Tom O’Donnell, an aide of Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, was a last-minute addition to the list of candidates running for alderman in the 47th Ward, prompting speculation that Ald. Gene Schulter (47th) may not run for re-election.
O’Donnell has been president of the Ravenswood Community Council for 10 years and a resident of the ward for 25 years. He has also been an active member of the 47th Ward Democratic Organization.
“I was also president of the Welles Park Advisory Council, and I’ve been very active, so I feel comfortable fulfilling my public service and running for alderman,” O’Donnell said.
Ameya Pawar, an independent running for 47th Ward alderman, said he was certain Ald. Schulter was aware of O’Donnell’s decision to run.
“Without a doubt. Nothing in this ward happens without explicit permission of the powers that be,” he said.
Both Schulter and O’Donnell’s names were on the petition filing list. Attorney and political columnist Russ Stewart said he interprets O’Donnell as a backup candidate in case Schulter decides not to run again.
“This is Schulter’s guy. This is one of his longtime allies and he wouldn’t be running unless Gene was fully aware of it,” Stewart said. “And he filed at the last possible moment, so there has to be some subterfuge.”
Stewart said he thinks this is an indication that Schulter will not seek re-election.
“There is probably going to be some movement of Schulter, perhaps to the [Cook County] Board of Review or some other major office,” he said.
O’Donnell said he had not spoken to Schulter about his decision to run.
Rob Rawls, a spokesman for Ald. Schulter, would say only that “Alderman Schulter has confidence that after the 2011 municipal elections he will still be alderman of the 47th Ward.”
Rawls refused to comment on whether the alderman was aware of O’Donnell’s decision to run.
Ameya Pawar and Matt Reichl and Tom Jacks, the other three candidates vying for 47th Ward alderman, filed their petitions on Nov. 22, the last day candidates were allowed to file. O’Donnell filed at 2:48 p.m. on Monday, just meeting the 5 p.m. deadline.
Matt Reichl, a Green party candidate who was just recently defeated by 5th District Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Il), said he waited to file until the last day in order to give Schulter’s campaign less time to come up with a challenge.
Candidates can challenge each other’s petition signatures if they think the signatures are not valid or were obtained improperly.
“We expect more than likely we’ll have a challenge and we are prepared for it,” Reichl said.
Ameya Pawar is an independent who is also on the board of directors at Common Pantry, a food pantry in the 47th Ward.
Sam Yanover, Pawar’s campaign manager, said the campaign has not run into any troubles with filing petitions so far and Yanover was confident that Pawar’s petition drive had yielded more than enough signatures to make the ballot.
“If they try to challenge us just for the heck of it, just to see if they can knock us off or try to drain all of our funds, the actual Board of Elections can come after that person or organization because that’s actually illegal,” Yanover said.