Brown Challenges Muñoz's Petitions

Despite filing fewer signatures than her challenger, Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown is attempting to knock Ald. Ricardo Muñoz off the ballot, and keep him in the Chicago City Council.

Munoz filed 33,112 signatures -- far more than the 5,600 required -- but Brown’s campaign says they contain enough errors to disqualify his candidacy.

Delmarie Cobb, a spokeswoman for the Brown campaign, said in a release that Muñoz’s sheets were circulated by people who are not registered to vote, listed incorrect addresses, provided signatures that didn’t match the signatures on their voting record, or also circulated petitions for Brown.

“Dock Walls, when he ran for clerk, he had more than 40,000 signatures, and they knocked him off,” Cobb said. “So it is possible.”

The challenge was filed by four Brown supporters: Dorothy Walton, Mark Gomolski, Leticia Boughton and James Edwards. Monday was the last day to file petition challenges. Munoz’s sheets will now be reviewed by Cook County Clerk David Orr’s office.

Muñoz did not challenge Brown’s 28,000 signatures.

Muñoz was attending a City Council meeting this morning, and could not be immediately reached for comment.

Update:

Muñoz sent over his Twitter response to Dorothy Brown's challenge"

Filed 33,000 sigs to get on ballot – 6K more than Brown, but she STILL challenged us. She just loves a scandal. Watch! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ3ZZCM_-SQ ---- @aldermanmunoz22

The Muñoz campaign also released this statement from former Ald. Dick Simpson:

“Alderman Muñoz submitted over five times the number of required signatures to get on the ballot. In fact, he submitted 6,000 more signatures than Dorothy Brown. As we documented in our report on Cook County corruption, Dorothy Brown has a history of abusing the petition process. Last year, her campaign was caught using taxpayer-funded welfare workers to gather signatures. (Source: Corruption in Cook County: Anti-Corruption Report Number 3, February 18, 2010). This kind of abuse of power is a throwback to the days when we were known as “Crook County.” Those days are over. Dorothy Brown should drop her frivolous challenge today and face the voters.”
 

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