MCKINLEY PARK — South Side drivers were puzzled when a sea of what appeared to be bright orange tickets were plastered onto the windshields of about 10,000 cars over the weekend.
Did the tickets have something to do with snowplowing? A crackdown on expired city stickers?
None of the above. The tickets weren't violations at all.
They were part of a campaign stunt by supporters of Pete DeMay, an aldermanic candidate taking on incumbent Ald. George Cardenas (12th) in the Feb. 24 election.
Casey Cora says the stunt led to confusion and even tears:
DeMay was removed from the ballot earlier this month after the city's Election Board ruled his petition signatures were invalid. Calling the process a sham, he's pledged to continue his campaign.
An Illinois circuit judge is expected to rule next week on his appeal. If it fails, DeMay intends to campaign as a write-in candidate.
The fliers, colored in the jarring, unmistakable orange hue of city parking tickets, were posted throughout McKinley Park, Brighton Park and Little Village. They take aim at Cardenas' support of revenue programs like the red light and speed cameras and the privatized parking meter deal. DeMay said his campaign printed and distributed about 10,000 of the fliers, which were printed in both English and Spanish.
"We thought that people should know George Cardenas' history as it relates to voting for ordinances that hurt everyday working people," DeMay said.
Cardenas didn't find the stunt amusing.
The alderman said the fliers prompted "dozens" of phone calls to his office, some by Spanish-speaking residents who were confused by the message and went reaching for their pocketbooks.
Now, he's calling on city officials to investigate the thousands of "falsified parking tickets."
"We had constituents call us, crying because they do not read English and thought they were in trouble," Cardenas said. "Residents who did not read or speak English were troubled because they thought law enforcement would be back to give them another ticket."
A city Law Department spokesman couldn't immediately say whether the ticket-resembling fliers violated any law. It is against the law, however, to post commercial fliers on parked cars.
But the fliers, paid for by the Friends of Pete DeMay campaign, are explicitly political, and DeMay said he's not worried about facing any fines.
"Last time I checked, Chicago's covered under the First Amendment. We had something to say and we said it," he said. "We aren't the first people to place political fliers on a windshield."
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