BRIDGEPORT — Maureen Sullivan has made no bones about her filing for personal bankruptcy protection.
But new political stickers popping up on Morgan Street say the candidate for 11th Ward alderman — the ones saying she's "bad for Bridgeport" and "bankrupt financially and morally" — are just the latest shot in a what's already become a heated, if not nasty, race.
The stickers take aim at Sullivan's Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition, filed in federal court in February after she fell behind on mortgage payments, credit cards, medical bills and state and federal taxes, records show.
Sullivan said she was laid off in 2008 from her job designing and managing the showrooms for city and suburban furniture companies, a fallout from the economic crisis that crippled the housing industry.
"For years I toughed it out paying what I could of my student and mortgage bills," she said in a statement to DNAinfo Chicago. "When it became clear that I would not be able to catch up with ballooning interest rates, I filed for reorganization protection on some of my debt and I continue to pay the rest."
All told, she was on the hook for more than $62,000 until a federal bankruptcy judge discharged most of her debts in June, records show.
Rather than attempt to bury the bankruptcy, Sullivan includes it on her campaign website's biography, where she writes "sharing that common experience of working while struggling in tough economic times has led her to better understand the challenges that the people of the 11th Ward are facing."
Still, from barstools and coffee counters, local critics of Sullivan's campaign are all asking the same question: If someone loses control of their own personal finances, what business do they have handling the city's?
Pressed on that question, Sullivan answered by email. She said she'd relish the chance to bring participatory budgeting to the 11th Ward and "to insist that the people of the ward have a significant say in how to spend their money."
"I will put my record of trustworthiness with tax money against my opponents' records any day," she wrote.
As for the stickers, there are only a handful posted on light poles along Morgan Street, and a few have been placed right over the same fliers that appeared last week, taking jabs at 11th Ward candidate Patrick D. Thompson and one of his supporters.
Thompson flatly denied having any involvement with the new stickers and said it would be "ridiculous" to suggest it's part of a retaliation.
"That's not the way we conduct ourselves. I'm a business owner and an elected official who's running a campaign. It's all positive. ... Something like this, putting negative stickers about someone on city property, that's not what we do," he said.
John Kozlar, an aldermanic candidate, also denied any involvement with the sticker campaign.
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