* An interesting strategy…

[Friday] 21st Ward Alderman Howard Brookins Jr. released a robocall to warn of possible misconduct from Congressman Bobby Rush’s campaign. The call was sent to approximately 20,000 households in the 1st Congressional District at 4:00 PM central time. Rush’s petition signatures were challenged and his campaign needs to verify upwards of 570 signatures to make it on the ballot.

The transcript of the recording is as follows:

“This is Alderman Howard Brookins, Democrat for Congress with an important warning. You may be asked to sign a document for Congressman Bobby Rush who has failed to file enough valid signatures to make the ballot. Do not sign anything unless a notary is present and if you did not sign for him, do not sign anything at all.”

The Board of Elections recently changed its procedure when accepting affidavits from registered voters contesting that their signature is genuine. Rules of Procedure, Rule 9 states in the event the evidence consists of affidavits attesting to the genuineness of signatures, those affidavits must be notarized at the time they are signed. This is different than the procedure a few years ago, when the affidavits could contain a non-notarized verification.

A recording of the robocall can be found here and is attached to this document.

* The Rush campaign response via WGN TV…

The Rush campaign calls the allegations “ridiculous.”

Campaign lawyer Brendan Shiller calls is publicity ploy and says Rush has more than double the number of names he needs.

Schiller says: “This is a cheap publicity ploy and a frivolous challenge. Our candidate has more than twice as many signatures as he needs and will remain on the ballot.”

There’s only one way to find out who’s telling the truth. Bring on the Illinois State Board of Elections.