A Later Addition to the Mayoral Race, Candidate Jerry Walker Says Volunteers, Not Cash, Will Lead to City Hall


By Matt Hunger ? Apr 4th, 2013 ?

Jerry Walker, a mayoral candidate as of late January, is playing catch up. That doesn?t mean he can?t win, he maintains, it just means he has his work cut out for him.

Indeed, Walker?s mayoral rivals have head starts opening Ward headquarters, holding fundraisers, and sending out campaign literature. They had a head start putting together Council slates, which is why Walker only has seven Council candidates out of nine possible.

But for the next six weeks until election day, the bigger name candidates? years of planning won?t matter much, in terms of strategy. Big money can lead to voter fatigue ? tired of the commercials, the mailers, the squabbling over minor details of campaign literature? Not a problem for Walker?s campaign.

At just about $40,000 raised (as compared to a million-and-a-half between Mayor Jerramiah Healy and Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop), the road to his potential mayoralty is not littered with check deposit slips. Nor will it be bogged down by owed favors or direct lines to his office by big business developers. ?I?m not going to owe anyone anything,? he says. ?I?m here for the people.?

What wins a long-shot campaign, says Walker, is hard work. ?I?m going door-to-door,? he says. ?I?m a hard working man.?

Platitudes like these are plentiful for Walker. ?I?m a blue collar guy, I?ll give 110%, I don?t quit.? All phrases perfected as a former basketball star, likely uttered in late-game time-out huddles. And any student of basketball knows those twenty-point deficits are chipped away a bucket at a time. Defiance of the odds comes with perspiring on gyms? hardwood floors all over the nation, after all.

But Walker is, of course, far more than a former basketball hometown hero. He?s the founder of Team Walker, a youth-enrichment nonprofit, and has run it for 17 years. That?s ages in the world of local non-profits. It?s where his leadership acumen comes from, he says, and his vision and direction. It means connections with the community in ways other candidates simply do not have. In that time, Walker?s helped countless youth with academics and extracurricular activities like sports. ?They go hand-in-hand,? he says. The nonprofit gives kids who want to avoid trouble a place to go.

One of Walker?s favorite phrases is, ?It takes a village.? That?s his approach to just about everything: education, policing ? ?we should know our police officers on the corner personally,? he says ? recreation opportunities, transportation solutions, and, yes, even zoning problems.

Want to find out where the illegally rented apartment units in the city are located? It?ll take a village, which is built on trust.

?The only way we can find out about the [illegal renting] is winning back the trust of the people, and that means letting them know they?re not in trouble, but we need their fare share,? Walker says.

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