As Sales-Griffin struggled through the event with no prepared remarks, he increasingly noted how poorly things were going. Near the end, he offered up some explanations: He had been up late the night before on a "hackathon" trying to get his campaign site launched and was awake at 6 a.m. watching TV debates from the 2015 mayor's race to prepare for possible questions. Sales-Griffin also said he had spent too much time in recent days "draining my savings" and "asking my friends for more of their money" to help bankroll the free "Neal for Mayor" campaign signs and the black-and-white "MAYOR" T-shirts that were for sale.