Cook County Assessor Thomas Hynes filed petitions Monday to run for mayor in the April 7 general election and denied suggestions that the nearly 70,000 persons who signed his third-party petitions will not be able to vote in the Feb. 24 primary.
Mayor Harold Washington and Ald. Edward Vrdolyak (10th) have both contended that there could be challenges against the eligibilty of Hynes signers to vote in the primary, and former Mayor Jane Byrne is concerned that the confusion will only serve to keep voters away from the polls next month.
Those lost votes, the Byrne strategists worry, could cost her the Democratic nomination, because they believe most of Hynes` supporters would vote for her in the primary.
In another political development Monday, a petition was filed in federal court charging that last week`s City Hall press conference featuring women city employees praising the mayor was organized in violation of the federal ”Shakman Decree.” The decree forbids forcing employees to engage in political activities as a condition of employment.
The petition seeks to have the mayor and the city held in contempt. It characterizes the press conference as a ”partisan political activity of the Harold Washington mayoral campaign committee.”
”Employees who were so caused or permitted to appear at the press conference, did so while employed by the City of Chicago, were caused and permitted to perform partisan political work and were compensated by the city or on the payroll during that period,” the petition states.
The press conference, orchestrated by the mayor`s staff, included a cross section of 200 women employees criticizing Byrne for saying that most of the women hired by the mayor were given low-paying jobs.
The petition was filed by attorney John O. Demaret on behalf of Karen Boehning. It was assigned to U.S. Dist. Judge Susan Getzendanner for a hearing next Monday.
When Hynes filed as a mayoral candidate Monday, it was the second time he has done so. Hynes, the 19th Ward Democratic committeeman, earlier filed in the Democratic primary, but withdrew when it became apparent that Washington would seek the party`s nomination rather than run as an independent.
Hynes` withdrawal from the primary race gave Byrne her desired one-on-one face-off against Washington. There is also one minor candidate on the Democratic ballot, Sheila Jones, a disciple of political extremist Lyndon LaRouche.
Vrdolyak, the Cook County Democratic chairman, filed for mayor under the banner of the Illinois Solidarity Party, created by former Sen. Adlai Stevenson in his run for governor last year.
Hynes, who is generally considered to represent the wing of the Democratic Party loyal to State`s Atty. Richard M. Daley, then pressed ahead with his alternative of creating a new party, Chicago First, for his mayoral bid.
Although 25,000 signatures were required, Hynes` supporters collected and filed nearly 70,000 signatures, according to his press secretary, Robert Benjamin, because of expected challenges to many of the signatures.
But that did not remove the threat of another challenge to potential voters who signed the Hynes petitions if they show up at the polls on Feb. 24. Although Washington said he would not himself challenge the voters who signed the Hynes petitions, Washington political insiders said the mayor`s strategists have been discussing such a plan for the past several weeks.
Vrdolyak, whose name will appear on primary ballots because he is running from an established party, has conceded that the 7,000 people who signed his petitions cannot legally vote in the primary.
Hynes and Vrdolyak, both of whom are courting Byrne supporters for the general election, have each been trying to portray the other as the spoiler in the mayoral race should Byrne lose the primary. Vrdolyak has endorsed Byrne while Hynes has remained neutral in the battle for the Democratic nomination. Election law experts said Monday there are no court cases answering the question of whether Hynes` petition signers can vote in the primary.
Thomas Leach, spokesman for the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, said that the board`s counsel, Michael Levinson, put out a brief memorandum saying there is nothing in the law prohibiting them from voting, but the board has not ruled on the subject.
Al Zimmer, general counsel of the Illinois State Board of Elections, said he also sees nothing in the law that would prevent them from voting.
Zimmer said the law specifically says that a signer of a nominating petition for a candidate in a primary cannot pick a ballot of another party in the primary. That is what prevents the signers of Vrdolyak`s petitions for the Illinois Solidarity Party, which is already established and will be in the primary, from choosing a Democratic or Republican ballot.
The law also saws that a signer of a petition for an independent candidate cannot vote in the primary, Zimmer said. But the law is silent on the signer of a petition for a new third party, such as Hynes` Chicago First, which will not be in the primary, Zimmer said.
Since the law is so specific on when petition signers cannot vote but is silent on the situation facing Hynes, the Hynes petition signers ”probably have a pretty good chance of escaping a challenge,” said Zimmer.
Hynes said the issue was researched carefully and is one reason he decided to run as a new, third-party candidate and not as an independent.
As the creator of a new party, Hynes has to file a slate for all three city-wide offices, so his petitions also listed two supporters as nominal running mates for city clerk and treasurer. However, Hynes will eventually endorse the re-election of Democratic incumbents Walter Kozubowski for clerk and Cecil Partee for treasurer, Benjamin said.
The Chicago First nominees are, for clerk, Elizbeth Pedroza, a nurse whose husband, Al, is an employee in the assessor`s office, and, for treasurer, Peggy Ann Roth, a school teacher active in the organization of 43d Ward Democratic committeeman Ann Stepan, who supports Hynes.
Also on Monday, the mayor was scheduled to announce that $20 million in rehabilitation of low-income housing would be begun by the Chicago Housing Partnership in 1987 as part of a public-private initiative. Washington administration officials said the mayor would be joined in the announcement by Larry Fuller, president of Amoco Crop., and Daryl Grisham, president of the Parker House Sausage Co.
In a prepared text, Washington said the city would contribute $5.2 million of the total to rehab 434 units of low-income housing on the West, South and North Sides.
In 1986, Washington said, the city committed $6.1 million in financing to complete $26 million in low-income apartment projects. Washington said the initiative is the first of its kind in the U.S. and was begun when federal housing funds declined.
”Two short years ago, in spite of doubters and worriers, people acted with foresight and courage to meet the pressing need of low- and moderate-income housing in our city,” Washington said.
”Members of the corporate community and the neighborhood housing movement came together with the city as never before seen in this nation. Through this unique process, we are able now to build housing that is of the finest quality and still affordable.
