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James Suh
James Suh ran for election to the Chicago City Council to represent Ward 45 in Illinois. He lost in the general election on February 28, 2023.
Suh completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
James Suh was born in Illinois.[1]
Elections
2023
See also: City elections in Chicago, Illinois (2023)
General runoff election
General runoff election for Chicago City Council Ward 45
Incumbent Jim Gardiner defeated Megan Mathias in the general runoff election for Chicago City Council Ward 45 on April 4, 2023.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Jim Gardiner (Nonpartisan) | 53.6 | 9,488 | |
| Megan Mathias (Nonpartisan) | 46.4 | 8,214 | ||
| Total votes: 17,702 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
General election
General election for Chicago City Council Ward 45
The following candidates ran in the general election for Chicago City Council Ward 45 on February 28, 2023.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Jim Gardiner (Nonpartisan) | 48.0 | 7,683 | |
| ✔ | Megan Mathias (Nonpartisan) | 16.9 | 2,699 | |
 | James Suh (Nonpartisan) | 14.2 | 2,279 | |
| Susanna Ernst (Nonpartisan) | 11.8 | 1,887 | ||
| Ana Santoyo (Nonpartisan) | 5.6 | 895 | ||
| Marija Tomic (Nonpartisan) | 3.5 | 562 | ||
| Total votes: 16,005 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2023
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
James Suh completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Suh's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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In 1966, my parents immigrated to the United States from South Korea. I grew up across the street from the ward, riding my bike up to Devon Avenue to visit stores in Edgebrook and Wildwood. My mother was a long-time member of the IAMAW 141 union. From a young age, I accompanied my father every summer to work at his independently-owned HVAC business.
I earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Chicago. In addition to my small business, I have a career in information technology.
My wife and I have a young son and a school-age daughter who attends a CPS elementary school. In 2013, shortly after our daughter was born, we moved into our Old Irving Park home, and I started a small business, a hand carwash in Portage Park. I’ve run this business successfully over the past decade with an emphasis on the importance of customer service.- Public safety: We must fully fund our public safety infrastructure which includes officers, mental health services, substance abuse programs, and violence interrupters. Investing in specially trained mental health crisis first responders will allow police to focus on dangerous and violent crime. To help address the increases in suicides and mental health crises, we must provide more mental health support for those who serve and end the reliance on canceled days off to compensate for personnel shortages. We must also address the root causes of crime. We can achieve long-term results by creating job opportunities, and investing in mental health resources, schools, vocational training, and anti-violence programs.
- Economic Development: Today, our business corridors are littered with empty storefronts, while the incumbent has created contentious relationships with developers, businesses, and the community. We must do much more to attract businesses and create jobs. I will continue to advocate for community-driven development, just as I did when I successfully organized community members for the mixed-use senior housing development the incumbent tried to stop. I will create a transparent zoning review process and community advisory councils so residents and business owners have an authentic voice in local developments. I will collaborate with state reps to end the corporate tax loopholes that incentivize landlords to allow storefronts to sit vacant.
- Transparent and Accountable Governance: I am the only candidate who has worked with community members, well before deciding to run for office, to expose improper use of taxpayer dollars and civil rights violations by the incumbent. Subsequently, the FBI has launched a federal corruption investigation into Alderman Gardiner’s use of ward resources and allegations of pay-to-play. I am committed to running a professional ward office that ensures all residents receive fair treatment and quality services. In City Hall I will advocate for stronger ethics laws and the expansion of the power of the Chicago Inspector General, ensuring they have subpoena power and increased committee and city council oversight.
We must address the symptoms of decades of disinvestments in our communities which lead to crime, mental health crisis, and homelessness. I will work to increase our public safety investments and collaborate to change our approach to community safety. Too often, officers are responding to substance abuse issues and other non-violent, non-life-threatening calls. We need to invest into mental health first responders and violence interrupters, so our officers can stay focused on violent and organized crime. We need more training and mental health support to combat the increase in suicides and mental health crises among our police officers.
Every child deserves a quality school with arts, music, and athletic programming. I will fight for every school to have full-time nurses, counselors, and libraries with librarians.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2023 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on February 16, 2023
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