City elects convicted felon as mayor, prompting threat from prosecutor

CBS ^ | April 6, 2017

[lowbridge]

The city of Markham, Illinois, has elected a convicted felon as its new mayor, prompting the county’s state’s attorney to vow to remove him from office.

Roger Agpawa pleaded guilty to felony mail fraud in a federal medical insurance case in 1999. He is currently the fire chief of neighboring Country Club Hills and won Tuesday’s mayoral election in Markham, a suburb south of Chicago.

By law, his felony conviction prevents him from holding some municipal offices barring a presidential pardon, CBS Chicago reports.

[Responsibility2nd]

It’s Illinois.

Isn’t being a criminal a requirement for public office?

[kingu]

I thought the requirement was the felony conviction AFTER the election for Illinois... I assume that he’s not an approved liberal and thus must be drummed out of office for what any liberal would describe as ‘a mere technicality.’

[VideoPaul]

Markham is small potatoes. You want heavy duty corruption in Chicagoland? Try Harvey, IL. Or Cicero, IL. They make Rahmbo look like a piker.

[ProudFossil]

Hey, Illinois = Democrat = felon = candidate = elected. Makes sense to me.

[Doogle]

...what’s an Agpawa?

[blueunicorn6]

“Yes, we know he’s a thief. That’s why we elected him. We’re hoping he steals for us.”

[TexasGator]

Yes but he was a convicted criminal.

[technically right]

Only in Illinois.

[COBOL2Java]

Marion Barry Is D.C.'s Most-Popular Elected Official

[Wuli]

I looked him up. He - Agpawa is a Democrat.

[lowbridge]

Yep. If he were a republican, his party affiliation would have been all over the article

“Republican so and so was once convicted on a felony. Making the republican ineligible for office. The republican ran on the republican ticket won the election by this many republican votes....”