Fake Froehlich signs appear in 56th District House race

The race for Illinois' 56th District House seat continued to generate heat Monday with the appearance of fake political signs implying an alliance between Democratic incumbent Paul Froehlich, Cook County board President Todd Stroger and Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

The signs mimic the appearance of Froehlich's real campaign signs, down to the inclusion of a red star in the right corner. The faux-Froehlich signs use black lettering, while Froehlich's real signs are blue.

Froehlich's Republican challenger, Anita Forte-Scott, acknowledged that her campaign made the signs.

"There's no implication. It's fact," Forte-Scott said, adding Froehlich left the GOP in 2007 to join the Democrats. "We definitely did it to remind voters that he is with them."

Forte-Scott said Froehlich only wants to be disassociated from these politicians because they're currently unpopular.

Froehlich denied there's been any inconsistency in his criticism of Stroger and Blagojevich, dating back to his days as a Republican.

"I was never in their camp in the first place," Froehlich said. "It's just a Republican dirty trick. The harshest critics of the governor are the House Democrats, bar none. I'm no more tied in with them than she is with George Ryan and Dick Cheney, who happen to be unpopular Republicans."

He added that Forte-Scott has also been trying to associate him with Stroger's Cook County sales tax, which he had nothing to do with and in fact introduced a bill in the House to try to repeal.

Two of the fake signs alternated with two of Froehlich's own signs at the southeast corner of Schaumburg and Plum Grove roads in Schaumburg Monday morning.

Schaumburg's Code Compliance Manager Mary Passaglia said there was one specific complaint about one of the fake signs being on a resident's property Monday morning. But the complaints about these new signs have not generally been disproportional to those of any other political signs, she added.

Village codes cover only the placement of political signs on public and private property, not their content, Passaglia said.

The 56th District includes Schaumburg and parts of Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, Palatine, Rolling Meadows, Hanover Park, Roselle and Bloomingdale.