DC: Your mayoral victory was not only a historical win for Chicago, but it was also an inspirational story to people around the world. Explain your thought process in taking on those doubters that didn’t think you had a chance win.
LL: You can’t get into something like politics, and certainly not aspire to be the mayor of the third largest city against a very monied and tough incumbent like Rahm Emanuel and not have confidence in yourself. I’m a trial lawyer so I believe in preparation. Both my wife and I spent a lot of time with our close friends and started to assemble a team thinking about if it was even possible and if so, what was the path. When you jump into the deep end of the pool when nobody expects you to, and when you’re not part of the political machine, it wasn’t surprising to me that people were doubting the possibility. But I had a clear sense of vision of what I wanted to try to accomplish, not only just in victory, but by raising a series of issues and that brought voices into the narrative that hadn’t been heard. I feel like I was very steadfast and focused on making sure that I was true to the things that I wanted to accomplish over the course of the campaign. I’m not going to tell you that it was easy. The terrain shifted pretty dramatically multiple times, and not just when Rahm Emmanuel got out of the race and all of the new people jumped in, but also with the whole scandal around public integrity and corruption. Then once I got into the run-off and experienced the real vicious nature of the campaign waged by my opponent, I knew it was going to be tough, because it was so nasty and so personal. That’s the kind of thing that really tests you and during in the middle of all that I broke my hand by falling down a flight of steps right before Thanksgiving. I broke three fingers, had to have surgery, six pins inserted and I’m still going through physical therapy to get full range and mobility back in my hand. So, I know about being tough under difficult circumstances.