Tom Kacich, enterprise editor of the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, here expresses his support for the August 25 U.S. District Court ruling in Gill v Scholz. That is the U.S. District Court decision that enjoined the 5% petition requirement for independent candidates for U.S. House who make a real effort to petition.
I’m curious: what constitutes a real effort?
Illinois is terrible for congressional ballot access. As far as I know, out of Illinois’ 18 congressional races, only 3 of them have third party candidates running! Besides ballot qualified David Gill, there are two libertarian write-in candidates: David Earl Williams III (IL-9th) and Joe Kopsick (IL-10th). It’s absolutely insane how impossibly difficult it is to get on the ballot for a congressional election in Illinois as a third party candidate.
I wish it was as easy to get on the ballot in this state as it is in New Jersey, for example, which if I’m not mistaken, has many candidates appearing on the ballot in congressional races, including candidates outside of the Libertarian, Green and Constitution Parties.
My mistake, I forgot about the Illinois Greens, there are a total of 5 third party congressional candidates in Illinois, according to Politics1.com:
Rob Sherman (Green) IL-5th
David Earl Williams III (Libertarian/write-in) IL-9th
Joe Kopsick (Write-in) IL-10th
Paula Bradshaw (Green) IL-12th
David Gill (Independent) IL-13th
Still, 5 alternatives in all 18 races – not good at all.
The Illinois Green Party is ballot-qualified in those two US House districts, so it didn’t need a 5% petition in either of them.