting down businesses, they're not allowing us to to grow and flourish.
12:16
SPEAKER_01: So we have an idea, it's like, listen, this is 2026, have one portal for small businesses.
12:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you you only interact with one portal for the city, it is this portal, and it combines all those departments on the back end, it sorts through that stuff to make sure that we can do that.
12:28
SPEAKER_01: Other cities are doing it, San Francisco's done it.
12:30
SPEAKER_01: There's no reason we can't do it too.
12:31
SPEAKER_03: Who was the business?
12:33
SPEAKER_03: Can you tell us?
12:33
SPEAKER_03: We'll go support it.
12:34
SPEAKER_01: Uh Color Club is a great, great business.
12:36
SPEAKER_01: Oh, color club.
12:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, really.
12:38
SPEAKER_03: How do you feel about putting yourself out here for everyone to dig through your past, your present?
12:46
SPEAKER_03: You got a lot of uh, you know, it's vulnerable.
12:50
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean it's what's keeping really good candidates from running sometimes.
12:54
SPEAKER_03: It seems like for sure.
12:56
SPEAKER_01: I mean, people, this is not a great political environment we're in.
12:59
SPEAKER_01: It's very hostile, and online culture is not great.
13:02
SPEAKER_01: And but on the other hand, it's like, listen, if you love something, which I love Chicago, I'm super passionate about it, you're willing to put yourself through some of that.
13:09
SPEAKER_01: I'm also the youngest of eight, so I've been you know getting my ass kicked my whole life.
13:13
SPEAKER_03: You are defying like what would be predicted, yeah.
13:17
SPEAKER_03: The youngest of eight, and you're gonna be mayor.
13:20
SPEAKER_01: You would think the oldest would do it?
13:22
SPEAKER_03: I mean, you would maybe think that.
13:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, it's pretty great.
13:25
SPEAKER_01: This is all just one big cry for attention from the youngest child.
13:28
SPEAKER_04: I was gonna say, man.
13:29
SPEAKER_04: You would be mayor to just take it out on your siblings.
13:32
SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
13:33
SPEAKER_04: Didn't let me talk when I was a kid.
13:34
SPEAKER_04: Right, right.
13:34
SPEAKER_04: You're gonna hear me now.
13:35
SPEAKER_04: Right.
13:36
SPEAKER_04: Now I'm gonna zone you out of this.
13:38
SPEAKER_04: Right.
13:38
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
13:39
SPEAKER_03: Do you have some favorite mayors inspire you or politicians or people that I have elements of mayors that I like.
13:48
SPEAKER_01: I don't think there's there's one that kind of jumps.
13:50
SPEAKER_01: Goldie Wilson.
13:53
SPEAKER_01: Richard M.
13:53
SPEAKER_01: Daly, you know, I grew up with Daly, right?
13:55
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's the the 90s I grew up in, and there was so much positive that happened.
13:59
SPEAKER_01: We we we were growing exponentially in the 90s.
14:01
SPEAKER_01: We were winning championships, we're building, we're beautifying the lake.
14:04
SPEAKER_01: We have Millennium Park.
14:05
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of a lot of positive there.
14:07
SPEAKER_01: There's elements I think.
14:08
SPEAKER_01: That's why we're broke.
14:10
SPEAKER_01: There's parts of that.
14:11
SPEAKER_03: But the still having paid off that bean.
14:14
SPEAKER_01: The the builders, you know, I really like I like the politicians that are builders.
14:18
SPEAKER_01: There's a guy in San Francisco called Daniel Lurie, just like a normal dude.
14:21
SPEAKER_01: He's a great, he has great ideas, he gets a lot of stuff done.
14:24
SPEAKER_01: There's elements of the guy in New York that I like, and Mom Donnie that I like, that he's you know, he does a great job telling people what he's doing and showing them this is what government's doing, which I think in this era, people are kind of like, I give you my tax dollars, I have no idea where they go, I have no idea if you're doing a good job.
14:38
SPEAKER_01: And he's kind of lifted the veil on that.
14:40
SPEAKER_01: So here's everything we're doing, and I think people really like that.
