From Lauren Peters, Campaign Manager for the Cappleman campaign:
"Dear UU---I wanted to give a full accounting of what transpired on Saturday. There are 11 campaigns running for alderman right now, so everyone is out and about handing out literature. We ran into both Emily Stewart and Don Nowotny volunteers, who’ve been very polite and courteous. Our own campaign team has informed our volunteers to leave the campaign lit of other candidates alone.
My Cappleman worker was putting out lit around 11 AM near Clark and Argyle and came upon another campaign piece wrapped up in a fence. Wanting to know what other candidates are saying, he took it out so that he could read it. Suddenly some guy jumped out of a car holding with a video camera and got into his face and demanded to know who he worked for. My worker said he was with the Cappleman campaign and the man with the video camera shouted, “You're stealing Molly Phelan lit, aren’t you?”
My worker said no, and that he was just reading it to see what it had to say. In a very threatening tone, this guy (who was much larger than my worker) demanded to see what was in my worker’s bag. My campaign worker opened up his bag of lit to show that it was filled only with Cappleman lit. The video guy proceeded to shove his camera in the bag of lit to film it. The video guy then asked my worker if he was a volunteer or paid person. Then he demanded to know how much he was getting paid. My guy said it was none of his business. At this point the guy got back in his car and drove away.
My worker called me because he was shaken up by the encounter and I slogged thru Saturday traffic to check if he was ok, along with my other workers. We called 911 and gave a description of the incident, the car, and the video guy. I then called the Phelan campaign to give them a heads up about the behavior of one of their volunteers. The guy answering the phone identified himself as “Dave” and claimed he had no idea that this was happening. I gave him the same description of the person and the car that was given to the police. He suggested we do a joint press conference, but I let him know my only intention was to have Phelan’s campaign team stop this volunteer from harassing others.
After finishing up with the lit, we drove back to the office and passed Phelan’s office along the way. Lo and behold, parked out front with its blinkers on was the vehicle we described to the police. We called 911 again and police officers arrived within minutes. We decided to walk into Phelan’s office at this point and see if the guy was in fact inside.
Sure enough, the same guy who claimed he had no idea this was happening and suggested to do a joint press conference was the guy who had the video camera harassing my campaign worker.
Once the police showed up, he admitted he did it. We chose not to file a report, but I want others to know that this is going on and we won’t tolerate these tactics. If any of you feel bullied by any campaign worker, please take the necessary action to stop it. We want a clean and safe campaign for everyone."
A reader writes in:
