Cook County’s most melodramatic political story of the election season began its second episode Tuesday night, as two Democratic township officials clashed over a video that captured one in an after-hours office kiss with a longtime suburban mayor, while the other denied helping spur interest in it.
The drama unfolded in a gray-walled, gray-floored conference room at the Lyons Township offices in Countryside, where elected officials gathered officially for the first time since the video’s release. The diatribes began as soon as the township board meeting started, when Township Supervisor Chris Getty, who is running for Congress, accused Township Clerk Elyse Hoffenberg, who is running for Cook County Board, of attacking him for his alleged role in the video saga.
“The clerk has chosen to manufacture procedural drama, promote baseless conspiracy theories, and launch political attacks against my office and the dedicated professionals who serve here at the township,” said Getty, a Democrat who is also the mayor of Lyons and is running as an independent against Patty García to replace outgoing U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” García in Illinois’ 4th Congressional District.
Getty also jabbed back at Hoffenberg’s earlier insinuations that he improperly accessed the video and tipped off Liz Gorman, the Republican running against Hoffenberg for county board, about it. Gorman’s Freedom of Information Act request for the video helped spark the story. Getty called Hoffenberg’s previous statements “completely false and without merit.”
As Getty spoke, Hoffenberg kept a careful smile, her hands crossed on her lap under the table. And as the meeting continued into a portion she led, Hoffenberg turned sharply toward the filled room and addressed the crowd.
But rather than mention the video of her being kissed by Steve Landek, the mayor of Bridgeview and a longtime township Democratic Party boss, Hoffenberg listed her office’s accomplishments, including a school supplies drive, a chair yoga program and a community shredding event. As she finished, her many supporters in the crowd applauded.
Though she acknowledged Landek kissed her, Hoffenberg denied having an inappropriate relationship with him and described the kiss as merely a “peck” that Landek apologized for, according to the local news website Patch, which first reported the controversy. Hoffenberg and Landek met frequently to discuss work, she told the Tribune.
Gorman has said the kiss, which occurred after hours and was captured by a security camera in Hoffenberg’s government office, shows evidence of “poor decision-making of elected officials in a township government office … and how do you expect to make good ones to make higher office?” Gorman and Hoffenberg are facing off in November to replace Sean Morrison, the only Republican on the Cook County Board, who is not running for reelection as commissioner of the 17th District.
During a raucous public comment period, many speakers praised Hoffenberg’s work and argued the kiss should be quickly dismissed.
“I do not like, cannot stand dirty politics,” said Countryside resident Frank Hardrick, 70. “You guys have a good team, don’t mess it up for some petty kiss … She has a personality, wants to please everyone, to a fault.”
Jane Yount of La Grange said she watched the video and had “been there.”
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“A lot of women have,” the 74-year-old said after calling Hoffenberg an “amazing public servant.”
Then, like several other speakers, she zeroed in on Getty.
“You’re not going to be my congressman, if it’s the last thing I do,” she said. She then pointed first at Hoffenberg, then Getty. “I do want to state that you’re great, and you’re not.”
Though she isn’t a township official, Gorman also attended the meeting and said an air of electioneering hung over it.
“If I knew this had been a campaign event for the clerk, I would’ve brought more than my remarks,” she said.
Gorman also said Hoffenberg “crossed the line” with previous comments accusing Gorman of pressuring her to drop out of the race under threat of releasing the video.
“I never spoke to you. Nobody in my campaign has ever spoken to you. Nobody threatened you,” Gorman said to Hoffenberg. “Nobody demanded anything from you. I filed my FOIA statements. That’s not extortion. That’s FOIA.”
After the meeting, Hoffenberg carefully avoided answering questions about the video and said she was focused on her government work.
“I’m so thrilled the press was here tonight to see all the good work we do,” she said.
She similarly dodged when asked if she believes Getty played a role in the leak, responding, “challenging the status quo is never easy.”
She then walked away as reporters tried to ask more questions, circling the parking lot before returning to her Tesla. Faced with more questions as she got in the vehicle, she said she didn’t want “to create a soap opera at the township.”
For his part, Getty called the meeting “manufactured chaos” and said he believes some of the public speakers were recruited by Hoffenberg.
“They’re only coming out of the woodwork solely because I’m seeking office for Congress, and then also there’s obviously people you know trying to bolster other campaigns,” he said.
He flatly denied having any role in the video’s emergence and said he only became aware of the video after being cc’d on the FOIA request.
“I wanted to make sure that we, as a government, were responding as we should to these FOIA’s, that just because this individual is also a political opponent, that we’re not just automatically denying these FOIA’s,” he said.
Asked if he was troubled by the possibility that someone had reviewed the surveillance video before Gorman made the request, he said the kiss happened “in a public building.”
“If people are making accusations that somebody is conspiring to give the public access to a public building, I’m not going to feed into that either,” he said. “If there’s private events going on in these public spaces, they shouldn’t be. They should be happening elsewhere.”