Until 2009, a qualified political party in Illinois had the freedom to nominate someone by a party meeting, if no one had been nominated earlier in that party’s primary. But in 2009 the Illinois legislature passed a bill saying that such post-primary nominations are no longer permitted, unless a petition is submitted for the nominee. Governor Pat Quinn had vetoed this bill, but the legislature had overwhelmingly overridden his veto.
This year, the Republican Party submitted such a petition for its nominee for State Senate, 43rd district, Cedra Crenshaw. However, the Crenshaw petition had a slight technical error, so the local Board of Elections has removed Crenshaw from the November ballot, and only the Democratic nominee is now on the ballot. Crenshaw will try to reverse the ruling in court. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news. See this SouthTown Star editorial, deploring Illinois ballot access rules.
My Karma ran over their dogma! Wonderful news, take that #&#%@# Democans and #&#$%#$ Republicrats!
Illinois Republicans have absolutely no room to complain. This bill was introduced by a Republican (Mike Fortner) and voted in favor of by most Republicans. Additionally, Illinois Republicans are doing the exact same thing right now to the Constitution Party and Libertarian Party. Illinois Republicans are trying to use technicalities just like Crenshaw faces to remove candidates of those two parties from the ballot. Not that Cedra or the Republicans deserve this, but they have no room to complain whatsoever in Illinois, and in fact are complete hypocrites for doing so.
What year did ALL party hack incumbents become the ENEMIES of the People ??? 1776 ? 1865 ? 1918 ? 1929 ? 1945 ? 2000 ?
Main tools of their EVIL trade —
1. UNEQUAL ballot access laws
2. Minority rule gerrymander districts
3. Plurality nominations and elections
P.R. and App.V. — regardless of all of the juvenile MORONS on this list.
Green Party gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney spoke out strongly against this law in the recent IL debate organized by Free and Equal.
Quinn’s amendatory veto had nothing to do with the substance of the legislation, he simply wanted some other provision (IIRC it was some sort of odd law which would permit regulation by the initiative process). Quinn was simply negotiating his price. The legislature said no deal.
California has survived for decades without anything like slating. The only way a party can replace a nominee is if he dies. In this case, the problem was more related to Illinois’s high ballot thresholds for the General Assembly (Illinois has 19 congressional districts, the number of signatures required in the most Republican district is 880. Illinois has 59 senate district, over 3 times as many, and every one requires 1000 signatures).
The IL Green Party actively advocated against this bill (HB723). One of the problems we pointed out was that slated candidates only get 75 days to collect signatures (except in reality, it’s only 45 days) — whereas all other candidates get 90 days to collect signatures. We argued that if you’re going to require signatures, the candidates should at least get 90 days so they are on par. Of course, they didn’t listen, and they went ahead and created the technicality that got Crenshaw kicked off the ballot.
The politicians seem to do whatever they want theses days and make it difficult for the “average” person to wade through the process. They do this to keep their power and position. The rules should be simple and easy to follow and most of all fair to all potntial candidates.They are scared of her and if she is on the ballot the race card is off. Cant call the tea party racist with a woman of color on the ballot can you???? Wait a second… these people dont let facts get in their way.
We need choice!!!