On Tuesday, workers for losing Democratic senatorial candidate Dan Hynes milled about the office of Ald. Margaret Laurino of the 39th Ward, scene of a bit of traditional hardball Chicago politics.
Precinct workers outside polling places in the 39th Ward offered voters competing, contradicting “Official Democratic Sample Ballots.”
The ward office’s truly official ballot, signed by Laurino and Ward Committeeman Randy Barnette, asked voters to pick Hynes. Another “39th Ward Official Democratic Sample Ballot” supported Blair Hull for the Senate.
Nick Acciari, 43, spent the afternoon passing out the pro-Hull sample ballots in the 39th Ward. Acciari, who identified himself as a city Streets and Sanitation Department worker, said he was working for Ald. Richard Mell, boss of the neighboring 33rd Ward, and father-in-law of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, to whom Hull had donated $250,000.
Asked to explain which “official” sample ballot was really official, Acciari said: “They’re all official.”
“I’m doing whatever the boss says,” Acciari said, discounting complaints from Hynes supporters. “It’s America. Is there a law against that?”
There was plenty of grumbling about it back at Laurino’s headquarters.
“It’s dirty politics,” said 39th Ward volunteer Peter Dunne. “The next time the governor is running, we’ll go over to Mell’s ward and support the opponent,” Dunne said. “But that’s my private opinion. I don’t want to get [Laurino] in trouble.”
Laurino declined to finger Mell’s camp for the distribution. But she added: “You shouldn’t distribute literature that doesn’t say where it’s from. I’ll talk to my colleagues about it and see what they have to say.
