Lawyerin' Up

By Kevin Robinson in News on Apr 3, 2007 12:50PM

With the aldermanic runoff elections just over 2 weeks away, the drama is starting to pick up in a neighborhood not far from your own (or maybe even your own)! Reports from Ukrainian Village indicate that the 32nd Ward Regular Democratic Organization has been sending out a mailing with allegations that we only heard rumors of before February 27. Charges that candidate Scott Waguespak represented himself as an American lawyer while traveling abroad are touted on this mailing as a reason not to vote for him. While it's true that the American Bar Association doesn't list him as a lawyer on their website, nothing we've seen in his campaign literature or his history indicates that he ever claimed to be. He did earn a law degree at Chicago-Kent College of Law, and has been endorsed by several professors there, as well as other lawyers in the area. While lawyers aren't generally held in high esteem, especially in political circles, they don't tend to put their names behind people that might get them in ethical trouble (unless they're Eddie Vrdolyak).

Also making the rounds is a YouTube video, charmingly titled "Won't Be Matlak-ed Again," by FedUpWithMatlak. Scott's supporters sure know their base.

In what is probably one of the nastiest races this year, 2nd Ward aldermanic challenger Bob Fioretti is (again) facing problems with his legal past. An order of protection filed against him by a female court reporter in 2003 keeps coming back to haunt him, this time with more details. The Chicago Tribune, which has now built a solid record of destroying candidates for elective office with lurid legal details of past sexual indiscretions, reported over the weekend that in court documents "his lawyer wrote that Fioretti and the woman 'had a dating relationship that terminated approximately 10 years ago.'" Fioretti has been trying to explain the issue away since before the municipal election, but it just won't go away. Yesterday, the Chicago Chapter of the National Organization for Women pulled its endorsement of him (for the second time), telling ABC7 News that "he misled them regarding a relationship with a woman who filed an order of protection against him in 2003." Buoyed by this news, incumbent alderman Madeline Haithcock took the opportunity to kick Fioretti while he was down, telling the Sun-Times that he isn't a civil rights attorney, but "one of those 'lawyers who run after ambulances.'"