THE LOOP (WBBM Newsradio) -- Mayor Brandon Johnson's campaign to win a second term as Chicago's chief executive faced new questions Monday, after a competing candidate filed formal challenges to his nominating petitions.
Candidates challenging the legality of opponents' petition signatures is a common Chicago political tradition, but the issues alleged by rival candidate Willie Wilson and his representatives could raise serious questions about the mayor's ability to stay in the February 23 citywide election, and potentially lead to the unprecedented scenario of a sitting mayor being bounced from the ballot.
Former state Sen. Rickey Hendon arrived at the Chicago Board of Elections offices, 69 W. Washington St., late Monday afternoon with several colleagues to file paperwork alleging that the mayor filed numerous photocopied nominating petitions on October 23, as well as petitions with the name of Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin at the top instead of his. They also claim they found numerous signatures of people who were not registered to vote in Chicago.
"Very sloppy - very messy," Hendon said of the mayor's filing. "Someone should be fired ... whoever prepared it for him."
Hendon said he counted 4,967 valid signatures filed on behalf of the mayor, compared with the 12,500 needed to be on the ballot.
"I also saw the big sets of duplicate signatures ... photocopied signatures," said attorney Michael Dorf, who was filing other challenges on behalf of mayoral candidate and Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias. "I wasn't crazy about them. I think he did it late."
However, Dorf said he was not filing challenges to the mayor's signatures.
It'll be up to election judges to determine whether the Wilson campaign's objections are valid, and Mayor Johnson's campaign will have an opportunity to prove his signers are registered to vote in Chicago. The mayor's campaign manager Christian Perry released a statement late Monday: "Mayor Johnson's campaign is confident we have more than enough signatures to withstand a challenge."
Copied petitions, wrong names cited; campaign says it's "confident"
Copied petitions, wrong names cited; campaign says it's "confident"
