Lying about supporters

When Cook County Commissioner Martin Tuchow faced a strong opponent in his re-election campaign for 48th Ward Democratic Committeeman in 1980, he distributed a flyer listing the local police captain and school superintendent as having endorsed him, even though they hadn’t, knowing voters would be impressed by their support and those officials would not protest his claim.

He also listed several of his opponent’s supporters as his supporters, knowing that brazen act would scare them into submission. And it did. After all, if Tuchow could wrongly claim their backing, who knew what else he could do. So, they stopped campaigning and did not publicly accuse him of wrongly listing them as supporting his candidacy.