CITY HALL — Supporters of 12th Ward aldermanic candidate Pete DeMay say they're being bullied at their homes by staffers of incumbent Ald. George Cardenas.
They say they've been approached by paperwork-clutching Cardenas staffers asking if they were coerced into signing DeMay's petition or if their signatures had been forged.
If a DeMay supporter signs that paperwork, their affiidavits can render their original petition signature invalid.
To DeMay, that sounds a lot like intimidation.
"An alderman can make your life hell or your life a little easier and George Cardenas knows it," DeMay said.
Cardenas denied any wrongdoing on behalf of his re-election campaign or his ward office, saying the doorstep visits by his supporters "are nothing out of the ordinary."
"Some people call it campaigning. Some people call it harassing. ... As far as intimidation, nobody's intimidating anything," Cardenas said.
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On Friday, Cardenas fired back with his own allegations, saying DeMay's camp "preyed" upon non-English speakers in the ward and "coerced" them into signing his nominating petitions.
DeMay, who's bilingual, denies that.
DeMay, a union organizer for blue-collar Latino workers, has already come out swinging against challenges to his candidacy filed last month by a pair of Cardenas supporters, calling it "utter nonsense" and "legal gamesmanship to make us spend money" and keep him off the ballot.
That case remains tied up with the city's election board. A hearing is scheduled for Sunday.
DeMay said more than 700 of his petition signatures — he submitted 2,139 — have survived scrutiny so far.
Candidates seeking a term on the City Council must have 473 valid signatures, so the Cardenas' camp would have to change the minds of a couple hundred more DeMay backers to kill his candidacy.
That's exactly what DeMay and a handful of residents are alleging.
"If they can get 200 people to basically perjure themselves, then they can get us under the number," DeMay said.
Rudy Espinoza, 44, a DeMay campaign worker, said a pair of 12th Ward workers, including Cardenas' chief of staff Anabel Abarca, came to his Little Village home in December.
"The gentleman there started really grilling me, asking if I knew Pete DeMay, what he’s like, if he really is a good person. He said he was surprised I was working for the campaign, almost intimating that he was going to offer me a job or something like that ... it felt more like an interrogation."
Abarca did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
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