The day may come years from now when Kevin Lamm, his legacy in politics secure, will look back on what happened last Thursday and laugh.

On his side Lamm has state senator Miguel del Valle, a politician so independent he refuses patronage, and the usual collection of hardworking and well-intended activists and reformers who usually get bashed.

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He certainly has an unusual background for Chicago politics–our own Mr. Deeds come to the big city. He was raised in Rock City, a small town in northwestern Illinois. His father was a truck driver and chief of the volunteer fire department; his mother was a sales rep for Avon. He graduated from Dakota High School, where he wrestled (losing in his senior year to the eventual state champ) and played football. “We had 14 guys on the team,” says Lamm. “In one game we only had 11 healthy guys and none of us could come off the field no matter what.”

So Lamm enrolled at the University of Illinois at Chicago, married Sandra Mylander, had two children, and moved to Logan Square, where he’s been living ever since. “At the university I got involved in student politics in a big way,” says Lamm. “I spent two years as a student member of the board of trustees. I won by only two votes in the first campaign. My issues were tuition and student fees; I said they were too high. We raised hell. That’s when I first learned about the power vested in Springfield–that’s where the state’s money’s controlled.”

The district runs along the Chicago River from Halsted and Division past Lawrence and Kimball. It includes portions of Logan Square, Avondale, Albany Park, and Bucktown. No other candidate has announced (the election’s not until February). But Lamm has to start early because he’s such an underdog.

Tom Slawson may not be the best-known businessman in Chicago, but he’s certainly among the more outspoken.

In other words, buy local or pay the consequences. “When our customers do well, so do we, and when we do well, so too do our employees, their families, the businesses they patronize and the communities in which they live,” he wrote. “Seen this way, the cycle from company to customer is not a straight line, but a closed loop.”