Mayor Lori Lightfoot among candidates filing last-minute petitions for Chicago mayoral election

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot submitted her nomination petitions to run for reelection on the deadline for candidates to file in the municipal election.

Candidates in the running for mayor must have at least 12,500 signatures of registered voters in the city.

Lightfoot filed her petitions Monday morning while two others, Congressman Chuy Garcia and Alderman Rod Sawyer, waited until the afternoon. The race for mayor now shifts into the sprint to the February 28th election.

Congressman Jesus Chuy Garcia made it official as he arrived at the Board of Elections Supersite with a host of supporters to turn in his petitions with 47,500 signatures.

"We want to be inclusive, we want to be engaging and we want to deliver a sharp message to Chicagoans about how we get Chicago back on track," Garcia said.

A short time earlier, Sawyer arrived with his own set of petitions. Though he would not specify how many he had gathered, he expressed confidence.

"Well I think that we turned in a sufficient number," Sawyer said. "We went through great pains to try and vet as many as we could."

Will Ed Burke seek reelection? Longest-serving Chicago City Council member has not filed petitions

First thing Monday morning, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her team turned in petitions with more than 40,000 signatures. This day marks a turning point in her campaign as she tries to reach out to voters asking for a second term.

"To remind them not only what we've done over the last three and a half years, but what our vision is for the next four, and why the only rational choice is to return me to office," Lightfoot said.

That's something that her host of challengers would argue against.

"I think if you ask voters across Chicagoland and other taxpayers, they're ready for a change," Garcia said.

The next phase for candidates will be reviewing signatures and possibly filing challenges against the competition in an attempt to knock them off the ballot.

"We really want to move past this and get to the real campaign and talk about issues that affect Chicagoans and that's really where I am," Sawyer said.

Mayor Lightfoot said she is not worried about the crowded field.

"I'm not worried about who gets in who doesn't get in," she said.

Because Garcia was the only candidate to file petitions between 4 and 5 p.m., he will get the last spot on the ballot and there will be no lottery. But the candidates who all filed last Monday morning will be in a lottery drawing for the first slot on the ballot. That will happen on December 6.

Election Day is February 28.

Longtime Chicago Alderman Ed Burke did not file a petition to run for a 15th term on the City Council representing the 14th Ward.