Longtime Lyons mayor Christopher Getty has filed nominating petitions to run for Congress in the 4th district as an independent candidate.
Getty, 43, announced his candidacy in mid-March at an annual fund raiser in Oak Brook. Since then his campaign has been busy with the demanding task of collecting at least 10,816 valid signatures on nominating petitions. On May 26 he filed 1,967 petition sheets containing roughly 18,000 signatures with the Illinois State Board of Elections (ISBE).
The 4th Congressional district has been an Hispanic district since 1992, when it was re-drawn to include several geographically separate Hispanic enclaves on the west and southwest sides of the city and near suburbs. Getty’s candidacy is certain to be seen as a threat to one of only two Hispanic majority districts in the state.
The 4th Congressional contest has attracted greater than usual attention, due largely to the controversial manner in which incumbent Cong. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia handled his retirement. Garcia withdrew his candidacy at the last moment but made no public announcement until after the filing period for the March 17 primary had passed, informing only his chief of staff, Patty Garcia, who is no relation. She was able to quickly gather the nominating signatures required and file just before the deadline, leaving her as the only candidate on the March 17 Democratic primary ballot.
That elicited outrage from numerous camps who called Jesus Garcia’s behavior “undemocratic” and the sort of old school politics unworthy of a progressive Democrat.
Getty said his filing “formalizes the first competitive general election challenge” in the 4th Congressional contest “since outgoing Cong. Chuy Garcia’s late withdrawal from the March primary left his chief of staff as the only name on the Democratic ballot.”
Two other candidates have secured places on the November general election ballot with Garcia — Republican Lupe Castillo and Working Class Party candidate Ed Hershey. Both have previously run against Jesus Garcia and lost by huge margins.
Besides Getty, three other individuals have announced their intention to run as independents, including 25th Ward Chicago alderman Bryon Sigcho-Lopez, former Democratic Party operative and activist Mayra Macias, and veteran and activist Lindsay Church. As of 8 a.m. Tuesday, May 26, no other candidate had filed nominating petitions with the ISBE to run as an independent.
Independents and new party candidates have a much higher bar to clear than those who win party primaries. Garcia needed just 697 valid signatures to qualify for the Democratic primary ballot; Castillo needed just 371 for the Republican primary. Getty and three other announced independents need a minimum of 10,816 valid signatures, and realistically thousands more to assure they can withstand any legal objection to their signatures. Getty’s petitions will be considered legally valid unless there is a formal objection filed against them before 5 p.m. Tuesday, June 2.
Getty, who has been the mayor of Lyons since 2009, is also the Lyon’s township committeeman, and has built a strong political organization around those offices. His early filing of such a voluminous set of nominating petitions can be considered a show of political and organizational strength. His campaign referred to the petition effort as “one of the largest independent congressional petition drives in recent Illinois history.”
The Getty campaign has also characterized itself as a “grass roots movement,” saying it has attracted volunteers from “across working-class neighborhoods, immigrant communities, union households, churches, and small businesses.” However, while more than 100 individuals signed petitions as circulators, a review of the petition pages submitted by Getty shows a large number — if not a majority — were circulated by members of his inner circle, including family members, political allies on the Lyons village board and Village of Lyons employees, including Village Manager Thomas Sheahan, Building Director John Pierce and more than 20 others.
The early petition filing also gives Getty’s political opponents extra time to review his petition sheets, identify any alleged invalid signatures, errors or other legal violations and lodge a formal objection with the ISBE. Any objection, if filed against Getty or another independent candidate, would be heard by an ISBE hearing officer, who forward a recommendation to the eight-member state board of elections.
Several election law attorneys and political operatives have already requested copies of Getty’s nominating petitions from the ISBE. They include Andrew Finko, who has done legal work for declared 4th Congressional candidate Byron Sigcho-Lopez in 2022 and 2023. While Sigcho-Lopez has announced his candidacy, he has yet to file the required petitions.
Copies of Getty’s petitions were also requested by Jeremy Rivera, who has done campaign work for 77th District State Rep. Norma Hernandez (D-Melrose Park), whose Illinois House district is in the 4th Congressional district; Ross Secler, an election lawyer and partner at Burt Odelson’s law firm, Odelson, Murphey, Frazier & McGrath, the attorney for the Village of Lyons; Chris Jackowiak of COR Strategies, which focuses on Republican politics; and Perry Abbasi, whose website describes him as an election attorney and “opposition researcher.”