14:43
SPEAKER_04: Can you promise to get rid of, if you get elected, get rid of Friends of the Park?
14:49
SPEAKER_01: Oh man, this is the this is gonna be another one that gets clipped.
14:52
SPEAKER_01: So I don't think I think they should be reeled, or give give uh or give Dwayne their address.
14:59
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right and a brick, a list of names.
15:04
SPEAKER_04: Right.
15:04
SPEAKER_04: I mean I can't have a lot of people.
15:07
SPEAKER_04: No, no political vibe.
15:08
SPEAKER_04: But you know what I mean?
15:09
SPEAKER_04: It's like, come on, come on, friends of the park, FOP.
15:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's been some things over the years where you're kind of just like, what's what's going on?
15:16
SPEAKER_04: They campaigned to not have Obama's library.
15:19
SPEAKER_04: Right.
15:20
SPEAKER_04: That's ridiculous.
15:21
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Lucas the Lucas Museum.
15:23
SPEAKER_04: Um come on, man.
15:24
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
15:25
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
15:25
SPEAKER_04: You know what?
15:26
SPEAKER_01: What do I sign?
15:27
SPEAKER_03: Would you have uh would you have liked to have seen the Lucas Museum in Chicago?
15:32
SPEAKER_01: I think it would have been great for us.
15:34
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
15:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it would have.
15:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:35
SPEAKER_01: You know, I it that's a it's a parking lot.
15:37
SPEAKER_01: Um, I think it would have brought tourists here, would have been a great revenue generator for us.
15:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
15:41
SPEAKER_01: But I I I absolutely it was a beautiful building.
15:44
SPEAKER_01: Um I I we need we need to think bigger as a city, and I think that was part of it, and it's a shame that we missed out on it.
15:51
SPEAKER_01: But that doesn't mean there's not gonna be more.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: Tease Hanley has changed my life.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: We're the number one men's skincare routine in America.
16:01
SPEAKER_01: When I got here, they go, uh, we're just waiting for the podcast guest.
16:05
SPEAKER_03: We know you're here for pictures.
16:06
SPEAKER_02: I thought you were a model.
16:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you guys, he's glowing.
16:08
SPEAKER_02: In fact, Ape Burgazzi was like, your skin's awesome.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: Just like, I look forward to like, I'm washing my face before I go to sleep.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: I think we haven't had any 40-year-olds on the podcast, and I said I'm 50.
16:18
SPEAKER_03: And everyone goes, What?
16:20
SPEAKER_03: Tish Hanley.
16:21
SPEAKER_03: It's the way we face the day.
16:25
SPEAKER_03: Do you um have uh some ideas that you're starting to bring out?
16:29
SPEAKER_03: Are you holding on to some stuff for when we get closer to the because this election will be in February of 27.
16:36
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
16:36
SPEAKER_03: And the timeline is gonna start to get a little bit more what serious, more involved.
16:42
SPEAKER_03: When do you think you'll start debating some of these other candidates?
16:46
SPEAKER_01: I think the debates start around October, November timeline.
16:50
SPEAKER_01: We've got the general election for the other some other, you know, the the What else can we do with the debates to freshen those up?
16:55
SPEAKER_03: Maybe you don't maybe you're not standing at a podium.
16:58
SPEAKER_03: Right?
16:59
SPEAKER_03: Could you go somewhere else?
17:00
SPEAKER_03: Could you be in a bar?
17:00
SPEAKER_03: Could you be uh eating a beef, maybe just kind of like chopping's doing it at Zanies, right?
17:06
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we should have you guys should just moderate these things.
17:09
SPEAKER_03: If you can get them there, yeah, we'll moderate.
17:11
SPEAKER_01: That's perfect.
17:12
SPEAKER_01: Who are gonna work on them?
17:13
SPEAKER_03: Who are the most formidable other candidates?
17:16
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
17:17
SPEAKER_01: No, I think there's there's a couple, there's there's obviously we've got an incumbent mayor, incumbents are always strong.
17:22
SPEAKER_01: Um so Brandon Johnson will will most likely run and he'll he'll be strong.
17:25
SPEAKER_01: He's he's got a good progressive base.
