If you're a candidate running for re-election, you don't want this to be the story voters doing their research on the candidates to find first about you: Trouble brewing for Springfield Alderman Sam Cahnman. But...here at the Truth Team, we're nothing if not equal opportunity story-tellers.
We want to plant this story here because...well...we intend to reference it a few times in the coming weeks and months.
The story of Sam Cahnman's run in with the law is 3 years old, but is worth sharing for 'old-times sake':
Springfield police are investigating claims by a 23-year-old woman that Ward 5 Ald. Sam Cahnman had inappropriate sexual contact with her after a recent downtown music festival.
A Sangamon County judge on Monday granted the woman an emergency no-contact order. In her application for the order, the woman claims Cahnman performed sexual acts on her after supplying her with alcohol.But....it gets richer...(allegedly)
After a few "grape bombs", he allegedly lured her to his stabbin' cabin where he proceeded to have an episode of 'Hardball' queued up where he happened to appear. How suave. Bet she wasn't the first one to watch that episode. Chris Matthews always makes us weak at the knees, so we understand what Cahnman was going for here...
The woman says she met Cahnman during the last song of the SOHO music festival, which is held around the Old Capitol Plaza, according to her statement.
Cahnman offered to buy her drinks at the Alamo, the application says. The two drank “grape bombs,” a mix of grape vodka and Red Bull, and Sam Adams beer and then went to his nearby apartment in the St. Nicholas Apartments, according to the statement.
At the apartment, the alderman poured her a glass of white wine “from a bottle that had been corked prior to my arrival at his residence,” the woman wrote. They watched an episode of “Hardball” with Chris Matthews on which Cahnman had appeared and discussed politics, she wrote.
She remembers waking up without underwear as he was leaving, she wrote.According to the statement, the woman contacted Cahnman the next day and he allegedly told her he had performed sexual acts on her.And...it doesn't sound like this is Alderman Cahnman's first run in with the law. The story in the SJ-R includes this juicy nugget:
...Cahnman was arrested for allegedly soliciting prostitutes who were undercover police officers.If he's so busy courting women with grape bombs and tapes of him on Hardball, one has to wonder..."How does this guy have any time to govern?"