A year ago, McHenry County Recorder of Deeds Joe Tirio was running against former McHenry City Clerk Janice Dalton.
Dalton didn’t have much of a campaign if one leaves out the smear pieces from Jack Franks’ allies calling themselves the Illinois Integrity Fund.
One of the smear pieces intended to soften Joe Tirio up for the fall campaign against Democratic Party County Clerk candidate Andrew Giorgi.
There was a joint piece with County Clerk Mary McClellan, then a candidate for Judge.
McHenry County Clerk Mary McClellan mailed this postcard in support of Janice Dalto, the woman she wanted to replace her in office.
Although probably not a play on the title of the Jack Franks’ allies’ Illinois Integrity, the back of the Mary McClellan mailing is headlined with the words “Integrity,” “Honesty” and “Fairness.”
Besides the positive piece in which McClellan and Dalton were promoted, however, there was the following robo-call:
Hi. This is Janice Dalton.
I’m your Republican candidate for McHenry County Clerk.
I am the most qualified candidate, having served 16 years as the City of McHenry’s clerk, running an efficient, ethical, and transparent office.
My opponent, Joe Tirio, has been overcharging customers and using a secret taxpayer- financed slush fund to take trips and pad his payroll with patronage workers.
I will put an end to Tirio’s overcharging the taxpayers and stop his shady practice of covert patronage hires.
Please vote Janice Dalton for McHenry County Clerk.
Paid for and approved by me, Janice Dalton.
It does not take a lot of imagination to conclude that the author of the defamatory direct mail against Tirio had a hand in Dalton’s phone call.
Mary McCellan; honesty, integrity and fairness in the same sentence?
Good thing the voters didn’t fall for this whopper!
and both pieces mailed on the Breaker Press postal permit?
Nah, just a coincidence, has to be!
Just to be clear. You have no evidence other than they both used the phrase “slush fund,” correct?
Are there any companies, businesses, in McHenry County that print color flyers and could do jobs for McHenry County citizens and candidates?
These two sentences bear an uncanny resemblance to the Illinois Integrity Fund language:
“My opponent, Joe Tirio, has been overcharging customers and using a secret taxpayer- financed slush fund to take trips and pad his payroll with patronage workers.
“I will put an end to Tirio’s overcharging the taxpayers and stop his shady practice of covert patronage hires.”
When she is added as defendant to defamation suit (“overcharging taxpayers” is accusation or assertion of criminal offense), discovery is allowed.
If she paid for her political messages with her own funds (funds with legitimate provenance after recent bankruptcy), and wrote the ad copy herself and did not transmit copy to anyone else (as she testified in court), she will have no reason to fear perjury charge.