Michele Piszczor stood in her Southwest Side driveway, pointing to the rusted dent in her car’s driver-side door. To her, it’s a battle scar.
Piszczor (pronounced PIZE-er) is running for office in Illinois’ March 20 primary, hoping to unseat one of the state’s most influential politicians, House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago).
The dent in her 2005 Honda Accord – and four slashed tires since November that cost her about $100 each – amounted to political payback for challenging Madigan for his 22nd District seat, she said.
“This is what happens,” she said. “This is Chicago politics. But at the same time, to me, Madigan is the root of all evil here in our state. He is the weed in our garden.”
Piszczor, 25, is a legal assistant at a suburban law firm. She said she decided to run for office after buying a house in the city’s Scottsdale neighborhood and witnessing the struggle of middle-class, Hispanic families.
Her block includes several foreclosed homes, an issue that’s personal to her. Raised by a single mother, Piszczor and her family moved to an apartment when she was 15 after losing their home. She had to give away her dog because the new place wouldn’t allow pets.
She said Madigan, the chairman of the state Democratic Party who has served in the Illinois House since 1971 and as speaker for 27 of the last 29 years, is out of touch with people in his district and their problems. She said she grew disgusted with the perceived lack of leadership and decided to run.
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“I could sit here and watch TV and complain or I can actually get out here and do something about it, and that’s essentially what drove me to do what I’m doing,” she said.
The primary ballot includes two other Democrats, Mike Rodriguez and Olivia Trejo, who live a few doors down from one another about two miles from Piszczor’s home.
Piszczor believes they are plants – candidates running with Madigan’s blessing to split the Hispanic vote and make it easier for him to win re-election. His district, according to the most recent U.S. Census data, is about 52 percent Hispanic.
It is a tactic Madigan has employed before. To protect a favored House candidate in the 35th District two years ago, Madigan’s foot soldiers collected signatures for two women with Irish-sounding names in order to weaken Kelly Burke, who won anyway.
Madigan’s spokesman, Steve Brown, said the speaker has not paid much attention to Piszczor or the other candidates. Piszczor isn’t “registering a blip on the radar screen” and wouldn’t be a serious threat to Madigan’s re-election, he said.
“You’re talking about a candidate whose campaign is not really registering a pulse,” he said. “It’s not a real contest.”
He suggested Piszczor damaged her own car to bring attention to her campaign.“Our experience over time is [that]…these things are usually self-inflicted,” he said. “Those cases have been pretty well documented.”
Piszczor called that “ridiculous” and said she wouldn’t intentionally damage her car for publicity.
Neither of her other opponents on the ballot, Rodriguez or Trejo, seems to be waging a serious campaign. They have not filed paperwork with the State Board of Elections to raise money, and they don’t appear to have campaign offices or Websites. They did not respond to requests for comment on their candidacies.
They both circulated some of their petitions to get on the ballot, but they also had help. One volunteer who collected signatures for Rodriguez, Terrence Goggin, ran against Madigan about 10 years ago, allegedly as a plant. He also did not mount a serious effort and avoided the media.
More than 30 campaign workers helped Madigan get on the ballot with 87 pages of signatures. Madigan did not circulate petitions himself — which is customary practice for incumbents — but Piszczor views it as an indication he is removed from his constituents.
“How can you be a state representative and not go door to door gathering your own petitions? You represent these people. If you’re not out there talking to these individuals, how are you representing your district?” she said.
Brown said Madigan is in the district every day he isn’t in Springfield attending neighborhood meetings, meeting with constituents and working on issues that help his Southwest Side community.
Piszczor said Jim Edwards is managing her campaign. He’s a political consultant who mostly works for Republicans. Piszczor said while he is a family friend, she is not running as an operative of the Republican Party.
“Why would I put myself through this if I wasn’t sincere? Despite my tires getting slashed, despite what I’m going through in this race, I’m not going to give up,” she said.
Kristen McQueary covers state government for the Chicago News Cooperative and WBEZ.
