In late 1995, Illinois state Sen. Alice Palmer was in a bind.
The Democratic lawmaker had launched a campaign for a vacant congressional seat, but finished a distant third in a special primary field that included Jesse Jackson Jr.
So Palmer decided, at the last minute, to seek another term in the Illinois General Assembly even though she had already endorsed a potential successor, a young lawyer named Barack Obama.
Obama didn’t take kindly to Palmer’s switcheroo. Members of his campaign team questioned the legitimacy of the 1,580 petition signatures that Palmer had gathered in only two weeks. They challenged hundreds of those signatures and succeeded in forcing Palmer off the ballot.
Ultimately, Obama’s petition-challenging tactics eliminated all four of his opponents and allowed him to coast uncontested through the Democratic primary.
There are at least two lessons to this story:
1. Campaign politics (particularly the deep-dish Chicago variety) is an unforgiving contact sport.
2. If you want people to entrust you with an elective office, you need to demonstrate that you can properly execute the simple tasks required to get you on the ballot.
Nadine Nieto, candidate for 285th District Court.
Siggi Ragnar, PhotographerThat’s what the recent legal battle between Nadine Nieto and Lisa Uresti-Dasher was all about.
On the surface, it was endless court questioning about hyphens.
Beneath the surface, it was Nieto’s bid to prove that her rival in the Democratic primary for the 285th District Court bench is either dishonest or incompetent.
It started on Dec. 8, when Roy Barrett, an attorney representing Nieto, sent a letter to Monica Alcantara, the chair of the Bexar County Democratic Party.
Barrett alleged that Uresti-Dasher’s Nov. 18 ballot application contained inaccuracies that rendered her ineligible for the Democratic primary.
Barrett focused on Uresti-Dasher’s use of a hyphen between her maiden and married surnames, which he described as invalid because it is neither her legal name nor a nickname.
Lisa Uresti-Dasher, candidate for 285th District Court.
CourtesyHe stated that Uresti-Dasher, the daughter of Tax Assessor-Collector Albert Uresti and the niece of disgraced former state Sen. Carlos Uresti, was “emphasizing her maiden name to ride the coattails of her father.”
He also cited an item on the form in which Uresti-Dasher falsely stated that she has continuously resided for 40 years in Texas and 35 years in the district which she hopes to represent.
However, Uresti-Dasher left the state to study at the University of Wisconsin Law School, graduating in 2010. She later lived for three years in Houston.
Alcantara disregarded Nieto’s objections.
On Dec.17, Nieto filed suit against Alcantara, the Bexar County Democratic Party and Uresti-Dasher, arguing that Uresti-Dasher’s ballot application contains “several facial defects that invalidate her application and violate the Texas Election Code.”
During a Wednesday court hearing to settle the issue of whether or not Uresti-Dasher could stay on the March ballot, the endless questioning from Barrett about dates, places and hyphens drove Uresti-Dasher’s attorney, Andrew Toscano, up the wall.
He said Barrett’s relentless cross-examination of Uresti-Dasher amounted to the “entirety” of Nieto’s campaign.
At one point, he interrupted the proceedings to tell Barrett, “I know you don’t want me to bother you, but you’re bothering us.”
On Wednesday afternoon, visiting Judge John Gabriel denied Nieto’s request for a temporary injunction, a ruling that will enable Uresti-Dasher to stay on the ballot.
While the verdict went her way, the hearing itself did Uresti-Dasher no favors. In fending off Barrett’s suggestions that she had been less than honest while filling out the application form, she took the ignorance defense.
She said the continuous-residence box on the form had confused her. She also indicated that she was perplexed by the concept of residence.
“I did not know what residence meant. I didn’t look up the code,” Uresti-Dasher said.
There’s also the fact that a newspaper ad for Uresti-Dasher’s candidacy proclaims that she has been “serving San Antonio as your lawyer for 12+ years!”
By her own admission, however, Uresti-Dasher received her attorney’s license 11 years ago, subsequently worked for H-E-B in a non-legal capacity and then lived for three years in Houston. There’s no denying that the ad is false.
In a statement released on Thursday, Uresti-Dasher characterized Nieto’s lawsuit as “an attempt to take the decision out of the voters’ hands.”
She added, “It was a frivolous claim with absolutely no merit that was nothing but a waste of tax dollars and court resources.”
To be sure, it was a hardball political move. In the spirit of 1996 Barack Obama.
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