17:27
SPEAKER_03: All right.
17:27
SPEAKER_03: So what are the um leading ideas that you think separates you from the the pack?
17:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that I think there's the reality is everyone's gonna have very similar ideas.
17:38
SPEAKER_01: It's are you gonna be able to execute them and are you gonna bring a different mindset?
17:41
SPEAKER_01: I think if you look at a career politician who's been in office for 30 years, are they really going to come in and change things radically?
17:48
SPEAKER_01: I don't think so.
17:48
SPEAKER_01: I don't think that's gonna happen.
17:50
SPEAKER_01: So I think what really separates me is we do, I think we have a lot of quality ideas and we've got them all on standardforchicago.com.
17:56
SPEAKER_01: But what really separates me is is the combination of like, I'm from an actual neighborhood.
17:59
SPEAKER_01: I grew up in Rogers Park.
18:00
SPEAKER_01: I grew up in a real working family.
18:02
SPEAKER_01: Like I have that perspective, and I think it's very valuable for the mayor to have that perspective, but I also have made my career outside of politics, and that has a lot of value too.
18:10
SPEAKER_01: You know, I know how to move really fast and have creative ideas and get a shitload of people to work together and excited about things, and that's exactly what the city needs right now.
18:18
SPEAKER_01: It needs a little bit of that, you know, those neighborhood values and and put put some of that outside perspective and experience together.
18:24
SPEAKER_01: I think that's what we need right now.
18:25
SPEAKER_03: And those would be your biggest qualifications.
18:27
SPEAKER_03: You have a good education, some experience running a business.
18:33
SPEAKER_03: What was a business?
18:34
SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, I've I've I've spent my career kind of building and and running uh businesses.
18:38
SPEAKER_01: I've started businesses.
18:39
SPEAKER_01: So one business I started was called Buoy.
18:42
SPEAKER_01: What we did was we put together stand-up professionals, we put together other local vendors that were looking for business with companies that valued their their experience.
18:51
SPEAKER_01: So we designed a program and we'd say, Hey, you know, great, you're uh you know, you're an improv teacher, we're gonna design a program, you're gonna go in and deliver to this this company, and we would make the match, which was awesome.
19:01
SPEAKER_01: It was a great, great company, and uh we had you know hundreds of people that were getting uh getting jobs because of that, which was really fun.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: COVID kind of killed that one, which was kind of kind of sucked.
19:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but I've also you know I've run large businesses, so I've run you know 150-year-old manufacturing company, international facilities all over the world, thousands of people where they're kind of like, why would we do anything different?
19:20
SPEAKER_01: We've been making the product this way for a million years, our customers are like it.
19:24
SPEAKER_01: That's similar to Chicago right now.
19:26
SPEAKER_01: It's like we're setting our ways, we've got a lot of doing shit the same way over and over again, and you have to break that.
19:32
SPEAKER_01: You have to come in and do it in a way that compels people to do something differently.
19:35
SPEAKER_01: And I've got a lot of experience in that.
19:37
SPEAKER_03: I think that we're uh maybe as Chicagoans, Americans, humans, whatever it is, resistant to change.
19:44
SPEAKER_03: It's difficult.
19:45
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and Rom when he was mayor, did make some, and I don't even like follow and get into this as much.
19:53
SPEAKER_03: Uh um, but it seemed like he up top made unpopular decisions, took the heat, yeah, went through with it, and maybe they were the right decisions in retrospect.
20:07
SPEAKER_03: Totally.
20:08
SPEAKER_03: So that's really what it's gonna take, and everyone's gotta like just deal with it because they don't they don't want what they got, but they don't want change.
20:15
SPEAKER_01: So how do you and I think you you need that's why I think this next mayor needs to be prepared to say this is gonna be my one stint in politics, or this is my last job in politics.
20:26
SPEAKER_01: This is not you're gonna have to make a lot of unpopular decisions, and you're gonna have to get people excited at the same time.
20:31
SPEAKER_03: That's the slogan one stint Stanton.
20:33
SPEAKER_01: One stint standing.
20:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but that's I don't know.
20:36
SPEAKER_01: Could be we're spitballing.
