Political Candidates In Chicago Heights Face Petition Challenges

CHICAGO HEIGHTS, IL — A number of political candidates in the 2019 Chicago Heights election appeared before the city's electoral board on Tuesday to begin their defense of petition challenges during a special meeting. All four mayoral candidates, as well as at least one aldermanic candidate in the city's 3rd, 5th and 7th ward races face challenges to their petitions, which were filed before the end of November.

RELATED: Mayoral, City Council Races Could Be Challenged In Chicago Heights

Ultimately, no final decisions were made on whether or not the petition challenges would hold up as the matter in both the mayoral and aldermanic races was continued to Dec. 21. But the meeting did provide a brief glimpse into who is challenging who and on what grounds.

The electoral board in Chicago Heights, as stated by law, consists of the mayor, city clerk and senior member of the city council. All three - David Gonzalez, Lori Wilcox and Vincent Zaranti - were present for the aldermanic meeting, while Gonzalez was not there for the mayoral petition challenges.

At least two candidates, mayoral hopeful Arthur Wiggins Jr. and 7th Ward aldermanic post seeker John Daniel Jr., have filed petitions seeking the entire board recuse itself.

"Every person involved here has a conflict of interest that is substantial to this case and should not be involved in this," Wiggins said before the board on Tuesday.

He pointed to Wilcox' efforts in the Bloom Township committeeman race earlier this year to have Wiggins name removed from the ballot.

Wiggins told Patch after the meeting that he will need to have the motion regarding the panel recusing itself by Dec. 14 and that a response would be due by Dec. 19.

Daniel was told during the aldermanic meeting by a spokesman for the board that he did not properly file the motion by not providing a "proof of service" to Tiffany Nelson-Jaworski, the attorney who represents the objectors in the aldermanic races.

"I didn't have a clue as to who this person was (referring to Nelson-Jaworski), so how could I provide proof of service?" Daniel asked.

The objection to Wiggins' petition effectively stems from the claim that the candidate tried to bypass the February primary election.

Wiggins himself is challenging the petitions of Gonzalez and Ghiles in the mayoral race. Michael Stebel and Ruben Reynoso have petition challenges in against Wiggins, Ghiles and Joshua Deabel (all three challengers to the incumbent Gonzalez) in the mayoral race as well as against 5th Ward aldermanic candidate George Brassea.

Brassea was represented by Attorney Ed Mullen of Bucktown Law, who said his client will file a motion to strike the objection and that the objectors will have a chance to respond.

"I was hoping to argue today, and was prepared to argue today," Mullen said after the meeting.

Mullen says all three legal objections to Brassea's petitions "should all be overruled by the board."

One, that a statement of economic interest had not been signed when filed, to which Mullen said "we got the statement of economic interest from County Clerk and it was signed."

Another part of the objection was that Brassea allegedly did not make it clear which ward office he was seeking. But Mullen says that his petitions stated "5th Ward" in huge, bold letters when they were turned in.

Also, all four 3rd Ward aldermanic hopefuls face petition challenges. Candidate Denise Manuel has challenged the three others and is herself challenged by Nathan Davis and Erika Hunter.

Here's a look at the full list of petition challenges in the city.

See the videos below, shot live via Brassea's Facebook page. They show a portion of both the hearings for the mayoral and aldermanic candidates.

Patch file photo / Tim Moran