Ald. Marty Quinn appeared to be headed to an easy victory over David Krupa, election results indicated Tuesday night, poised to defeat the DePaul University freshman in a landslide in Chicago's 13th Ward.
Quinn won 85 percent of the vote with 75 percent of precincts reporting by 8 p.m., compared to Krupa’s 15 percent of the vote, according to the Chicago Board of elections.
Krupa, a recent Fenwick High School grad and part-time FedEx forklift operator, cashed in savings bonds and used graduation gift money to open a campaign office. But he wasn't taking on just any alderman - setting his sights set on powerful House Speaker Mike Madigan’s hand-picked alderman. Quinn is perhaps Madigan’s most senior political operative and has represented the 13th Ward on the city’s Southwest Side since 2011. [[505902811, C]]
In early 2018, a series of allegations of sexual harassment against various aides rocked Madigan’s organization, the first of which was against Marty Quinn’s brother Kevin Quinn. Alaina Hampton, a political consultant who also previously worked for Madigan, accused Kevin Quinn in February of making multiple unsolicited advances and sending her dozens of inappropriate text messages.
Kevin Quinn, who Hampton said was her supervisor at the time, was fired the day before she went public with her allegations. She claimed that when she had previously told Marty Quinn and Madigan of the alleged harassment, they both attempted to sweep her complaint under the rug and refused to hire her for a campaign in retaliation. [[504651202, C]]
Kevin Quinn, Marty Quinn and Madigan - the country’s longest-serving statehouse speaker and the chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois - all denied the allegations and Hampton filed a lawsuit against DPI and Madigan’s political organization the following month. It was those allegations in part that prompted 19-year-old Krupa to make his first run for office - one in which he also filed a lawsuit against Marty Quinn, his political committee, Madigan and the 13th Ward Democratic Organization that Madigan controls as the ward’s Democratic committeeman.
That lawsuit is over Quinn’s efforts to knock Krupa off the ballot. Krupa filed roughly 1,700 petition signatures to run, only needing 473. To get him off the ballot, Quinn’s campaign filed more than 2,700 affidavits from residents claiming to revoke their signatures on Krupa’s petitions - 1,000 more affidavits than signatures Krupa even collected. Krupa’s campaign alleged that this constituted fraudulent behavior, and Quinn ultimately dropped his petition challenge. Still, Krupa filed his lawsuit accusing Quinn and Madigan of a “deprivation of his civil rights.” [[505168132, C]]
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Having pulled in roughly $12,000 in campaign contributions and in-kind donations, with more than $5,600 of that coming from his own pockets, Krupa didn't quite have the cash to stack up to Quinn. A prolific fundraiser, Madigan dumped $200,000 cash from the 13th Ward Democratic Organization’s coffers into Quinn’s campaign, in three installments since December. He also covered thousands of dollars in Quinn’s campaign payroll with his Friends of Michael J. Madigan committee, state Board of Elections records show.
While that amount of money was all-but-certain to overwhelm Quinn’s rather unlikely opponent, the race was one to watch if only to see just how power in Illinois is preserved.