20:38
SPEAKER_01: Stand up or stand.
20:39
SPEAKER_01: We got till February, dude.
20:40
SPEAKER_01: We got time, we got time.
20:42
SPEAKER_01: But I think you you have to be able to come in and do that.
20:45
SPEAKER_01: And you know, I I don't aspire to a career in politics.
20:48
SPEAKER_01: Uh I think we need younger people running.
20:50
SPEAKER_01: I I've advocated for term limits.
20:52
SPEAKER_01: I think we need more fresh bodies coming in and out of these roles.
20:56
SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, I think this next mayor's got to be prepared to make some of those decisions.
21:00
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's really cool, man.
21:02
SPEAKER_03: I I applaud your efforts.
21:03
SPEAKER_03: I mean, a lot of people would would say, you know, I would I'll run for mayor.
21:07
SPEAKER_03: I'll do this.
21:07
SPEAKER_03: I'll make some change.
21:09
SPEAKER_03: They should.
21:09
SPEAKER_03: And here you are doing it.
21:10
SPEAKER_03: Right.
21:11
SPEAKER_03: You got two young kids, yep, right?
21:13
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
21:13
SPEAKER_03: How old are your children?
21:14
SPEAKER_03: Four and a half and seven months.
21:16
SPEAKER_03: Oh man.
21:16
SPEAKER_01: Which is great.
21:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's great, but it's the best.
21:19
SPEAKER_04: You know, you're busy.
21:20
SPEAKER_04: So you just want to become mayor to get out of the house.
21:21
SPEAKER_01: Pretty much, yeah.
21:22
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
21:23
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I run, I'm I run marathons and I run for mayor just so I can get out of the house.
21:26
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you know, I gotta go run.
21:28
SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, but it's I mean, it's great.
21:29
SPEAKER_01: You know, we I grew up here, it meant a lot to me to grow up in the city.
21:32
SPEAKER_01: I think it means a lot to Chicagoans grow up in the city, and I want to create a place where they can do that too.
21:36
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it would nice, it would be nice to have maybe a f that feeling again of uh somebody that grew up here and really gets at running things.
21:46
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and it's kind of cool that you grew up in Rogers Park in the sense that you grew up around a lot of different types of folks.
21:51
SPEAKER_01: 100%.
21:52
SPEAKER_01: It's I mean Rogers Park is a microcosm of the city.
21:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's you know, it is the most diverse neighborhood in the city and perhaps in the country, and you get a lot of different types of people.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Well the City Worker all it's it's it's it's a real it's a melting pot, which is cool.
22:04
SPEAKER_01: And you get to to to learn how to work with folks and interact and that's uh it's a great place.
22:08
SPEAKER_01: Um I think it's good training.
22:10
SPEAKER_01: You know, and another thing is being a Chicagoan, like, yeah, I'm new to politics, but I'm certainly not new to Chicago.
22:15
SPEAKER_01: Right.
22:15
SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot that we kind of we we want more Chicagoans, we want more people to meet move here, but we kind of understand things as Chicagoans.
22:22
SPEAKER_01: And I think that gives me a little bit of a leg up on on some other folks that maybe are not from here.
22:26
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
22:27
SPEAKER_03: Not everyone gets the joke about lunt.
22:30
SPEAKER_03: You know what I'm saying?
22:32
SPEAKER_03: Your big lunt bit.
22:34
SPEAKER_03: You know, I grew up.
22:34
SPEAKER_01: Do you know I grew up on Lunt?
22:35
SPEAKER_01: Did you really?
22:36
SPEAKER_01: I grew up in Lunton Ridge.
22:37
SPEAKER_01: Did you?
22:38
SPEAKER_01: Oh, all right.
22:38
SPEAKER_03: That's funny.
22:38
SPEAKER_03: Because my parents, when they got married, they uh the first apartment they had was was on Lunt in Rogers Park.
22:44
SPEAKER_03: Love that.
22:45
SPEAKER_03: And then they were like, we gotta go to the south side.
22:47
SPEAKER_03: Yes, these people are whack.
22:50
SPEAKER_01: You gotta get out of here.
