Joliet Mayor Accuses Challenger Of Secret Negative Ads

Joliet Mayor Bob O’Dekirk is accusing challenger Terry D’Arcy of secretly funding a negative campaign attack against him.

Below is O’Dekirk’s press release:

Joliet Mayor Bob O’Dekirk today condemned the D’Arcy campaign for secretly funding negative campaign attacks on the former Joliet Police Officer Bob O’Dekirk, who has served the last 8 years as the Mayor of Joliet.

“First, any police officer who runs for public office understands that every action they ever took will be reviewed, second guessed or twisted to serve the political goals of their opponent. I patrolled the streets of Joliet for 10 years as a police officer and of the very few times anyone ever complained about my performance, the complaint was found to be unjustified or baseless, said O’Dekirk. “I worked hard at being polite and fair with people I dealt with as a police officer. I was recognized repeatedly for my outstanding police work including four nominations for Officer of the Year, the 1995 recipient of the Martin S. Murrin Labor award, Officer of the Month commendations on several occasions, and selected to serve as an Executive Board Member for the Fraternal Order of Police.”

O’Dekirk stated that it took him all of 20 minutes to link the secret campaign mail back to D’Arcy.

D’Arcy’s Cook County based campaign attorney Burt Odelson, who created the nominations papers for D’Arcy and his running mates for City Council, donated over $7,500 to the Cook County based Integrity PAC –  including current funds in the PAC account at the time of the anti-negative O’Dekirk mailing.

“I couldn’t have been that bad of a cop because I caught Terry D’Arcy and his campaign lawyer red handed about 20 minutes after someone gave me a copy of the negative mail they left their fingerprints all over,” said O’Dekirk. “Politics is a rough game, but there is a difference between political spin and outright lies about a law enforcement officers’ record,” said O’Dekirk. “I have pointed out the failures and contradictions of Terry D’Arcy’s candidacy, but I am man enough to put “Paid For By Citizens For O’Dekirk” on the mailing so people can ask me about it. As a former boxer, I know that if you throw a punch, you need to take a punch. If Terry D’Arcy wants to throw a punch, he should do it himself and not hire political thugs to punch me in the back of the head when I’m not looking.”

O’Dekirk previously used Odelson to create petitions for him in 2015, but stated that Odelson later told him he expected to be named the Joliet City Attorney and direct all city legal work.

“Odelson has a history of helping candidates, then demanding government legal work. I don’t work like that. I told him no and to send me a bill for the small amount of work he did,” said O’Dekirk.

“I don’t know what kind of deal Terry D’Arcy made with Odelson, but if Terry D’Arcy does somehow succeed in this election, I would not be surprised if Odelson and his army of Chicago lawyers come in and take over Joliet city government.”

O’Dekirk provided a copy of a 2019 Federal subpoena and items seized in a raid on the offices of the Chicago suburb where Odelson serves as the Village Attorney that lists Joe Hurt (the Chairman of Integrity PAC). The subpoena and FBI raid on the suburban government offices of Odelson’s client involved an inquiry into activities around the Red Light camera scandal and pay-for-play allegations surrounding government officials represented by Odelson. At least 12 public officials have plead guilty to Federal charges regarding bribery and conspiracy related to SafeSpeed’s red light cameras.

“The last thing Joliet needs is the people involved in this shady campaign attack because we can see where it leads based on FBI raids and subpoenas in other towns they are involved in. I am calling on D’Arcy to denounce their activities and separate from them immediately. In the mailing they told at least two outright lies that are demonstrably false. Whoever else was involved with this mailing should get their own lawyers because they are going to need them,” said O’Dekirk.

O’Dekirk added that he has provided a copy of the mailing attacking his police record to his own attorney to review for a potential defamation of character lawsuit against D’Arcy, Odelson and the Integrity PAC committee that was used as the front for the attack on O’Dekirk.