Both First Ward aldermanic candidates hope this year’s election doesn’t result in another lawsuit.
Four years after the race ended with losing candidate Judy Fiske suing winner Ald. Cheryl Wollin (1st) and Northwestern for a student “vote-buying scheme,” Fiske and Wollin are facing off again.
“I hope there won’t be any legal action this time,” said Wollin, a 65-year-old political science professor at Oakton Community College. “I can’t say I’ll do anything differently, because I didn’t do anything wrong the first time.”
While both candidates said they’ve tried to forget the messy lawsuit, which was dismissed, it will undoubtedly affect the tone of this campaign.
In 2005, Fiske came just 80 votes short of Wollin, but she was blown out in the student-heavy sixth precinct of the ward, where she lost 217-15.
The next month, Fiske sued NU for allegedly bribing students to vote with housing points. At the time, Fiske said the bribing was illegal and tainted the results in the sixth precinct, which includes Foster-Walker Complex, Allison Hall and the Sorority Quads, as well as Chapin Hall, Shepard and Willard residential colleges and Public Affairs Residential College. She later accused Wollin of conspiring with the university.
The Evanston City Council refused to act on the lawsuit, and a federal judge threw it out the next year.
“It was a tremendous waste of money for both the city, for my campaign and for Northwestern,” said Wollin, who served as Seventh Ward alderman from 1989 until 1993, when she entered (and lost) the Evanston mayoral race. “It was baseless. Every judge threw it out at every level, which is a pretty good sign.”
But Fiske, a 64-year-old pet store owner, said she still thinks her challenge was legitimate and she should be the First Ward alderman.
“It was my position that I had won the election last time,” said Fiske, who has never held public office. “Wollin wouldn’t have been elected if this didn’t happen.”
She mocked the vote count in the sixth precinct as something that would be questioned in “any Third World country.”
But after explaining the lawsuit, she stressed that the past would have nothing to do with this year’s vote.
“This election is not about the last election,” Fiske said. “This election is totally different. This is not a rehashing of the last election.”
NU students working to get out the vote said the lawsuit will not affect them.
Lillian Cheng, the head of NU PicKs, a new student group established by the Associated Student Government, said the group will be working hard to register students to vote.
“The situation hasn’t really affected our campaign efforts,” Cheng said. “Our intentions are merely just to do everything we can legally and fairly to encourage students to participate in the elections.”
Both candidates pledged to make this election about Wollin’s record.
“I’ve been in office for four years, so I think citizens have had a chance to see that I work hard for my ward,” the alderman said. “I’m very convinced I have a good, solid record, and I’m hopeful that will make a difference.”
She highlighted her efforts to build a good relationship with NU and her work on the lakefront and Sheridan Road.
But Fiske said her opponent has not been a good representative, and the two are “diametrically opposed” on all of the issues. In her criticism, she cited Wollin’s support for the Downtown Plan, purported opposition to historic preservation, mishandling of the police and fire pension funds and over-support for the university.
Fiske said she had no hard feelings toward the university and would seek the support of the campus.
“I’ve lived in this neighborhood for a gajillion years; students work in my store; students have lived in our house,” she said. “If you will promise me that voter fraud will not be a part of the election, I’m more than happy to talk to everybody on campus.”