22:52
SPEAKER_03: I'm sick of walking under this train.
22:54
SPEAKER_03: I want it to stop me.
22:56
SPEAKER_05: Yes, yes.
22:58
SPEAKER_03: Um, well, listen, man, this is awesome.
23:00
SPEAKER_03: Excited to know you.
23:01
SPEAKER_03: I we I should divulge, we have a little bit of a personal relationship.
23:04
SPEAKER_03: I know the Stanton family.
23:06
SPEAKER_03: Um, your brother Tom runs the Danny Did Foundation, yes, which has done remarkable, tremendous work with epilepsy in children and adults.
23:17
SPEAKER_03: Um, and that's and I went to Dayton with Tom.
23:20
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
23:21
SPEAKER_03: And uh also know the Murtaughs on the other side of that family.
23:23
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, man.
23:24
SPEAKER_03: It's outside.
23:25
SPEAKER_03: When I heard you're running and saw that you're running, I was like, oh, we gotta get you in here and just help you spread the word because this is exciting, man.
23:31
SPEAKER_03: And we do need change and we need some young people, and uh this would be great.
23:35
SPEAKER_03: And we had Tom Waddell on.
23:37
SPEAKER_01: There we go.
23:37
SPEAKER_03: Hey, we had Tom Waddle on.
23:39
SPEAKER_03: I was like, hey, well, so it's white blonde day.
23:42
SPEAKER_03: White some blondes.
23:44
SPEAKER_03: Let's do it.
23:45
SPEAKER_03: No comment.
23:46
SPEAKER_03: Stack them up.
23:47
SPEAKER_01: No comment.
23:47
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, you've been you've been a great friend, you're a neighborhood guy.
23:51
SPEAKER_01: I've always really appreciated not to blow smoke, I know we're on this, but you bring you this is I really appreciate about Chicago people that have had success, and they're like, Yeah, still a neighborhood guy at your core.
24:00
SPEAKER_01: You've been great what Danny did, you're great in the city, so I hope you continue to do that, man.
24:04
SPEAKER_03: We all gotta carry the torch for Chicago.
24:06
SPEAKER_03: Uh, Dwayne also loves the city.
24:08
SPEAKER_03: Here's another guy that, you know, yeah, man, probably and has has moved off at different times.
24:14
SPEAKER_03: But there's something about this place that keeps us here and and we love it, and uh you want the best for it because this is what's happening.
24:22
SPEAKER_03: You see the talk about Chicago and one sphere of of the world or our reality, and then what is actually really happening, and this time of year it we're reminded more than ever how great our city is.
24:36
SPEAKER_03: It's the best.
24:37
SPEAKER_03: I was just running around yesterday.
24:39
SPEAKER_03: I was on North Avenue Beach with my um my son turned 13.
24:42
SPEAKER_03: Nice.
24:43
SPEAKER_03: So, this is what we do when you turn 13.
24:45
SPEAKER_03: You get to go to a hotel and have some friends sleep over.
24:49
SPEAKER_03: Did it last year, my daughter, this year, my son.
24:51
SPEAKER_03: This year we had to go in uh we did the downtown during the day, but the hotel we had to go to Rosemont because it was so expensive.
25:00
SPEAKER_03: So they're still out there right now, they're crashing Rosemont.
25:04
SPEAKER_03: I gotta go pick them up.
25:05
SPEAKER_03: Skydive place?
25:06
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no, we went we went bowling and uh but anyway, the uh I I was supposed to have this for my this started when my parents started this tradition when you turned 13.
25:16
SPEAKER_03: They brought my sisters like holodome.
25:18
SPEAKER_03: You know, it's probably like yeah, you know, now it's evolved into.
25:21
SPEAKER_03: But my my party, when I was turning 13, I had the invitations out, ready to go, had to cancel it.
25:28
SPEAKER_03: What?
25:29
SPEAKER_03: I got in trouble.
25:30
SPEAKER_01: What'd you do?
25:32
SPEAKER_03: I started baseball cards.
25:35
SPEAKER_04: That sounds about right.
25:37
SPEAKER_04: Wow.
