Has He Got the Goods?
“He has passed the information on to the proper authorities, and in four years Peter Zelchenko is the only person who thinks a crime has been committed,” says Granato campaign consultant Tom Carmik. “This guy doesn’t check his facts, doesn’t do any research. This guy has been harassing the al-derman, harassing the alderman’s staff.” He adds that Zelchenko has no proof that the documents are real or that they were in Granato’s campaign office.
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“If [the office] wasn’t cleaned, why wouldn’t the owner call me and let me know?” says Granato. “If that’s where he got his information. I don’t know. Or if someone gave it to them, might have had it in their basement. I don’t know. Or someone could have fabricated it. I don’t know. First of all, I don’t handle that part of the campaign. My job is to go out and knock on doors.”
–Mike Sula
Munoz says it’s true that he delivered the letter, but he says there was no “honorable man” speech. He claims he was in the Loop and Diaz’s campaign manager asked if he wanted to go over to the board of elections. “I said, ‘Not a problem for me.’” He says that when they arrived at the board the campaign manager told him, “‘Here, you turn it in.’ And I said, ‘Sure.’ I grabbed the withdrawal-of-candidacy form and handed it over. I just wanted to make sure it happened before the deadline.” Munoz denies ever having threatened to make a public issue of the order of protection.
Now Bolden’s running for Preckwinkle’s job. The alderman says she’s brought jobs and affordable housing to the ward; Bolden says the ward needs more of both. “Here in the Fourth Ward there are 200 city-owned vacant lots,” he says. “A lot of those should be developed for affordable housing. I believe that small business is the pulp of any community. A lot of businesses have closed down. With the proper assistance, these businesses can be up and running and employing residents.”
