Two incumbent aldermen and a challenger who officially lost their aldermanic contests in the April 2 election have filed petitions in Circuit Court asking for discovery recounts to determine if the official results should be overturned.
When the official results were proclaimed by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners Tuesday, there were no changes in the preliminary results announced last week.
The closest aldermanic contest is in the 25th Ward, where incumbent Ald. Juan Soliz officially lost to challenger Ambrosio Medrano by 35 votes out of 7,337 cast. After the proclamation Tuesday, Soliz held a news conference to say that he had filed a lawsuit in Circuit Court demanding a full recount. Soliz claimed that more than 39 of his supporters who had voted by absentee ballot had not had their votes counted by Election Board workers.
”I`m saying there was chicanery. I don`t know where the chicanery was, but there was chicanery,” said Soliz.
Also filing notice that he would challenge the election results was incumbent Ald. Timothy Evans (4th), who officially lost to challenger Toni Preckwinkle by 109 votes. Evans, council floor leader under the Mayor Harold Washington, was an unsuccessful mayoral candidate after Washington`s death.
And challenger Johnny O`Neal, who officially lost to incumbent Ald. Robert Shaw (9th), by 40 votes, is challenging those results.
In spite of O`Neal`s call for a recount of the South Side ward`s final vote tally, Shaw Tuesday expressed confidence in the outcome and said he planned to take a vacation ”somewhere in the Caribbean” to celebrate his re- election.
In another closely contested race involving two non-incumbents, Thomas Murphy was declared the victor in the Southwest Side`s 18th Ward over Joseph Lyman by 114 votes. Lyman, who had the backing of the regular ward Democratic organization, did not file a request for a recount by the deadline on Monday. The entire 50-member City Council will be sworn in for full four-year terms on May 6, but the current council will meet Friday.
There will be 13 brand new aldermen, and a total of 20 new faces since the last aldermanic elections of 1987. But despite the big turnover, the council is expected to conduct business as usual and to provide little regular opposition to re-elected Mayor Richard Daley.
