Failed shakedown

A campaign worker for State Senator Howard Carroll, the 50th Ward Democratic Committeeman, entered a store and said to the owner, “Senator Carroll wants you to buy an ad in his adbook.”

The owner responded, “Why should I buy an ad?”

The campaign worker looked around and said, “you could have a lot of violations here.”

The owner replied, “Then I’ll fix them.” And he didn’t buy an ad.

What the campaign worker didn’t know was that the store owner was already paying off someone in the Building Department. So, he didn’t think he needed to make a payoff to Carroll, too.