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* I received a call from someone close to the Preckwinkle campaign yesterday taunting me about how the Sun-Times had scooped me on my own story. Turns out, the person had called the wrong guy. Oops.
In 2004, a home caught fire on the West Side, killing four children.
Almost immediately, neighbors raised questions about whether 911 calls had been botched by dispatchers, delaying the Chicago Fire Department’s response and costing lives.
At the time, mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot was chief of staff and general counsel for Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications, the arm of city government that runs the 911 center. In that role, she oversaw an internal review into possible mistakes by call-takers.
And after the Rev. Dwayne and Emily Funches — the parents of three of the dead children — filed a lawsuit against the city, Lightfoot became central to the case, with the family’s attorney accusing her of lying, being “extremely evasive” during a deposition and changing her account about what documents she created or had in her possession, according to court records.
The judge overseeing the lawsuit also took aim at Lightfoot, calling into question her “attitude” and portraying her handling of a temporary restraining order that was supposed to preserve 911 evidence as “very, very troubling.” Some of that evidence ended up getting destroyed, records show.
The judge, Lynn Egan, said at one hearing that “we have a record that supports a reasonable argument that the city is deliberately withholding evidence in this case.”
That could be good oppo for Preckwinkle’s TV ads… if Preckwinkle was still running TV ads.
* WBEZ…
During an October 2007 hearing, she said Lightfoot’s “response to receipt of a temporary restraining order … was so cavalier and inadequate that it comes close to violating her duties as an officer of a court.”
The following January, city attorneys insisted that neither Lightfoot nor OEMC possessed her records on the fire.
The judge responded by scolding them about Lightfoot again.
“That is very problematic given her deposition testimony that she created multiple files,” Egan said. “I just can’t underscore enough how troubled this court is by her approach to this situation.”
“What you just told me,” the judge said, “suggests that there has been destruction of documents.”
“You might want to alert Ms. Lightfoot [that] she may want to retain personal counsel,” Egan warned.
* You’ll rarely see a candidate admit to shopping oppo, but Preckwinkle did last night…
“It’s important to remember that in this 2004 fire, four young people died,” Preckwinkle said during the debate, before acknowledging her campaign shopped the story to reporters.
I have a policy of labeling all opposition research that I decide to run with. That tends to reduce the amount of oppo I receive, but it is what it is.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 1:46 pm
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== Turns out, the person had called the wrong guy. ==
Self own #156,395.
I wonder if Preckwinkle is saving money to blast out negative ads for the last week. It seems like the only last ditch strategy for her.
Comment by Three Dimensional Checkers Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 1:53 pm
No money for ads, but plenty of time to antagonize reporters… when your only play at this point is earned media. …what is… going on?
This has been the problem with Preckwinkle’s post-primary campaign. I can’t get to the meat of her arguments because her campaign’s making big honking noises in the other/wrong direction.
Comment by lakeside Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 1:57 pm
I’m surprised Lightfoot is keeping her commitment to attend all these debates. Free media is the only media Preckwinkle has right now.
Comment by Grand Avenue Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 1:59 pm
If Preckwinkle is saving money to blast out negative ads for the last week than she deserves to lose. The Last week was the week before early voting started.
Comment by Cheryl44 Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 2:31 pm
–That could be good oppo for Preckwinkle’s TV ads… if Preckwinkle was still running TV ads.–
That’s still hard to believe that she’s not. Going to be a lot of finger-pointing when this is done.
Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 2:41 pm
I saw the debate last night. Preckwinkle initially tried to avoid answering the oppo dump question, but the moderator kept at it. Only then did she cop to it. Good on the moderator (Tahman Bradley, I believe was the one who asked)
Comment by Terry Salad Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 3:00 pm
This is so wierd. How does an experienced pol like TP campaign so poorly?
You can’t hope to blast ads the last week of a campaign, especially in these days of more and more early voting.
Can the county board head and party chair really be out of bucks??
She’s really putting all her eggs in the “machine will turn them out for me” basket.
Comment by Fav Human Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 3:03 pm
How many times can a campaign step in their own shyte? I guess not enough…
Comment by Shytown Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 3:12 pm
speaking of antagonizing reporters, telling debate moderators they should not be asking questions cause quite a reaction from the debate moderators. Lori Lightfoot on her high horse.
Comment by Amalia Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 3:30 pm
This campaign can (and probably should) hurt Preckwinkle in her role as Cook County Democratic Party Chair. If this is the type of product you get for shilling out tens of thousands of dollars to the party, I suspect that many candidates will decide to go it alone or seek the help of other individual Democratic pols rather than seeking the overall party endorsement.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 3:32 pm
Is Preckwinkle out of money?
Saving it for a future race of her own, or to have money to throw around to other candidates, are certainly possibilities.
But if she loses in a landslide, she’d look quite vulnerable to future challenges to her county and party positions.
Comment by Robert the Bruce Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 3:41 pm
I didn’t say that Preckwinkle had a good strategy, but just that she may be saving up to try to one last round of attacks to knock Lightfoot down.
Comment by Three Dimensional Checkers Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 4:01 pm
—I have a policy of labeling all opposition research that I decide to run with. That tends to reduce the amount of oppo I receive, but it is what it is.—
I think that is the fair way to present them so that people can make up their own minds knowing full well that it was dug up for political purposes. Doesn’t make it right or wrong but gives everyone fair warning.
Comment by regnaD kciN Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 5:27 pm