Ambrosio Medrano was hardly the first Chicago alderman booted out of office after a corruption conviction, but if the Near Southwest Side Democrat has his way, he may be the first to try to recapture his seat after doing his time in prison.
In an act of either political principle or remarkable chutzpah, Medrano filed suit Friday in Cook County Circuit Court seeking to overturn an Illinois law barring convicted felons from holding municipal office because the same restriction doesn’t apply to those convicted of crimes who seek state office.
Medrano contends that the statute bars him from running for alderman, but not for governor, attorney general or the state legislature.
People who have paid their debt to society “shouldn’t have doors closed on them,” the former alderman said. “It is much like, When do you forgive a child when he has done something wrong? Do you hold it against him for the rest of his life? Are you going to continue to punish him? I don’t think that is fair.”
Medrano’s four-year aldermanic career came to an abrupt end when prosecutors in the federal Silver Shovel probe charged in January 1996 that he pocketed about $31,000 from government mole John Christopher to help obtain licenses and work from the city.
Caught red-handed, Medrano quickly pleaded guilty to extortion and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. He was released July 7, 1998, after serving 21 months at the federal facility in Oxford, Wis., a prison that has been temporary home over the years to a formidable list of corrupt Chicago politicians.
But now, Medrano said, “hundreds” of former constituents in the 25th Ward are urging him to run again, some even stopping him on the street to make their plea.
“I think many, many people in my ward are very dissatisfied with the local elected representative they have now and, in spite of what happened to me, have not cast me aside. Instead, they have picked me up and dusted me off and said, `Get on with your life. You accepted your responsibility when you made your mistake.'”
But the law stands in the way of his supporters’ wishes, he said.
Suburban cases
The 1993 amendment to the state election statute barring convicted felons from local office was passed after onetime City Clerk Walter Kozubowski refused to resign until his sentencing, months after his conviction on corruption charges.
The double standard that now applies to local and state office-seekers amounts to “a denial of equal protection,” asserted Burton Odelson, an election law expert and old friend of Medrano’s who advised him on the suit. “It is my view it is unconstitutional and will be proven unconstitutional.”
Circuit Court judges have found the law unconstitutional in two suburban cases in the last few years. One involved Victor Watts, a Country Club Hills alderman convicted of armed robbery as a teenager; the other involved Donald Luster, who was elected mayor of Dixmoor in 2001, 10 years after he pleaded guilty to a robbery charge.
But there has never been an Appellate Court ruling on the law’s constitutionality that would have broad application, Odelson said.
Attorney Lawrence Suffredin Jr. agreed that Medrano has a good legal argument.
“I think it’s a strange provision that says you can hold higher office, but not lower office,” he said.
Suffredin, himself now a candidate for the Cook County Board, represented Chicago Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) in 1998 when Burnett wanted to run for re-election and sought executive clemency.
Convicted for his part in a Kankakee robbery when he was 17, Burnett first was elected in 1995 after his opponents failed to challenge his candidacy under provisions of the law. But with a challenge likely in his 1999 run, the alderman asked forgiveness from Springfield.
Only a pardon by then-Gov. Jim Edgar cleared the way for his successful campaign.
The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, which was named a defendant in Medrano’s suit, welcomes a decision in his case, said Thomas Leach, a board spokesman.
“We don’t make law,” he said. “We don’t interpret law. That is up to the courts. … Certainly we would like to have clarity on the issue.”
Medrano, 48, said he “tried to make the best” of his time in prison.
“I read a lot,” he said. “I wrote a lot. I taught GED while I was there. You try not to let it play on your mind. I didn’t become bitter.”
Married and the father of a daughter, 19, and son, 24, the former aldermen said he has worked for the last three years as a marketing representative for Fonovisa, a California-based Hispanic record company.
He believes that people in his ward appreciate his candor.
“I think it was a such a breath of fresh air for many people to hear that when a politician got caught up in something like this that he actually came forward and said, `I made a mistake, but this is where it is going to end,'” he said. “I am not going to blame anybody. I am not going to say the government came after me. I am not going to say I was trapped.
“You know what? Whether I was trapped or not, I fell for the bait and there is no excuse for it. Nobody held a gun to my head. Nobody forced me. … I stepped up to the plate and accepted whatever consequences were to come.”
Solis is successor
Medrano’s political instincts did not desert him in his absence.
People in the ward complain that Ald. Danny Solis, who succeeded him, “isn’t very accessible and is not visible at all in the community,” he said Friday.
“People also have said that if you have a disagreement with him, you are out. There is no room for disagreement.”
Solis was unavailable for comment.
Solis was embarrassed earlier this year when the Tribune reported that a security company co-owned by his brother was awarded a $2.9 million city contract in violation of the city’s ethics ordinance. The pact ultimately was canceled because the alderman’s brother and a partner were city employees.
But if there is a face-off with Medrano in next February’s aldermanic election, Solis is expected to have the support of Mayor Richard Daley. Solis is a solid backer of the mayor, and Daley last year chose him to be president pro tem of the City Council.
