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More politicians behaving badly

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The race for 2nd District Illinois state representative is heating up.

Theresa Mah’s campaign is accusing supporters of opponent Alex Acevedo of bad behavior at a recent event. Congressman Luis Gutierrez and other Latino leaders gathered in Pilsen on Monday to endorse Mah.

In a campaign email, Mah claims an “angry mob… shouted racial slurs and tried to physically intimidate” her supporters.

The Acevedo campaign strongly denies the allegations.

* The video indicates otherwise. Click here. A Google translation of the Hoy article…

Just when Gutierrez arrived, a group of demonstrators carrying approached placards saying: “Shut up chachalaca”, “Cardenas HDO”, “Latinos United,” “The people sold will be defeated,” among others, and planted front the place where the announcement would be made Mah support.

The interruption came to the degree that Gutierrez decided to move the conference across the street, but in the end only made some statements to the newspaper Hoy.

“I have more than six calls Acevedo begging my support. I had to say no. You can see why I said no, I would not associate with people who do not believe in democracy. They do not allow freedom of expression, “said Gutierrez. […]

Then, Gutierrez walked away while he was followed by the group booed Gutierrez said [was in] fear for his life.

A woman who kept shouting “shut up chachalaca” declined to be identified and declined to comment.

A “chachalaca” is defined by SpeakingLatino.com as an “eloquent but dishonest person.”

I’m guessing that’s a polite version.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:02 pm

Comments

I’m glad you posted this given the Trump mailer that was in the subscribers post, since Cardenas has since endorsed Mah.

This is another proxy war in primary fights. This time between Muñoz/Acevedo vs Cardenas and I don’t know who. Any idea why though?

Comment by Juice Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:08 pm
Gotta’ remember that definition. It will be handy this election year.

Comment by Lurking MBA Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:10 pm
Is it “racial slurs” if it’s Latinos arguing with other Latinos in their own vernacular?

Comment by Not my circus Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:19 pm
City campaigns are the best. It’s all local neighborhood battles.
How is Mah going to handle being Rep in that neighborhood? She didn’t even look like she could handle that press conference.

Comment by DuPage Bard Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:22 pm
The Acevedo team is arguing that this district belongs to a Latino elected official because of the demographics, and while that may make sense - Mah is still a person of color who would be representing a community in the district that has been overlooked in the past.

I can go along with some identity politics, but this one is just absurd.

Comment by here we go Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:25 pm
It can technically be racial slurs if Mexicans say it against Puerto Ricans or against Guatemalans or Dominicans etc. it’s more of a class thing than race thing here. Being uncivil is just… uncivilized. Rep. Gutierrez got a dose of his own medicine, seems like.

Comment by Spanglish Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 1:37 pm
Cardenas going with Mah is great. She worked on the campaign of his Aldermanic opponent (who ran as a write-in after getting kicked off the ballot).

And the coup de grace of Chutzpah is Acevedo’s campaign sending out a negative mailer on Mah quoting her Tweet attacking Cardenas’ campaign!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/301930962/Teresa-Mah-Hit-Piece

Comment by Grand Avenue Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 2:00 pm
Thanks Rich for doing the Spanish language justice by going to SpeakingLatino.com. Unfortunately Google.com, has the chachalaca as a Mexican bird, it then says they are known to be very noisy birds. So rather then a dishonest person I think the cultural interpretation is more like “Shut up noisy bird”, a similar battle cry used against a former President of Mexico.

Comment by Chicago Moderate Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 2:07 pm
My neighborhood used to be pretty Latino. It seems that there are 2 or 3 factions of the Latino politicians and they seem to have a lot of animosity toward one another. Then, throw in the rapidly gentrifying Pilsen-situation and I can imagine a community meeting could get nasty.

Comment by Belle Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 3:46 pm
Acevedo and his machine cronies should be ashamed of their heckling and bullying tactics. Too afraid to show up and debate at Chinatown’s town hall but “brave” and classy enough to send flunkies to heckle a respected Latino Congressman.

Comment by Veil of Ignorance Thursday, Mar 3, 16 @ 4:54 pm