John O’Neill Wastes a Morning

One of the dirty little tricks of campaigning is to file a nuisance complaint about your opponent’s campaign with the Illinois State Board of Elections.

Of course, you don’t do it yourself. You get one of your supporters to do so.

One of Democrat Jack Franks’ supporters did just that.

The location of complaintant Gail Wood's address near Johnsburg.

Her name is Gail Wood and she lives at 3311 Countryside in McHenry. Her complaint was notarized by Mary McGuiggan. (Anyone know who she works for?)

With absolutely no factual knowledge, Wood complained about a robo-call made by Republican challenger John O’Neill:

“The Committee to Elect John O’Neill by information and belief performed automated phone calls on 10/12/2010 believed to be financed by a third party contribution.

“Under statutory provision, contributions including in-kind contributions received in aggregate in excess of $500 would be required to be reported within two business days on a schedule A-1 to the Illinois State Board of Elections. Candidate failed to file A-1.”

Now, doesn’t that “by information and belief” legal jargon make you think an attorney wrote the complaint for Wood?

To answer the charge, a Chicago appearance was required by either an attorney, your campaign chairman or treasurer or you, yourself, the candidate.

That’s where John O’Neill spent his morning.

He took his check:

Check John O'Neill used to pay for his robo-call.

His hearing was scheduled for 10 AM and O’Neill, at Dee Road on the ride home, told me the woman who complained did not even bother to show up.

She left a voice mail this morning with the Board of Elections saying that she was out of the country.

Isn’t that special?

The Franks’ campaign must be really nervous.

And after a stunt like this, they deserve to be worried about their candidate’s chances for re-election.

Too bad Republicans are willing to be satisfied by a representative who will support Mike Madigan for re-election while pretending and professing to be an independent.


Comments

John O’Neill Wastes a Morning — 2 Comments

  1. Remember when Perry Moy’s petitions were challenged over a residence issue in the Moy vs. Franks race? There were rumors at the time that Jack Franks had put the complaining party up to it.

    One of the rights we enjoy in this country is the right to object to a politician without fear of getting our heads chopped off. But the objection should be proper and valid. In today’s case, for the complaining party not even to show up was inexcusable.

    I do recall the disinterest of Gary Pack, who was on the Election Board for the Moy hearing. Pack was late both mornings. As I recall his tie was down on the first morning and, on the second morning, he looked like he had just jumped out of bed and had run for the hearing. I considered it insulting behavior directed at the complaining party.

    At the end of the hearing, Mark Gummerson, representing Moy, beseeched the hearing panel to assess the charges for the hearing against the complaining party. The panel denied his request, which seemed to me to be made just to please Moy and his backers.

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