Assessed valuation of ending election protest and endorsing winner? $600,000

SHARE Assessed valuation of ending election protest and endorsing winner? $600,000
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Andrea A. Raila, left, Cook County Assessor Democratic primary candidate, in January. File Photo. | Rich Hein/Sun-Times; Lawyer Frank Avila Jr. in February. File Photo. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times .

Since losing the Democratic Party primary for Cook County assessor last month, Andrea Raila has said she was robbed of a real chance at winning.

She sued the election authorities who temporarily disqualified her from the race — not for a do-over, she says, but because she merely wanted some measure of justice.

Judging by a newly unearthed letter her lawyer sent last month, Raila also was willing to end her reform-themed campaign in exchange for something far more tangible.

Namely, money.

According to the letter from lawyer Frank Avila Jr., Raila wanted $600,000. Or some lesser — but still “significant” — amount of money, Avila wrote.

Avila sent the letter to the lawyer for Fritz Kaegi, who won the Democratic nomination and had hoped to have Raila removed from the ballot.

Raila said she was unaware of the letter’s existence until I contacted her about it this week.

“Oh my God, is that the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard in my life,” she said. “I did not authorize that at all.”

Avila confirmed that he sent the letter but declined to discuss the demands contained in it.

“This is a confidential and inadmissible settlement negotiation,” Avila said. “I can’t discuss attorney-client privileged communications. I cannot discuss settlement offers with non-parties and cannot and am not authorized to make them public.

“Additionally, whoever released this confidential communication to you did so unethically and lacked class.”

Cook County Assessor Democratic primary candidates Andrea A. Raila, left, and Fritz Kaegi meet with the Sun-Times Editorial Board in January. File Photo. | Rich Hein/Sun-Times

Cook County Assessor Democratic primary candidates Andrea A. Raila, left, and Fritz Kaegi meet with the Sun-Times Editorial Board in January. File Photo. | Rich Hein/Sun-Times

In a statement from her campaign Friday after the Chicago Sun-Times posted this report online, Raila added that she had given Avila a “directive in writing that he was not authorized to approach Mr. Kaegi or his attorneys on my behalf by any means.”

Raila emailed Avila on March 30 — three days after he sent the letter to Kaegi’s lawyer — telling Avila she “didn’t authorize the start of preliminary negotiations” with Kaegi or his lawyers.

She also said Avila had not worked for her since Election Day.

Asked about Raila’s latest statement, Avila replied, “That is absolutely untrue.”

The letter from Avila to Kaegi’s lawyer, which was obtained by the Sun-Times, represents perhaps the craziest twist in what already was one of the more bizarre tales of our recent local political history.

Election authorities had disqualified Raila from the March 20 primary, ruling that her nominating signature petitions were fraudulent — only for a state appellate court to restore her place on the ballot days before the election.

She ended up third, behind Kaegi and incumbent Joe Berrios. Raila says she would have won but for the petition challenge that temporarily knocked her out of contention.

The lawsuit filed by Raila on April 20 asks the Illinois Appellate Court to hold the Chicago Board of Elections and Cook County Clerk David Orr in contempt of court. Her motivations, she said, were purely principled.

“I don’t want another candidate to go through what I went through,” Raila said. “We are being proactive to try to establish our rights to have voter choice and make sure that every vote counts.”

But a few weeks before, on March 27, Avila had sent Kaegi lawyer Andrew Finko a “demand” letter on her behalf. Among the items Raila wanted, according to the letter, was $600,000 in a “one-time lump sum payment to either her campaign or directly to her.”

Of that $600,000, Avila wrote, $100,000 “would be put into a ballot access organization and initiative.” The rest could have defrayed costs she incurred in the campaign, Avila suggested in the letter.

“Andrea Raila has extensive unpaid legal bills and ongoing litigation,” Avila told Finko. “The vast majority (almost exclusively) of the money put into her campaign was from her own personal funds as a loan and in-kind services from her former business.”

Frank Avila Jr. File Photo. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Frank Avila Jr. File Photo. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

The letter also demanded a public apology from Kaegi to Raila for trying to get her knocked off the ballot, and Avila added: “The amount of the final compensation is negotiable but not the financial compensation — and the financial compensation must be significant.”

In return, Raila would have promised not to “pursue any action” against Kaegi and “would not pursue a new election, or protest the results.” Then she would have endorsed Kaegi in the general election, Avila promised.

Avila gave Kaegi’s campaign until the close of business on March 30 (“Good Friday on the Latin Christian calendar,” he wrote) to mull the settlement proposal.

But there was no deal. In a statement, Kaegi said his campaign “never considered Ms. Raila’s demands, which were strange and highly inappropriate.”

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