Meet Jerry Hurckes

Trustee to the Village of Oak Lawn

Dan Lipinski’s Chief of Staff   Over $100,000 in 2006 on the federal payroll
Political Consultant to Bill Lipinski’s All American Eagles $3500 in 2006 alone

And a big piece of work:

Trustee Jerry Hurckes touched off the controversy when he requested that the inspector visit a home on the 9300 block of Melvina Avenue based on a complaint that it was vacant and deteriorating.

It turned out to be a bogus tip. The house is inhabited but in good shape.

The inspector, however, noticed a Dumpster sitting in the yard of a house a few doors down.

Hurckes’ political rival Kurt Madey — who tried to unseat him earlier this spring — owns the home and was in the middle of an unpermitted construction project.

Now, the inspector who confronted Madey on the illegal project is caught in the middle of the dispute and is facing allegations that he strong-armed the village board hopeful.

“This was by sheer coincidence?” said Mayor Dave Heilmann who backed Madey in his bid for office. “I don’t think so.”

“If you battle the king, you better kill him, or he’s going to come back and haunt you,” Hurckes said on Election Day as he ribbed the rival Unity Party and alluded to a challenge for the mayoral seat in 2009.

The statement was enlightening regarding the latest dust up, Heilmann said.

Hurckes denies that politics had anything to do with his call to the public works department.

“I’m the innocent guy here,” he said contending that he merely was responding to a constituent’s complaint.

“I followed through on things … it’s part of my job,” he added.

From September 1, 2004 in the Daily Herald:

NEW YORK – Republican U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes will try to withstand another legal objection to his candidacy in a State Board of Elections hearing that could take place as early as Friday.

Leonard A. De Clue, a 54-year-old Oak Lawn Democrat, filed the objection Monday, citing a problem with the paperwork the Illinois Republican Party filed to put Maryland’s Keyes on the Nov. 2 ballot in place of the departed primary winner Jack Ryan.

The state GOP did not know where Keyes would be living when it offered him the Senate position, so it left that line blank on a required election form, then went back to fill in the address days later when it learned Keyes had chosen an apartment in Calumet City as his residence. That’s the basis for the objection.

De Clue could not be reached for comment late Tuesday night. But he has ties to Jerry Hurckes, who is retiring Chicago Democratic Congressman William Lipinski’s chief of staff. Hurckes and De Clue have served on Oak Lawn’s fair housing panel.

Keyes’ campaign, which fought off another ballot challenge last Friday, was bemused by the latest challenge.

“What are they scared of?” said Bill Pascoe, Keyes’ campaign manager. “What does this say about the Democratic Party?”

Robert Gibbs, a spokesman for Democratic Senate candidate Barack Obama, said he didn’t know about the challenge.