LEGAL INSURRECTION: Political operatives went door to door to revoke signatures he needed to get on the ballot . . . Chicago style.
A student at DePaul University decided to run for political office this year. He set his sights on an alderman seat in Chicago which hasn’t been challenged since 1991.
He soon learned that the Chicago machine wasn’t going to give up its power easily, even if that meant resorting to fraud.
John Kass reports at the Chicago Tribune:
A college kid running for 13th Ward alderman gets a lesson in the Chicago Way
It’s overkill of epic proportions, like using a sledgehammer to kill a gnat, or firing off a nuclear weapon to kill a sparrow. A Southwest Side David vs. Goliath story.
The David is David Krupa, 19, a freshman at DePaul University who drives a forklift part time. He’s not a political powerhouse. He’s just a conservative Southwest Side teenager studying political science and economics who got it in his head to run for alderman in a race that pits him against the most powerful ward organization in Chicago.
The Goliath is the 13th Ward Democratic Organization run by House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, aka Boss Madigan, the most powerful politician in the state. Boss Madigan has long hand-picked his aldermen. He likes them loyal and quiet. The current silent alderman of the 13th Ward is Marty Quinn.
Krupa did what he was supposed to do to get on the ballot. Then the machine undid it all: MORE
Madigan! The kid’s lucky he didn’t end up Clintoned by which I mean suicided by shooting himself seven or eight times in the back. Chicago has to be the dirtiest city on the face of the earth and that includes the republics that made up the late and unlamented USSR.
Setting aside for the moment all the fraudulent revocation affidavits (but only for the moment), Krupa turned in 1,703 signatures originally, had 187 of those signatures revoked, leaving him with 1,516 valid unrevoked signatures. He needed only 473, meaning he had 3.2 times as many signatures as required. Any honest election board would decide he would be on the ballot.
Too bad the election board and their bosses are all despicable crooks prone to fraud and violence.
I remember when Mike Royko used to write about this crap.
Always loved his columns.
This is what the kid is up against. I wish him the best.
https://www.revolvy.com/page/Michael-Madigan
“Too bad the election board and their bosses are all despicable crooks prone to fraud and violence.”
…sooo…they’re Democrats, @Uncle Al?
…no one will ever be prosecuted or even investigated, unless it can somehow be blamed on Trump. And if the kid doesn’t take the hint, well, forklift accidents are pretty common, and I suspect the City would send his grieving family condolences that, oddly enough, were postmarked BEFORE the accident happened…
So they require “valid” signatures for a conservative, but a Democrat candidate, just ink on the dotted line?
That he found 1703 republican voters is amazing in of itself.
“That he found 1703 republican voters is amazing in of itself.”
…that he found 1703 voters that would ADMIT to voting Republican is the REALLY amazing part, @Engelburka Engelburka.
Those folks are now known Downtown. They’re gonna start having code violations, zoning problems, tax audits, permit issues, parking violations, garbage not being picked up, and the police will be too busy elsewhere to respond to the sudden rise in crime in thier neighborhood. And, if something were to, you know, “happen” to their house (address is on the petition), the unions for the bulding contractors may not be returning calls promply either, capiche?
…and Chicago’s pretty big on banning guns, so the Chicago police might have to go in and make sure they don’t have any, just to make sure everyone’s safe, you know…
Democrats. It’s what they do.
@scr_north December 9, 2018 at 12:23 am
> The kid’s lucky he didn’t end up Clintoned
Nineteen years old. Identifying as “male”(ish). And he decides to make The United States a better place. By pledging The Party.
You’re right. He’s lucky he got The Chicago, rather than the Arkansas, way. The rest of us would be safer the other way around.
For over 150 years ChiTown and NY,Ny have vied for “The most Corrupt City in America!”> When Hoover picked FBI agents to clean up the city and its crooked Judges he screened out men who had ever lived in Ill or spent time in ChiTown. He wanted honest men who were UNTOUCHABLE.. A popular TV show was so named in honor of these men; but since it was “Xenophobic” it was canceled after a few years; and XENOPHOBIC shows do not have reruns! The outlanders some said the show was against were Sicilians. But the crooked judges were named: Fitzpatrick, Riley, Smith …. not a 1 had Sicallian ancestors!