UPDATE made on Tuesday, July 19: it turns out the original post below was not completely accurate. The challenge to the Libertarian Party nominee for Secretary of State is a challenge to the statewide petition. However, even if the petition is shown to lack enough valid signatures, if that were the case, the only effect would be on the Libertarian nominee for Secretary of State. The other candidates are safely on the ballot.
July 18 was the deadline for challenges to Illinois minor party and independent petitions. No challenges were filed to the statewide petition of the Libertarian Party, nor to the independent gubernatorial petition filed by Tommy Belg. Those had been the only statewide petitions that were submitted this year.
No challenges were filed to any independent or minor party candidate petitions for U.S. House. There are three such candidates: independents Babette Peyton in the First District and Jerico Cruz in the Fifth District; also the Working Class Party petition in the 4th district, Edward Hershey.
A challenge was filed to the Libertarian nominee for Secretary of State, Jesse White, but that challenge does not involve petition validity. Instead it challenges White because he has the same name as the outgoing Secretary of State. That challenge is exceedingly unlikely to succeed, because there is no basis in Illinois law to keep someone off the ballot on the grounds that he or she has an identical name to someone else.
The validity on the Libertarian Party petition must have been good, because if it was not, they would have been challenged.
Richard, it is likely that the State Board of Elections could still remove Belg from the ballot on the technicality that a gubernatorial candidate must also have a running mate. This is odd, given that the full slate requirement was deemed unconstitutional per the court decision in Libertarian Party of Illinois v. Scholz.
But historically, most candidates who file without a running mate can be brought up for internal objections between now and when they need to certify candidates in late August for the ballot in November.
Andy – some inside ball that I found out this afternoon:
Both the GOP nominee for Governor (Darren Bailey) and the GOP nominee for Secretary of State Dan Brady had explicitly told Illinois GOP legal counsel John Fogarty to NOT object to the petitions.
And apparently, the Democrat who filed the objection against Jesse White doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing. Objecting on the basis of a candidate’s name (oddly the same as the retiring Democratic Secretary of State) has never held up in candidate objections, and it’s not about to do it now.
The fact that the Democrats lost their damn collectivist minds over the name of a Libertarian candidate just astounds me.
Some tidbits from a post I got a screenshot of earlier before it was later deleted from the ‘Paint it Blue’ group:
1. “What is happening right now is that for the General, a Libertarian named Jesse White (not the Democrat Jesse White) is running for Secretary of State which would confuse voters.”
It’s not going to confuse voters. The Democratic Jesse White, who’s been Secretary of State since 1999, is not seeking re-election, instead opting to retire. Former Illinois state treasurer Alexi Giannoulias is running for the Democratic Party in November. What confusion?
2.”In the primary, Jesse White ran on the Libertarian ticket unopposed so he got through that fine.”
What primary? We don’t have statewide ballot access! Outside of a previous election cycle Richard alluded to in a previous post, all races have been nominated at the state convention.
TO BE CONTINUED
3. “Typically, Democrats don’t take the time to audit Libertarian petitions, but being that this person is named Jesse White, he could potentially take a significant amount of the vote and could lead to us having a Republican Secretary of State because a lot of Democratic voters will believe they are voting for the old Jesse White and not this new person.”
And? That’s kinda the point, right? It would most certainly be nice to have ballot access in all 102 counties instead of only seven — because the Libertarian Party of Illinois will effectively have no control over who runs in those primaries.
4. “Darren Bailey and Dan Brady (the winner of the Secretary of State primary for the Republicans) are OK with this.”
Both Bailey and Brady gave explicit orders to Illinois GOP legal counsel John Fogarty to NOT object to the petitions. After all, Fogarty is a five-time loser trying to kick Libertarians off the ballot anyway.
5. “This is a dirty trick that could cost us our democracy because the Secretary of State certifies the votes.”
If the Libertarians in a three-way race can get 5% of the vote in November, it sounds more like the democratic process at the ballot box worked then, doesn’t it? Illinois hasn’t been a three-party state since the Illinois Green Party lost its ballot access in 2018.
I guarantee that the Dems would have lost their minds and gone full DSCC/Elias if the party I’m currently a member of, Illinois Green Party, had run a candidate for any statewide office. If North Carolina is any indication, it would have been more trouble than we could have currently handled. But since the Libertarians managed to get on the ballot, I think I’ll be doing a minor party solidarity vote for some statewide offices. Both our parties support the establishment of free and fair elections in our country, among several other areas of agreement.
