College Student Running for Office Finally Beats the Chicago Machine
“This is a huge defeat for (Michael) Madigan’s organization, and the beginning of the end of boss politics.”
We recently told you the story of David Krupa, a DePaul University student who is running for an alderman seat in Chicago which hasn’t been challenged since 1991.
After collecting the requisite number of signatures to appear on the ballot, political operatives went door to door collecting allegedly fraudulent revocations to keep Krupa off the ballot.
But after the story got national attention, the machine relented.
John Kass reports at the Chicago Tribune:
College kid beats back the Chicago Machine and Boss Madigan blinks
DePaul University freshman David Krupa scored an impressive victory in Chicago politics on Saturday: Boss Madigan — the most powerful Democrat in Illinois — backed out of a challenge to Krupa’s candidacy for alderman in the Southwest Side’s 13th Ward.
“I am truly humbled to be the first candidate on the ballot to challenge the 13th Ward since 1991,” Krupa, 19, told me at the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners offices on Saturday. “This is a huge defeat for (Michael) Madigan’s organization, and the beginning of the end of boss politics.”
So, the college kid is on the ballot, in a face-off with Boss Madigan’s silent toady, the bendable Ald. Marty Quinn.
A few political guys mumbled privately that Madigan must be so angry that he might as well fill a burlap bag of the severed heads of a few of his precinct captains and hang them from the statue of the giant Indian on 63rd Street as a warning to all…
“And now the plan is to campaign and beat Marty Quinn and try to take away some of Madigan’s power over the people of the 13th Ward, and start the creation of a newer and cleaner political landscape,” Krupa said. “What we have to do is take away some of Madigan’s puppets and begin to elect people that Madigan does not control.”
Ash-har Quraishi of NBC 5 in Chicago has more. You won’t believe how Krupa’s opposition is framing this:
Marty Quinn Withdraws Petition Challenge for Opponent David Krupa
Quinn’s office did not acknowledge the charges of fraud, but instead attributed the withdrawal to a request from several unions.
“(Voters) deserve the opportunity to reject him,” the campaign said in a statement. “No one whose personal conduct and whose extreme agenda so offend the city of Chicago should have the opportunity to hide behind false claims of victimhood, but that’s no doubt what a politician like Mr. Krupa would attempt to do should he be removed from the ballot.”
NBC 5 was able to contact two of the unions that pushed for the withdrawal of the challenge, but none would comment on allegations made by the Krupa campaign.
“Mr. Krupa has put himself forward was a candidate for public office, and we believe he should now have to face voters and explain himself,” Personal PAC President Terry Cosgrove, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 President James Sweeney, and the Chicago Teachers Union said in a joint statement. “Voters deserve to see everything Mr. Krupa is hiding from them, and they deserve the opportunity to reject him.”
David Krupa’s GoFundMe page is here.
You can see his campaign site here.
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I’m funding his campaign now at the link above.
It’s important to me as an ex-Bostonian whose idea of a new political landscape there includes NEITHER Mayor Marty Walsh nor Congresswoman-elect Ayanna Pressley.
It seems to me the reason he withdrew the challenge is obvious — it was impossible for it to succeed. Krupa only needed 473 valid signatures, he filed 1703, and — whether fraudulently or honestly — Quinn only managed to collect 187 revocations. Even assuming every one of those stands, that leaves Krupa with 1516, which is 3.2 times what he needed; how could Quinn hope to disqualify 1034 of them? When faced with an impossible task it only makes sense to withdraw the attempt.
Not sure about Illinois, but in Pennsylvania one invalid signature invalidates the entire page of signature.
It would be quite possible to have 187 spread across all the pages of signature, thereby invalidating them all.
“…the machine relented.” For the moment.
No organized criminal enterprise can walk away from a challenge to their control. They just can’t if they expect to survive and they intend to survive. The collected funds will need to go for 24/7 professional-grade security. He needs a powerful organization behind him or this will not end well for him. Chicago has been corrupt for over 100 years.
The Machine has not relented, although it may seem so to those who don’t understand how it works. At this time there are three, possibly four, separate possibilities:
1) The Machine will find a way to invalidate Krupa himself via intimidation — “Is your Momma’s house on High Street fireproof?”,or;
2) The Machine will “find” his recent criminal activity, complete with photos, or;
3) He will simply disappear never to be seen again except by Jimmy Hoffa, or;
4) Using a combination of Numbers 1&2, he will be forced to become a part of The Machine himself.
Option Number 4 is the one The Machine has always favored, but they will use whichever one will ensure their continued, basically unhampered, operation. So it has been for a century (or more) and there is no sign that they’re about to change.
Right you are! Remember the claims that Communism had been defeated when the Berlin Wall came down? That was a “false flag” just as this is. If anything, Communism is stronger now than then, and they’re likely relenting and retreating; that’s not giving in but creating a hole around which they themselves will surround him, with three possible outcomes:
1. He will withstand the challenge.
2. He will become part of the machine.
2. They have been shown the man, they will find the crime (how Communism eliminates enemies).
I wish him success and hope for the best.
I used to live in Chicago, the mob didn’t leave Chicago, they became the government of Chicago and Cook County.
“… they became the government of Chicago and Cook County.”
You misspelled Crook.
I wouldn’t sell him a life insurance policy.
The statements by the unions and the incumbent Dem make it sound like 19 year old Krupa is the thug…
I remember when labor unions were great. NOT!
I am told by very eminent people that there used to be such a time. But I don’t believe it.
Chicago may well be a place that is an example of what Uncle Joe (Stalin,)apparently, said: “It does not matter how anyone votes, what matters is who counts the votes.’
I spent over 20 years in that part of the country and there is no “may well be” about it, Uncle Joe was and is correct –The Machine counts the votes.
“the beginning of the end of boss politics”
That is terribly mistaken.
What will happen is the machine incumbent will be forced to run an actual campaign, which the machine will insure that he will win. A one seat challenge is but a minor brush fire. However if on the next go around, ever alderman gets challenged, the machine will have a major forest fire.
They tried to cheat to get Krupa’s name off the ballot and they got caught.
But instead of just letting the kid run, the opposition is now going to portray him as an extremist with an “agenda.”
I hope he has a clean social media record, because everything he has said and done since he learned to walk will be used against him.
I seem to remember a community organizer in Chicago who challenged his opponent’s signatures, and got his opponent knocked off the ballot.
So what happens to the couple thousands of people who signed affidavits “revoking” their petition signatures that they never signed in the first place? Failing a false affidavit to the board of elections is a felony in Illinois. How many of these people are going to be charged?
To ask the question is to answer it…