Illinois held its 2010 primary in February, and the Democratic Party primary for Lieutenant Governor was won by Scott Lee Cohen. Party leaders did not like Cohen and after the primary was over, they successfully persuaded him to resign from the ticket. The party then chose Sheila Simon as its replacement Lieutenant Governor nominee.
Now, two independent gubernatorial candidates are aiming to qualify for the November ballot. One is Cohen himself, who now appears to regret that he resigned the Lieutenant Governor’s nomination. The other is William “Dock” Walls, who had tried to appear on the Democratic primary ballot as a gubernatorial candidate, but party officials didn’t like his candidacy and threatened to challenge his primary petition, causing him to withdraw. Walls is gaining support from black voters, because many black political activists had expected the party to choose a black to replace Cohen as the party’s Lieutenant Governor candidate, but the party did not do so. See this story about the Cohen independent race.
It looks like this is going to be an interesting race.
WHOA, I can comment again!
Wonder how this will effect the Greens.
Cohen dropped out way, way too soon. A total mistake.
It looks like this is going to be an interesting race.
It looks like this is going to be an interesting race.
Minor clarification: Walls withdrew his candidacy when it became clear that he’d lose the challenge.
Cohen has almost no chance of getting on the ballot, but he could make it very difficult for Walls to get on the ballot. The Cohen sideshow will definitely take away publicity from Walls.
so will walls be on the ballot? i actually think having walls might help the greens in this race. the dems or republicans will still win with 35 % of the vote though.
Thanks, #7. I corrected the post.