Officials of Aurelia Pucinski`s campaign issued a warning to the news media Thursday not to fall victim to potential ”dirty tricks” by her political opponents in the final days of the heated campaign.
Former Mayor Jane Byrne, one of Pucinski`s opponents for the Democratic nomination for Circuit Court clerk, immediately labeled the warning a dirty trick in itself and said it was an indication of the desperation of the Pucinski campaign as Tuesday`s primary election day nears.
The former mayor described the written warning and a Pucinski television advertisement attacking Byrne`s record as Chicago mayor as ”sad,” ”odd”
and ”goofy.”
”When people get desperate, they resort to distortion,” Byrne said during a news conference held to unveil her first television advertisement of the campaign.
The media warning, by Thom Serafin, a Chicago-based political consultant who has been running Pucinski`s campaign, was sent to all major news outlets Thursday and gave out telephone numbers of campaign aides who could be reached for comment ”just in case you simply can`t resist printing something scurrilous.”
In the message, Serafin said, ”Our primary opponents, including the Republican (Edward Vrdolyak), have a history of being successful in other campaigns with last-minute charges.”
”As you know, most media do not print such last-minute charges, because they do not permit adequate time for response, because they are unfair, and just plain dirty,” the memo said. ”We hope you will follow this good tradition.”
Byrne, asked if she felt that the media warning from the Pucinski camp might, in itself, be a campaign dirty trick, said, ”In my judgment, yes.”
The Byrne television commercial, which aired on three stations Thursday and is scheduled for at least one airing Monday night, will bring her total primary campaign expenditures to about $100,000, Joe Pecor, her top aide, said Thursday. The Pucinski campaign reportedly will cost about twice that because of a heavy reliance on radio advertising for the last several weeks.
A third Democratic candidate, Thomas Fuller, who, along with Pucinski, serves on the Metropolitan Sanitary District board, has said he expects to spend about $50,000, primarily on advertisements on black-oriented radio stations and publications. Janice Hart, an associate of political extremist Lyndon LaRouche, is running a much lower-key campaign than her three opponents.
Vrdolyak, who is running unopposed in the Republican primary, has been waging an expensive radio advertising blitz-not promoting his clerk`s candidacy, but rather urging Cook County Democrats to follow his lead and switch their allegiances to the Republican Party.
