DC: I know family is an important part of your life. Describe the conversation that you had with your wife, daughter, close friends that ultimately played a part in your decision to run for mayor.
LL: By the time I started having conversations with my wife Amy, I was most of the way there, but I couldn’t have done it if she didn’t feel like it was right for us or our family and wasn’t going to be one hundred and ten percent along for the journey. I will tell you that she was not enthusiastic about the idea when I first mentioned it to her and there were times when we would have passing conversations, but she really didn’t want to engage. But eventually over time she got there. I think it was because we both love our city and we want a future here for us and our daughter. Both of us were city employees, and we know that there is a lot that city government should be doing to help transform the lives of people. As we talked through hours and hours of conversations, I became more convinced and I think she also became convinced that it was the right thing to do. There wasn’t anybody else in the race that really spoke to the values that we thought were important to be part of the discussion about what should be the relationship between the government and the governed. We thought a lot about what it was going to mean for us as a couple and as a family. How to make sure that our daughter had the most positive experience that she could. When we revealed to our daughter Vivian that we were going to do this, we wanted to make sure that we were creating a protective bubble around her to ensure that while there would be times when I was not as present as before, I would still always be there for her. Amy and I committed to each other that we would constantly check in to make sure that we were all okay and that we were doing everything we could to make sure that Vivian continued to lead the same kind of normal life. We just wanted to make sure that we weren’t depriving her of what she needed for her childhood because I was pursuing becoming the mayor of the city.