Thornton Township Supervisor Napoleon Harris is facing a challenger as he seeks reelection as the township’s Democratic Party committeeman: former ally and township Trustee Stephanie Wiedeman.
Wiedeman, who was elected interim township trustee during a town hall style caucus on Jan. 25, chose not to seek reelection once Harris, who is also a state senator, announced he would seek the supervisor position.
She says she maintained a decades-long relationship with Harris, and trusted he would get the township on the right track after the tumultuous term of former Supervisor Tiffany Henyard, who was also mayor of Dolton and remains under federal investigation.
But Wiedeman said since Harris was sworn in in May, that relationship has deteriorated, with Wiedeman being rehired within the township and quitting two weeks later. Now, she’s challenging Harris for committeeperson and supporting the efforts of former members of Henyard’s township administration to disqualify him from seeking election.
“I don’t know what to say outside of our current leadership is selfish,” Wiedeman said Wednesday. “I really think there needs to be a community approach, and I’m not seeing that.”
Wiedeman said she joined Keith Price and Michael A. Smith in looking over Harris’ nominating petitions, not thinking she would find anything that could disqualify the former NFL player and longtime state senator from the local party position.
“But once we got the petitions and we started to go through them and we started to see some of the things we saw, I was just like, this is unbelievable,” Wiedeman said.
Wiedeman, Price and Smith allege Harris’ nominating petition for the March 17, 2026 primary includes eight pages of duplicate signatures. Wiedeman said these sheets had “exactly the same signatures on them,” but were differentiated by the circulators listed and the days on which they were notarized.
“This was very intentional,” Wiedeman said. “Honestly, it felt like cheating, and I don’t agree with that at any level, for anybody, for any reason.”
Price and Smith also claim Harris does not live in Thornton Township, another potentially disqualifying challenge.
Burt Odelson, attorney for both Harris and the township, said he has looked over the contested signatures and agreed some petition sheets were copies that “shouldn’t have been in there.”
However, Odelson says, the Cook County Electoral Board will find that excluding the copies, Harris still has enough signatures to remain on the ballot.
“He has enough signatures,” Odelson said. “I wish he had more, but he has enough.”
The Electoral Board will consider objections to Harris’ candidacy for committeeman at a hearing at 3 p.m. on Dec. 4 at 69 W. Washington St. in Chicago. Wiedeman faced her own objection to signatures from Anthony McCaskill, which she said the Electoral Board dismissed Nov. 17.
As Thornton Township committeeman, an unpaid political seat, Wiedeman she hopes to boost voter engagement, which she said has sharply declined over the past decade. She also expressed disappointment in Harris pulling levers at the state level to continue collecting a $202,000 salary as supervisor despite a local ordinance meant to reset the salary to $57,000.
“Another advantage to this is that you get a say in what our leadership looks like,” Wiedeman said. “I would be able to endorse leaders that I see fit for these communities, that we see fit for these communities.”
Odelson called the break between Wiedeman and Harris “an interfamily feud” and said Harris’ connections in Springfield will continue to help party organizers and the township as a whole.
“We’re still, at the township, digging out from the Henyard years — as far as money, what was spent, where it was spent, personnel,” Odelson said. “He’s done programs in the short time he’s been there, but again, we’re hampered by the fact that there are things that he’s trying to correct.”
ostevens@chicagotribune.com