25:38
SPEAKER_04: Wow.
25:40
SPEAKER_03: You're gonna clean up his crime in the city.
25:42
SPEAKER_01: Just that he's a good neighboring guy, to me.
25:44
SPEAKER_03: I had a digression when I was 12.
25:47
SPEAKER_03: Right.
25:48
SPEAKER_03: And I had got caught right before my birthday, but I had meanwhile I had given all this this life of crime, I'd given it up for Lent.
25:54
SPEAKER_03: Right.
25:54
SPEAKER_03: And I still got caught because my buddy hit a bunch of unopened baseball cards in his his sister's closet.
26:00
SPEAKER_03: She was away at college.
26:01
SPEAKER_03: She came home and she's like, went to her mom with all these unopened cards.
26:05
SPEAKER_03: Because he he found out they were worth more if they're unopened.
26:08
SPEAKER_03: Right.
26:08
SPEAKER_03: So he didn't unopened, he left them all wrapped.
26:11
SPEAKER_03: So she comes out, are you giving these to Bobby?
26:13
SPEAKER_03: And his mom's like, no.
26:15
SPEAKER_03: I don't know why those are in your closet.
26:17
SPEAKER_01: It's a bad place to hide the stash, man.
26:19
SPEAKER_03: She confronted Bobby, and Bobby was like, Pat did it too.
26:23
SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
26:24
SPEAKER_03: No party.
26:25
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
26:25
SPEAKER_03: Right.
26:26
SPEAKER_03: So anyway, we're gonna clean up the crime.
26:28
SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
26:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's that's priority one.
26:29
SPEAKER_03: Liam Stanton, everyone.
26:31
SPEAKER_03: Liam Stanton for mayor of Chicago.
26:34
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me, man.
26:35
SPEAKER_03: It's gonna be great, man.
26:36
SPEAKER_03: This is really ramping up now.
26:38
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, let's do it.
26:38
SPEAKER_03: It's gonna become very real.
26:40
SPEAKER_03: I'm excited to see this.
26:41
SPEAKER_01: For sure.
26:41
SPEAKER_03: It's gonna be great.
26:42
SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
26:42
SPEAKER_03: Let's go.
26:43
SPEAKER_03: And don't forget, and we're gonna set you up with some tige, some skincare.
26:47
SPEAKER_03: Are you into uh you saying moisturized during the campaign?
26:51
SPEAKER_03: You have to be moisturized, you have to be smooth.
26:53
SPEAKER_03: We're gonna be on camera a lot.
26:54
SPEAKER_03: Right.
26:54
SPEAKER_03: You don't want to set you up.
26:55
SPEAKER_03: I don't know if this goes against.
26:57
SPEAKER_03: Are you allowed to take a gift?
26:59
SPEAKER_03: We're gonna sink your campaign right here.
27:02
SPEAKER_03: We're not gonna give you any.
27:05
SPEAKER_03: And we will wait till July to sign those things.
27:07
SPEAKER_03: Right.
27:08
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, perfect.
27:08
SPEAKER_03: That sounds great.
27:09
SPEAKER_03: All right, good times.
27:10
SPEAKER_03: Liam Stanton, good luck.
27:11
SPEAKER_03: Thanks, man.
27:12
SPEAKER_03: All right, guys.
27:12
SPEAKER_03: Thank you for listening.
27:14
SPEAKER_03: We had uh, I promise you it was gonna be a banger of an episode.
27:16
SPEAKER_03: That was a full one.
27:18
SPEAKER_03: So uh don't forget to leave us a review, check us out online, watch on YouTube, and we'd love to interact with you as always and get yourself some skincare too, would you?
27:28
SPEAKER_03: Come on, stay safe out there.
27:30
SPEAKER_03: All right, guys, have a good week.
27:33
SPEAKER_02: The Pat McGann Show is brought to you by the Pat McGann Show team, producer Paula Thornton, showrunner Tom Bambera, audio engineer Tommy Grant, video production Eddie Perez, video and audio editor Madeline Curlis, organic content manager George Mos.
27:49
SPEAKER_02: Recorded at Tiege Hanley Studios in Chicago, Illinois.