What Comes Around, Goes Around (Karma Catches Up With Stephanie Neely)

The same City Treasurer who threatened to sue me for libel for writing about her campaign contributions from those who invest our pension money, now has her own woes:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/2715294-418/neely-petitions-signatures-caplan-rodriguez.html

Petition woes for city treasurer

By TIM NOVAK and CHRIS FUSCO Staff Reporters / tnovak@suntimes.com Dec 7, 2010 12:06PM

City Treasurer Stephanie Neely submitted hundreds of election petitions bearing the names of two notaries who say they didn’t sign them — the same notaries who say their signatures were forged on petitions submitted by four candidates running for mayor.

The two notaries — Alex Caplan and Maricela Rodriguez — say their signatures were forged on 725 of the 2,331 petition pages that Neely submitted to city election officials last month so she could run for re-election in February. One of Neely’s petition sheets contains both Caplan’s forged signature and Rodriguez’s notary stamp.

Neely’s petitions were circulated by ward organizations and volunteers, according to her spokesman Paul Stewart, who says she didn’t pay anyone to collect signatures. Stewart said he doesn’t know who gathered the petitions that bear the names of Caplan and Rodriguez.

“It’s horrible that people who say they were out helping us did something fraudulent,” he said. “Whoever turned in those sheets, it had to be the same source’’ who circulated petitions for the four mayoral candidates — former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, businessman Rob Halpin, state Sen. James Meeks and community activist Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins.

The Chicago Sun-Times has reported that Caplan and Rodriguez say their signatures were forged on nearly 2,800 petitions submitted by those four mayoral candiates, as well as on 488 petitions Ald. Sandi Jackson (7th) submitted to run for city clerk before dropping out of that race to run for re-election to the City Council.

Those forged notary signatures now are under investigation by Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, whose office regulates notaries.

Two women have filed separate challenges contending that Neely shouldn’t be allowed on the ballot because her petitions don’t contain 12,500 valid signatures.

Neely collected more than 30,000 signatures — including more than 10, 500 on the petition sheets bearing the names of Caplan and Rodriguez. That’s still far more than the 12,500 she needed to get on the ballot, Stewart noted.

Mayor Daley appointed Neely treasurer in 2006 to replace Judith Rice. Neely was elected treasurer a year later.