Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) will run unopposed in the 2002 Democratic primary elections after her controversial potential opponent failed to collect a sufficient number of ballot petition signatures. Richard Benedict Mayers, a west suburban business man and white supremacist who filed at the last minute to run against Schakowsky for the 9th Congressional District seat, was removed from the ballot last week.In a unanimous decision, the three person Cook County electoral review board ruled Jan. 2 that Mayers did not have enough nominating petition signatures to validate his run against Schakowsky. He filed only 203 signatures and candidates needed 600 to get on the ballot.
Mayers, 29, says that he is a business consultant who has been active in Democratic Party politics. The Berwyn native is no stranger to political campaigns-he lost the 2000 Democratic Primary against incumbent Rep. William Lipinski (D-Ill.) of Chicago and lost a write-in campaign in that district in the 2000 general election. Mayers also lost races in 1998 for the 43rd state House district and for Berwyn Township Democratic committeeman, and in 1993 for a seat on Berwyn's City Council.
However, according to Schakowsky, Mayers is connected with white supremacist Matt Hale's World Church of the Creator-the group linked to the July 2000 shooting spree within the 9th District, which left former Northwestern basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong dead and several other minorities injured.
His platform included spending more money on education, changing the government's pro-Israel Middle East policy, banning abortion of white fetuses and allowing deportation of African American convicts to Africa. In his race against Lipinski, Mayers also proposed a national ban on interracial marriages.
"Some of my views are controversial," Mayers said. "There could be some people that wouldn't like me, but that's the nature of politics."
Schakowsky was more than critical of Mayers' candidacy and views. "There's no room in the 9th Congressional District, or really anywhere in a reasonable political debate, for a white supremacist of his kind, which is to say, anti-Semitic, racist and divisive," she said.
Chiming in the criticism, Schakowsky's attorney, Larry Suffredin, said he was pleased with the panel's decision. "I think it's kind of sad that we've got someone who doesn't live in the district bringing this kind of hateful message into the district," he commented. "I think it's very good that he didn't follow the law, so that he was able to be removed from the ballot."
