The gloves came off at the 4th Congressional District candidate forum held on Oct. 20 at the Berwyn City Hall. Democratic candidate Patty Garcia called Lyons Mayor Chris Getty, who is running as an independent, a “crook and a fraud” while Getty said Garcia’s campaign is “built on a lie” referring to how she got on the Democratic primary ballot at the last minute after being tipped off that incumbent Congressman Jesus “Chuy” Garcia was going to withdraw from the race after having filed to run for another term. Patty Garcia, who is not related to Chuy Garcia, was Chuy Garcia’s chief of staff, before she resigned that post to run for his seat in Congress.
There are two other little known candidates in the race, Republican Lupe Castillo and Working Class Party candidate Ed Hershey, but the race clearly seems to be coming down to a battle between Garica and Getty. The heavily Democratic 4th District runs from Pilsen to Oak Brook and is the only majority Hispanic district in the state. The district includes Riverside and Brookfield.
Two other candidates, Chicago alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez and Democratic Party operative Mayra Macias also filed to run as independents complaining about how Garcia was able to run unopposed in the Democratic primary. They were ultimately knocked off the ballot after their nominating petitions were challenged and a state elections board ruled they did not submit enough valid signatures on their nominating petitions to get on the ballot as independents.
At the Berwyn forum Garcia pointed to a 2019 FBI raid on the Lyons Village Hall and the Lyons office of the Getty Insurance Agency as signs of corruption. The raids were apparently part of a bigger investigation into corruption and were carried out in conjunction with raids on the village halls of nearby McCook and Summitt. Two politicians, both of whom have since died — former state senator Martin Sandoval and former McCook Mayor Jeff Tobolski — eventually pled guilty to federal crimes but no criminal charges were ever filed against Getty and he was not accused of any wrongdoing.
Garcia also claimed that Getty was using his local campaign committee to help fund his congressional campaign.
“This guy was raided by the FBI, he has been misusing campaign funds, he has a history of corruption,” Garcia said. “Chris, you’re a crook and fraud.”
Getty brushed off the charge.
“It’s just nonsense,” Getty told the Landmark after the forum.
For his part Getty emphasized how Garcia got on the ballot after apparently being told by Chuy Garcia a couple of days before the filing deadline that he was going to pull out of the race. No one else apparently was tipped off so only Patty Garcia had time to get the petition signatures necessary to get on the Democratic primary ballot as she filed to run in the Democratic primary on the last day candidates could file. This is a time-honored maneuver used by other politicians in the past to anoint a successor.
“This is election subversion,” Getty said. “This is taking the voice away from the people.”
Getty pointed out that Chuy Garcia was censured by the United States House of Representatives for the maneuver.
Garcia said she made a decision to run based on Chuy’s Garcia unexpected decision not to run.
“Life happens, you make plans, and then things have to change,” Garcia said. “Congressman Garcia fully intended to run for office, for reelection and unfortunately, due to personal reasons, healthcare reasons, and caretaker he couldn’t do that anymore and you know, I had less than 24 hours to make a decision to run for office. Know that, for me, I don’t take this lightly. I’ve been doing work in the community for over 15 years. I’ve helped other people run for office.”
Garcia also noted that voters have four candidates to choose from in the Nov. 3 election.
“The reality is, at this point, there is four of us on the ballot and people will have a choice,” Garcia said.
On the issues Garcia, like her former boss, is a strong progressive. Patty Garcia called for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to be abolished.
“What that means is not one more penny to this rogue agency that has gone with a blank check, completely unchecked, not only terrorizing our communities but also killing our neighbors, violating constitutional rights, taking people and abducting U.S. citizens from our neighborhoods,” Garcia said.
She also called for the federal minimum wage to be raised to “at least” $25 an hour.
Getty took more moderate positions saying that the country can both have a secure border and welcome immigrants.
“We need to streamline our immigration system so that people can onboard in that system and have a path to legal status and citizenship,” Getty said while also saying we cannot have federal agents terrorizing neighborhoods.
Getty also said that he supported an increase in the federal minimum wage but did not specify what he wanted it raised to.
Both Garcia and Getty talked about affordability with Getty saying that it was his number one priority. Getty blamed high prices on the war with Iran and noted that Congress didn’t vote to authorize the war while Garcia blamed tax cuts for high prices.
Getty said he wanted to reform the tax system.
“I don’t think we should punish high income earners, what we should target is tax loopholes,” Getty said. “I believe our tax system should be fair, it should be understandable and it should help our economy grow.”
Republican Castillo, who received 27.3% of the vote against Chuy Garcia two years ago, said she did not favor special taxes for the rich. She also opposed Medicare for All.
“If they do impose Medicare for All it’s going to go broke in seven years,” Castillo said.
Hershey, a member of the left wing, socialistic Working Class Party, blamed corporations for most the country’s ills.
“The companies really determine what immigration policy is,” Hershey said.
Getty has had a tight grip on Lyons since he was elected mayor in 2009 at the age of 26. He has been the Lyons Township Supervisor since 2017 and was elected initially as a Democrat. Getty has been active in the Lyons Township Democratic organization. In this race Getty has tried to tap into voter frustration with politics as usual by characterizing himself as outsider and anti-Washington candidate. He says both major parties focus on making the other party look bad instead of working together to solve problems and help average people.
“I think we need to reach across the aisle and speak to each other,” Getty said.
Getty is positioning himself as a moderate.
“Unfortunately, we live in this partisan world where the two political parties pull us to the extremes and we need to go back to the middle where somebody is putting the issues of the American people first,” Getty said.
Getty said it is time for things to change.
“We need to break this madness,” Getty said. “We need to elect an independent that’s gonna go to Washington, D.C. and is going to put the people of the 4th Congressional District first.”