Larry Dominick re-elected as Cicero town president

February 26, 2013 (CICERO, Ill.)

His challengers Juan Ochoa and Joe Pontarelli both claimed there was corruption and nepotism in Cicero.

Flanked by two security guards, Juan Ochoa walked into a polling place Tuesday morning with the hope of becoming Cicero's first Latino town president.

Ochoa said he was running against Cicero's long history of corruption.

"I'm a marine. I'm not afraid. I'm here to fight for the people of Cicero; those goons do not scare me," he said.

The "goons" Ochoa is referring to are Dominick, running for his third term as Cicero town president, and his administration.

Throughout the campaign Ochoa accused Dominick of corruption, nepotism and voter intimidation.

Dominick has denied the allegations.

"They are entitled to say what they want," Dominick said. "We know we are going to win. Why create a disturbance? We are going to get 70-percent of the vote."

He has dished it right back to Ochoa, accusing him of using gang members as campaign workers.

Ochoa denies any wrongdoing.

"I have a tremendous amount of experience and no one can proclaim I've done anything inappropriate," Ochoa said.

While the bickering between the Dominick and Ochoa campaigns continues through election day, a third candidate Joe Pontarelli hoped Dominick and Ochoa would cancel each other out and voters would elect him.

"We run a clean campaign. That is what we said from the beginning. The voters are fed up with the bickering," Pontarelli said.

Copyright © 2024 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.