The unDems from the blog Jake is referring to clearly haven’t considered the possibility that their own assault on democracy (ie, free and fair elections; I know we’re technically a republic) is what’s going to cost them votes, that some of us would vote for the Libertarian Party’s Jesse White not because of his familiar name, but because his party isn’t one of the two preventing free and fair elections.
Excellent points, Joshua. Kinda unfortunate that the Green Party didn’t run anyone for statewide this go around. They are, at least, trying to keep their ballot access in the Chicago Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, right? And wasn’t there a pair of county board seats in Jackson County?
Yep, we’ve got a couple of candidates for Chicago MWRD, who should be able to maintain Established Party status for that race given how far down the ballot it is compared to Governor or Congress, and a couple of candidates elsewhere. No one in Jackson County this time though; I’m not in much of a position to run again this year, way too much going on in my personal life right now.
I’m hoping we have more candidates in 2024.
Any named folks running –
Abraham Lincoln ???
Adlai Stevenson ???
Richard Daley ???
John Doe ???
etc.
In 1986, the Illinois Democratic Party had no nominee on the general election ballot for Governor, but it did have a nominee on the November ballot for Lieutenant Governor, Mark Fairchild. So that set a precedent in Illinois that a party doesn’t need to have a pair of candidates for those offices. So that should protect Tommy Belg from being removed because he doesn’t have a LtGov running mate.
I am reminded of the 2014 Alaska Senate race where Thom Walker won the Libertarian nomination in the primary, presumably because Bill Walker was running for Governor and Alaska voters didn’t see Bill Walker’s name on the ballot in the primary as an Independent and so voted for the only Walker they found. Also that year there were two Dan Sullivans in Alaska statewide elections, one for US Senate and one for Lt. Governor. Thom Walker stepped down as Libertarian nominee in favor of Mark Fish. Scott Kohlhaas, an Alaska LP fixture, was also on the ballot for Senate and was quoted as saying “I’m thinking of changing my name to ‘Sullivan.’”
https://www.ktoo.org/2014/08/22/walker-wins-primary-libertarian-senate-nomination/
I agree with President Trump
Any mention in the mere IL election LAW about guv / lt guv combos –
regardless of anything since IL became a State ???
ALL sorts of illegal stuff happened in the past —
and gets wiped out in a current / future court case.
We the people elected Trump twice to drain the swamp and save America and make it great again. The first time the deep state and fake news evildoers and traitor scum nullified the will of the people with the Russia hoax and impeachment hoax part 1 and 2 and the ridiculous phony china virus plandemic. The second time they just plain rigged and stole the election and put in a dementia ridden puppet for the Chinese and Ukrainian oligarchs.
So in 2024 when we the people elect Trump again he should be given a 12 year term and it should count as his first term as far as his eligibility. And he should be made the President and CEO of the USA with the power to fire any congressman, judge, governor, mayor etc. As well as any CEO of any American company.
Then at the end of 12 years we the people get to vote on whether to extend his leadership yet again. By then maybe it will be time to put one of his son’s in charge of the country. Or maybe not quite yet, and we keep Daddy in charge a little bit longer. Either way God bless America and God bless Trump.
Wasn’t there a scandal-plagued Republican outgoing governor in Illinois George Ryan once and the completely unrelated but unfortunately had the same last name Republican Jim Ryan tried to succeed him? I remember Illinois Democrats laughing about that. It’s how we got Governor Blagojevich.
Democrats are why Illinois is known for it’s corrupt political system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Blagojevich
note Obama machination
Democrats are evil and corrupt. Always vote GOP, accept no substitutes!
Are there any updates on the challenge to Jesse White? Did he survive the challenge or did the corrupt Illinois regime knock him off?
Trump is the people’s choice to lead our Nation
And Trump is also the key to save our civilization
From hordes of swarthy foreigners who are sneaking in
We must preserve the tone of our grandchildrens skin
Trump will save us from evil globalist gender benders
And stop the great replacement white genocide racial enders
He’ll keep us Christian and bowing to God
And remind all the parents to not spare the rod
He’ll drain the swamp and lock Hillary up
Because she’s an evil witch and completely corrupt
He’ll stop us from getting into world war three
And preserve the land of the brave and the home of the free
Round up the illegals, deport every last one
And not rest for a second til our great wall is done
Trump will end the Holocaust of abortion for good
And appoint more wise justices to make it understood
That God is back in our schools and men lead our families
And forced integration will become but a memory
So for all of these reasons and so many more
Let each and all of us vote Trump in ’24!