A political consultant at the center of a controversy over the sealed divorce records of former Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jack Ryan now faces an investigation by DuPage County prosecutors over hundreds of candidacy petition signatures that are alleged to have been forged.
Joseph Birkett, the DuPage County state’s attorney, said Thursday that his office has opened an election-fraud investigation into allegedly phony petition signatures gathered by Rod McCulloch that forced Milton Township Assessor James Gumm to give up his bid for re-election.
After local Republicans challenged Gumm’s petitions, he spent $1,000 to retain a forensic handwriting and document analyst to review the nearly 700 signatures collected on his behalf by McCulloch. Gumm said the analyst determined “virtually every one was bad.”
McCulloch called the investigation by DuPage prosecutors “silly” and said Gumm, his former client, “can say anything he wants.”
Last year, McCulloch served as the campaign manager for John Borling, one of several rivals to Ryan in the Republican U.S. Senate primary.
Just days before the March 16 vote, McCulloch sought to derail Ryan’s candidacy by submitting affidavits to the Tribune and other media contending that he had seen then sealed records from Ryan’s divorce. McCulloch detailed what he claimed were lurid allegations leveled against Ryan in the divorce papers by his ex-wife, TV actress Jeri Ryan.
Three months later, the records were ordered unsealed by a California judge. They showed that Jeri Ryan had accused her ex-husband of trying to take her to sex clubs. But McCulloch’s earlier portrayal of her allegations was incorrect.
In the DuPage campaign, Gumm said he retained McCulloch in an effort to win a third term for Milton Township assessor as an independent after leaving the local Republican organization amid a feud. GOP officials in the township had refused to slate Gumm for re-election.
Gumm said he submitted to local election authorities nearly 1,300 signatures on re-election petitions, including nearly 700 provided by McCulloch.
While his petitions were challenged by local Republicans, Gumm said he noticed McCulloch had gathered signatures from people in Gumm’s neighborhood who later said they had not signed his petitions. After the signatures were reviewed by a handwriting and document analyst, Gumm said he lacked the 909 legitimate names required to stay on the ballot.
“All I could do is back out,” Gumm said Thursday. “I knew the right thing to do. I couldn’t stay in the race.”
McCulloch said he did not make up the signatures and said he worked with a group to obtain signatures for Gumm’s petitions.
“Every signature I got, that I know of, was genuine,” McCulloch said. “Sure, people can write `Mickey Mouse,’ but everything that I got as a signature, a human being signed it and that happened with the crew I was with.”
Gumm said he and his attorney immediately informed local prosecutors and the state attorney general’s office about the findings of the handwriting analysis.
“All I want is the state’s attorney to look into it, and we will cooperate,” Gumm said. “I don’t want [McCulloch] doing this again to anybody.”
GOP committeeman Bob Earl is the only candidate for assessor on the April ballot.
