Hate Mail, Racially Charged Flyer Surface During Dolton Mayoral Race
(CBS) -- The mayor's race in south suburban Dolton is taking a nasty turn.
CBS 2's Dana Kozlov reports some candidates wonder if the current mayor has anything to do with it.
Dolton trustee and mayoral candidate Stanley Brown says a racially charged letter showed up in his mailbox Friday.
The mail arrived just days after a flyer appeared with Brown's face superimposed on a chain gang figure, along with the faces fellow trustees Robert Hunt Jr. and Tiffany Henyard. Looming in the foreground is clout-wielding Thornton Township Supervisor Frank Zuccarelli.
"This crosses the line, and it puts black people back 100 years," says Brown, who suggests incumbent Mayor Riley Rogers is to blame.
Burns and Henyard are upset, too.
"My grandmother's flipping in her grave right now," Henyard says.
The political flyer refers to the three -- and an unknown man -- as Zuccarelli's pawns, doing what they are told.
Rogers wasn't around and didn't return calls.
Trustee Duane Muhammad -- the third mayoral candidate not on the flyer -- calls the whole thing distasteful.
"Let's focus on what the candidate can do for you, the resident," he says.
Zucarrelli blames the flyer on Rogers' campaign and said it is an example of the sort of hatred, intolerance and disrespect occurring in our nation today.