Jewish candidate files against alleged supremacist

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A Jewish candidate for the U.S. Congress filed an objection against the candidacy in the same district of an alleged white supremacist.

Illinois state Rep. Julie Hamos, a Democratic candidate in the 10th Congressional District in the 2010 race, filed objections Monday with the state Board of Elections to the petition for candidacy of Richard Mayers.

Mayers was charged in 2005 with destroying three public library VHS tapes about the Holocaust and with contempt of court for allegedly making a Nazi salute in an Illinois courtroom. He filed earlier this month to run for Congress in the heavily Jewish 10th District under the Green Party.

Mayers has been linked to the white supremacist group The Creativity Movement, which terms Jews and all non-white groups "mud races."

"Richard Mayers has no interest in bringing thoughtful or useful discussion to this race for Congress," Hamos told JTA. "He is merely using this opportunity to spread a vile message of hatred and intolerance."

Hamos’ claim is that Mayers’ nomination papers lacks the requisite 31 valid signatures because eight are invalid.

Mayers is not a Green Party member, according to state party chairman Phil Huckelberry. He was removed from the party’s ballot in 2007 after objections were filed to his run for a seat in the 3rd Congressional District.

The district’s incumbent, Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), a moderate Republican, is running for the U.S. Senate next year. Kirk, a leading pro-Israel voice in Congress, has scored victories in a district that otherwise leans Democratic. The party sees the seat as an easy 2010 pickup.

Hamos, a Hungarian-Jewish immigrant who fled to the United States as a child during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, has represented the area since 1999. Her district in the Illinois General Assembly overlaps the 10th Congressional District.

Also running in the Democratic primary is Dan Seals, a businessman who lost to Kirk in 2006 and 2008.