Facing a dismal showing in a Tribune poll and on the defensive because he will not back up a statement that Ald. Edward Vrdolyak (10th) met with a Chicago mob chieftain, mayoral candidate Thomas Hynes stuck to his guns Tuesday.
He asserted that come April 7, voters will focus on him as the chief alternative to Mayor Harold Washington.
Sitting in an office of his campaign headquarters, a loft building at 350 W. Kinzie St., Hynes, the Cook County assessor, insisted in an interview that his campaign will quickly get back on track.
Hynes trails Washington 52 percent to 17 percent in the Tribune poll, with Vrdolyak receiving 13 percent and Republican Donald Haider getting 4 percent.
”I think the polls are going to begin to change as we go into the closing days because I think people are going to realize that they have two choices, Harold Washington or an alternative,” Hynes said. ”The alternative they will see is Tom Hynes.”
But for the second straight day, the media continued to emphasize Hynes`
statement that he had ”heard” that Vrdolyak had met with reputed mob boss Joseph Ferriola. Hynes again on Tuesday declined to elaborate.
Already, Hynes has missed a golden opportunity to be heard attacking Washington. He spent a good part of Monday pointing out that the mayor ordered the folding of 14 fundraising committees Hynes has repeatedly charged were used to circumvent Washington`s self-imposed $1,500 campain contribution limitation. But Hynes` comments were overlooked in favor of the Vrdolyak story.
Vrdolyak, the Illinois Solidarity Party candidate for mayor, filed suit against the Chicago Sun-Times and its political editor Tuesday, charging that a story linking him to Ferriola defamed him in an effort to defeat his bid for mayor.
But Vrdolyak backed off threats to sue Hynes, running under the Chicago First Party banner, and former Mayor Jane Byrne, both of whom commented in the Sun-Times about the alleged Vrdolyak-Ferriola meeting.
The suit charges one count of defamation, one count of invasion of privacy and one count of intentional infliction of emotional distress.
It contends that a news account by Sun-Times political editor Steve Neal about the alleged meeting and a recent Sun-Times editorial calling on Vrdolyak to drop out of the race ”sought falsely to defeat” Vrdolyak`s candidacy in the mayoral election.
”They run the editorial, and then this story that has no basis, and I think their intent is clear,” Vrdolyak said. ”First it was to get me to withdraw from the race voluntarily, and when that didn`t work, to try to force me.”
The suit, filed against News Group Chicago Inc., doing business as the Chicago Sun-Times, and against Neal, seeks in excess of $45,000 in damages and court costs. Vrdolyak`s attorney, William Harte, said the amount of actual and punitive damages to be sought will be determined later.
”What do you think it`s worth to have your wife and three sons exposed to this and to have a newspaper try to trounce your campaign. I think it`s worth a lot,” Harte, a longtime Vrdolyak friend, said after filing the suit in Cook County Circuit Court. ”In 30 years of seeing political campaigns, this is the lowest thing I have ever seen.”
Harte said the suit did not name Hynes and Byrne because their comments were crafted in such a way that they could not be held liable for damages.
”Frankly, there is no basis for a lawsuit against (Hynes), he said he heard a rumor at that time, (Byrne) said she had heard it, so they heard rumors. There`s nothing legally wrong with saying that,” Harte said.
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The six-page suit contends that Neal had been working on a story seeking to establish that Vrdolyak met with Ferriola to bolster his mayoral bid with mob influence, and that the alderman confronted Neal and denied any validity to the rumors.
Neal, according to the suit, unsuccessfully sought to prove through law-enforcement agencies that the meeting had taken place.
Hynes was quoted in the story as saying: ”I have heard that Ed Vrdolyak met with Joseph Ferriola. I believe that such a meeting took place and that his candidacy for mayor of Chicago has received encouragement as a result of it.”
The suit contends that Neal sought that quote from Hynes and told the assessor`s campaign that a quote was essential to printing the story.
Hynes has repeatedly insisted that he knew nothing about the preparation of the story and merely responded to a Sun-Times inquiry.
”I do not see anything I need to apologize for, for responding to questions from a reporter,” Hynes said Tuesday. ”I did not bring these charges.”
He said the suit is ”a bluff” that will not come to trial because Vrdolyak does not want to risk sworn testimony confirming the alleged meeting. But Hynes said he would willingly testify and verify his statements in court. Other political sources, including sources in the Hynes and Vrdolyak camps, have said that aides to Hynes worked for weeks to plant the mob story with at least three news organizations, including the Sun-Times.
”The whole story came out of Hynes` camp,” Vrdolyak said.
”All these comments about our campaign attempting to plant that article or anything else is all nonsense. It`s not so,” Hynes replied.
A spokesman for Sun-Times Editor Matthew Storin said the newspaper would have no further comment on the story. On Monday, Storin said, ”We stand by our story.”
Meanwhile, rumors circulated throughout the day that figures who reportedly had witnessed the alleged meeting would come forth soon to confirm it took place.
Speculation centered on Robert McSweeney, a 31-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department who has been assigned to Vrdolyak`s security detail for three years. Hynes said he knows McSweeney, who is a resident of the 19th Ward, where Hynes is the Democratic committeeman, but added that the officer is not the source of his information.