NEAR WEST SIDE — At a objection hearing Friday, former State Senator Rickey Hendon testified that he didn't pay circulators to gather petition signatures for the 27th Ward candidate he is backing.
Instead, Hendon "compensated" the circulators, when he could, he said.
"I don't consider it pay. I compensate people for lunch, gas, food," Hendon said, and sometimes with "refreshments at the end of the night."
"I drink Hennessey," Hendon said.
Hendon further asserted that the circulators are "volunteers, not hires."
"They love me," he said.
Hendon was among the more than dozen petition circulators supporting candidate Gabe Beukinga that testified at a Board of Elections hearing Friday. The hearing, that started at 10 a.m., stretched on for 12 hours.
The elections board is hearing an objection to Beukinga's candidacy. If successful, it would eliminate veteran Ald. Walter Burnett Jr.'s only opponent from the February election to represent the 27th Ward in the Chicago City Council.
Hearing officer Barbara Goodman will next consider the objection at 2 p.m. Monday in the eighth floor conference room at the Chicago Board of Elections, 69 W. Washington St.
Hendon testified Friday after being served with a subpoena earlier in the week, ordering him to answer questions about his role in circulating Beukinga's candidacy petitions. Hendon is a also a former 27th Ward alderman.
Former Ald. Wallace Davis Jr. also faced a subpoena, but said this week that he was able to avoid being served by tripping over his dog.
Paid per sheet?
More than a dozen Beukinga circulators testified Friday. Some said they were paid nothing to circulate petitions, others said they were paid $10 per sheet and one circulator testified that she was paid up to $25 per sheet.
While it is not against Chicago Election Code to pay a per-signature fee, the objection challenging Beukinga's petitions argues that the petitions show "a pattern of fraud," contain forged signatures and were "roundtabled," alleging that the same people were signing the petition sheets multiple times.
Dressed in a red suit Friday, Hendon testified that he is a political consultant to the Beukinga campaign and has received $10,000 to date. Hendon said he had no set agreement and did not receive payment specifically for collecting petitions from Beukinga.
Hendon was paid by check for the consulting services, he said.
"I put one in the bank today," Hendon said.
The objectors' attorney, Steven Laduzinsky, then asked Hendon: "Was it for your testimony?"
"Are you serious?!" the agitated Hendon responded repeatedly.
After being directed to answer the question, Hendon said that the payment was for services rendered as a political consultant. He said Beukinga's campaign is one of 16 campaigns he is advising.
"I advise him on messes like this," Hendon said.
When questioned, Hendon said that he did not ask Beukinga circulators for a copy of their driver's license.
"I don't even have a copy machine at my office," Hendon said. "So if somebody wanted to circulate a petitions against Walter Burnett because they can't stand him, I didn't stop them."
Earlier in the hearing, one circulator testified that she collected some signatures at the Daley Center, which is not in the 27th Ward.
Hendon said that the circulators were given or shown a copy of the 27th Ward map.
"I prefer [they] go door to door, but it doesn't always work out that way," he said.
During the contentious hearing, Hendon told Laduzinsky that he had the flu.
"I'm doing my best not to cough and sneeze in your face right now," Hendon said.
Friday evening, 31-year-old Beukinga testified that he did not enlist any circulators for his campaign.
"I did not employ one circulator. I personally did not give one circulator a dollar," he said.
Laduzinsky then went down a laundry list of the candidate's circulators, asking Beukinga if he knew each one.
"You think I'm going to know each circulator?" Beukinga asked. "Of course not."
A handwriting expert and private investigator were also among the witnesses who testified Friday.
Straw objectors?
Beukinga alleges that the residents that filed the objection against him, Vashon Briscoe and Priscilla Yates, are "straw" objectors acting on behalf of Burnett. Briscoe lives in a building owned by the alderman, according to Burnett's campaign disclosure form. Election records show that Yates is a paid employee of the 27th Ward Regular Democratic Organization; Burnett serves as committeeman of the group.
Beukinga contends that more than 1,000 of his petition signatures were deemed valid in the Board of Elections' records examination process. The objectors' attorneys are challenging that analysis.
A candidate had to collect 473 valid signatures to land on the 27th Ward ballot.
Briscoe and Yates are being represented by Laduzinsky; Beukinga is represented by attorney James Nally.
In 2007 and 2011 races, the percentage of candidates who were successfully knocked off the ballot was about 28-29 percent, according to AlderTrack figures.
Burnett, 51, is seeking his sixth term in office.
The diverse 27th Ward includes parts of the West Loop, Greektown, Garfield Park, the Near North Side, Old Town, West Humboldt Park, West Town, the Medical District and Goose Island neighborhoods.
The election is Feb. 24.
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