In Illinois, it is common for many small cities to have partisan elections, which are contested only by local political parties. Lyons, Illinois, in Cook County, has partisan elections for its own officers in odd year. At the April 2011 election, the contest was between the United Citizens Party and the Most Valuable Party. The press commonly refers to these two parties by their acronyms, UCP and MVP.
The MVP candidates’ petition in this year’s election was challenged, because the MVP candidates for Village Trustee filled out a declaration of candidacy on a form that was intended to be used only by independent candidates. The UCP challenged the ballot status of the MVP candidates, and the local election board removed the MVP candidates from the ballot. A local court upheld that decision. However, the Illinois State Appeals Court reversed the decision, and put the MVP candidates on the ballot. The decision is Lyons MVP Party v Electoral Board, 945 NE 2d 1175.
One of the three MVP candidates for Village Trustee, Patricia Krueger, then won the election, something she probably could not have done if the appeals court had not restored her to the ballot. This is an example of how overly-stringent ballot access laws can actually prevent the voters from electing the person they wish to elect.
Congrats to the MVP for winning! (no pun intended) What are the political positions of both parties (liberal conservative libertarian etc.)?
I had no idea there was a tradition of local political parties in Illinois! Does anyone know where/how to find out more?
How many State regimes manage to survive with having local regime parties ??
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the position of both the mvp and ucp is “what’s in it for me” the biannual races are basically for the power to appoint friends and family to municipal positions no grassroots movement here just local yokels tryin’ to get uncle mike a job.
Although nominating petition challenges are a blood sport in Illinois, until the last muni election there was an unspoken agreement between the factions in Lyons to NOT challenge each other’s petitions. The real action was in challenging petitions for backdoor and other referenda. See the published Vachata v. Bergman case, where Ms. Krueger was one of the politicos – then a TLC Party trustee – trying to prevent placement of a publib policy question on the ballot that would allow the voters to decide to isuue GO bonds to finance a TIF that had already been shown to have no economic basis. BTW, Ms. Krueger’s faction lost this one, the question was placed on the ballot, and the bond issue was defeated at the polls. The TLC then issued debt NOT subject to backdoor referendum, ignoring the voters’ will and direction.
One more thing: in Illinois, the affected taxing bodies are required to supply petition forms for back door referenda. Ms. Krueger’s party – totally in control of the Village – deliberately furnished a petition that was legally flawed – then used that as basis for court challenge. After Vachata v. Bergman, the law was changed to prohibit ANY challenges to backdoor referenda based on insufficiencies in a petition form furnished by a taxing body. So one small step for the electorate…totally unintended by the MVP aka TLC faction in Lyons.
One more reason to NOT have smaller regimes — that are even more evil rotten than many larger regimes.