Politics & Government

Sodaro Challenge Headed to Court on Monday

Cook County Judge Robert Bertucci is expected to decided on Valentine's Day whether to send a challenge filed against trustee candidate Dan Sodaro back to the Oak Lawn Village Board for an evidence hearing.

A Cook County judge is poised to decide whether to send an appeal back to the Oak Lawn Village Electoral Board or uphold its decision from last month to dismiss an objection filed against a village board trustee’s nominating petitions.

Judge Robert Bertucci will review the appeal Monday morning and determine if the objection should go back to the village electoral board for an evidence hearing. Bertucci also can uphold the decision, in which case the decision may be appealed to a higher court.

Oak Lawn resident Andy Skoundrianos filed an against the nominating petitions of village trustee candidate Dan Sodaro. Skoundrianos maintains that Sodaro violated state election laws when circulating his nominating petitions to put his name on the April 5 ballot.

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On Jan. 21, electoral board members Mayor Dave Heilmann and Trustee Jerry Hurckes voted to the objection because of a typo that incorrectly named the office sought by Sodaro as “Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County.” Sodaro is challenging longtime incumbent Bob Streit for the village board’s 3rd District seat.

The electoral board also dismissed claims of false circulator affidavits and a pattern of fraud.

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Village Clerk Jane Quinlan was the lone dissenter. In a of the decision before a village board meeting last month, Quinlan read a statement into the record that she did not believe her fellow electoral board members followed the law when they voted to dismiss the objection.

In her motion to dismiss the objection, Sodaro’s attorney Keri-Lyn Krafthefer successfully argued before the village electoral board that the typo was a “fatal error” that invalidated Skoundrianos’ challenge.

Dennis Brennan, the attorney representing Skoundrianos said that Heilmann and Hurckes didn’t bother to read the case law he presented that upheld other candidate challenges that contained typos.

According to a court memorandum that will be heard on Monday, Brennan said that because the elected office was named correctly in the body of the objection petition, it should not be dismissed based on the wrong political office where it asks that Sodaro’s name not be printed on the ballot.

The memorandum further states that:

  • The village electoral board used the typo to shield the candidate (Sodaro) from allegations of perjury and fraud, which are grounds for terminating his candidacy for board trustee.
  • Skoundrianos was held to a “higher standard” when the electoral board ignored evidence of false circulator affidavits, signatures from unregistered voters and signatures that were not genuine.
  • Trustee Jerry Hurckes should have excused himself from serving on the electoral board because he is running (unopposed) for re-election in the 1st District, creating “bias” that denied Skoundrianos a fair hearing.
  • Hurckes further harbored “ill will” because of an unsuccessful defamation case against Brennan in 2005.
  • Heilmann and Hurckes “had a personal interest and bias” in the outcome of the hearing because of their personal friendships with Sodaro and one of his circulators, Lynn Craig.

Krafthefer characterized the attempt to throw her client’s name off the ballot as “throwing everything against the wall and seeing what sticks.” She has also described the charges in Skoundrianos’ petition as being and impossible to defend.

During the electoral board proceedings, Sodaro survived a at the Cook County Clerk’s office where the 96 signatures on Sodaro’s nominating petitions were compared against residents’ signatures on their voter registrations. The county clerk’s office tossed eight names off Sodaro’s petitions, leaving him with 88. A minimum of number of signatures required is 73.

Sodaro is a twice-elected board member of Ridgeland School District 122, where he currently sits as the school board’s president. He has carried on his campaign and launched a website outlining his platform for change after 20 years of Streit’s leadership in the third district.

Sodaro has stated that if necessary, he will run as a write-in candidate on April 5. He will resign from Dist. 122 board, where he is halfway through his term, if he wins the village trustee race.

Should Bertucci bounce the challenge back in the Oak Lawn Village Electoral Board's court for an evidence hearing, Brennan said there will be “several hours of testimony” from residents who said they signed Sodaro’s petitions for persons other than the circulators.

Such infractions of the state’s election rules could lead to felony charges of perjury and fraud, Brennan said.

The court hearing takes at 11 a.m. Monday, Feb. 14, in room 1704 at the Daley Center, 50 W. Washington St., in Chicago.


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