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 blinksDePaul 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 KrupaQuinn’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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