A tight race for three seats on the Chicago metropolitan water reclamation board ended in acrimony Tuesday when the son of Commissioner Frank Avila, who won a second term to the board, lashed out at political opponents he claimed had targeted his father.

Frank Avila, Jr., who served as his father's campaign manager, accused Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Congresswoman Jan Schakowski, among others, of "racist" and "anti-Latino" motives in trying to aid Avila Sr.'s political opponents.

"My father is the only Latino (on the MWRD ballot)," he said. "We were worried about that because Congressman Jackson and Congressman Schakowski, who is supposed to be a liberal, joined ... an anti-Latino, racist move to try and eliminate my father.".

Avila Jr. said his father had "risen above" his political enemies by making alliances with the African-American community.

"This is a great victory for all people. But it's also a victory over racism and the anti-Hispanic congressmen."

Jackson spokesman Rick Bryant called the allegations "completely false."

"I have no idea why Frank Jr. would say such a thing," Bryant said.

Schakowsky could not be reached for comment.

Avila Sr., however, who serves as chair of the MWRD's engineering and maintenance/operations committees and who received the most votes in Tuesday's primary against seven other candidates, tried to deflect his son's views Wednesday.

"I don't know why (Avila, Jr.) made those comments but I'd like to distance myself from that," he said.  "Things are changing here in America now. When you run for office people are looking at you for your qualifications. People are able to see that a person is qualified regardless of ethnicity or gender. And (the success of Hispanic candidates in Tuesday's primary) shows that in the Hispanic community, we do have people who are qualified to serve the interests of all people."

He and the other two top candidates in the race, Cynthia M. Santos and Kathleen Therese Meany, will move on to face a Green Party slate in November's general election.

The results show Avila with 365,072 votes, Meany with 333,201 votes and Santos with 331,988.

In other races, final counts show Eugene Moore winning the primary for recorder of deeds with 516,995 votes.

His opponent, Ed H. Smith, received 328,996 votes.

In the Democratic primary for board of review, winner Joseph Berrios received 152,338 votes.

His opponent, Jay Paul Deratany received 107,420 votes.

Correction: This story has been corrected to reflect the final vote tallies. An earlier version did not include results from Chicago precincts. 

Note: This story has been updated to include a response from Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. spokesman Rick Bryant.

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