* A relatively meaningless special US Senate election is all but ordered…
Acting after a series of directions from the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Judge John Grady said he is inclined to hold a special election to fill the rest of Mr. Obama’s term on Nov. 3, the same day as the regularly scheduled election.
Judge Grady also is inclined not to hold a special primary election but to allow the political parties to fill their ballot slots by vote of their central committees.
Also appearing on the ballot would be independent candidates who already have qualified for the six-year vote by filing petitions with at least 25,000 signatures, Judge Grady indicated.
Appointed Sen. Roland Burris is already attempting to turn this into yet another Illinois political spectacle…
Tom Wright, an attorney representing Burris, said using the nominees already on the ballot for the special election would deny Burris and other interested individuals the opportunity to serve the 60-day period.
Wright went on to say he believed Burris at least deserves the opportunity to see out the remainder of the term.
“No one else can come up to speed like that. No one else has the staff that’s already on top of these issues. No one else would be in a better position to finish this office,” he said.
But Grady emphasized that legally, Burris cannot receive preferential treatment in retaining the Senate seat and must be considered the same as any other citizen interested in the 60-day term.
Burris might be expected to push the state party to hold open hearings on whom they appoint to the ballot. That would be just one more opportunity to show to the world how thoroughly screwed up the Democrats are here.
* Related…
* Illinois parties could skip primaries
* Rules set for special election in Ill. Senate race
* Voters will vote twice Nov. 2 for Senator; no primary to fill remainder of Obama term; Burris tenure to be cut short
* Special election for Burris Senate seat close to resolution
* Special election for Obama seat near certain
* Special Election Likely, though Candidates Unclear
* Will you have to vote for one or two U.S. senators?
LIVE session coverage...
- Segatari - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 9:54 am:
>A relatively meaningless special US Senate election
Like I said earlier, it has meaning because if a Republican wins he becomes the 42nd vote to sustain a filibuster and the Dems would have to get two instead of one to cross party lines in what is expected to be a blitz lame duck session to ramrod as much of Obama’s agenda as possible because he won’t have the votes in 2011 to do much of anything.
- Vote Quimby! - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 10:03 am:
“up to speed”? I didn’t know “park” was a speed. What initiatives has Burris created that would go unfinished? How hard is it to vote the way Durbin tells you?
- Excessively Rabid - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 10:15 am:
The only way this decision is anything but a disaster is if the new person just pushes Burris out sooner. That would be OK.
- Logical Thinker - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 10:16 am:
Burris is such an egomaniac that he’ll never step aside, even from this election, which will cause AG a lot of problems.
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 10:23 am:
Hey judge!
This is thoroughly ridiculous!
There is no reason we cannot have the winner of the November General take the seat immediately! There is NO REASON to have two elections on the same day for the same seat!
Use your brains, people!
We do not have the money and we certainly don’t want to see any more monkey business with this stupid senate seat!
- Yukon - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 10:23 am:
Should’ve had a special election in early 2009 to get rid of Burris.
- Bring Back Boone's - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 10:34 am:
===he is inclined to hold a special election to fill the rest of Mr. Obama’s term on Nov. 3, the same day as the regularly scheduled election===
the election is November 2nd
- shore - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 10:34 am:
Dear Roland, you’re replaceable, and I think a 10 year congressman with 25 years working in dc with a staff in the house will be able to fill in for you just fine before the congressman takes office next january.
A lot of senators quit early after the election to give the state’s incoming senator a leg up on seniority so this is not a new thing.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 10:35 am:
Isn’t there a little known Judicial Canon that let’s you avoid this stupid remedy? Something like double-secret probation?
- Amalia - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 10:42 am:
dear roland: please do Illinois, heck, America a favor and
resign as soon as possible. just go away.
- Pat collins - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 10:47 am:
So, is this yet ANOTHER example of how Quinn and the Democrats COST the state money? By refusing to have an election then, we need two now.
That is something everyone will notice, two elections. I wonder how often it will appear in Brady/Kirk ads……
- huh - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 10:48 am:
Rich,
Why would an open hearing be anything but instructive for voters. We already had a Lt. Governor choosen behind closed doors by state central committee persons? If we must waste more money and time for a 60 day Senator at least let the voters see “how the sausage is made”
- Aldyth - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 10:53 am:
This whole thing is ridiculous. Illinois isn’t paying its bills now. Even if we only spend $5 on this special election, it is too much to spend on nonsense.
- bored now - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 11:06 am:
roland burris once again shows that he’s a selfish politician who cares nothing about the democratic party. he’s willing to provide mark kirk with the opportunity to double up from contributors but deny the same to alexi giannoulias? what a jerk. burris is a joke in the senate as it is. i guess he’ll settle for nothing less than dragging everybody else down, as well…
- Levois - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 11:32 am:
Do we have to follow this judge’s ruling. I mean it’s a little too late to even think about holding a special election especially if we will have a new US Senator by next year anyway!
- Draznnl (Rhymes with orange) - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 11:42 am:
A special election is not as meaningless as it seems. It will be another election cycle allowing the campaigns to obtain additional contributions from their deep pocket donors who have already hit the $2,400(?) maximum for the general.
- Cincinnatus - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 12:07 pm:
- Draznnl (Rhymes with orange) - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 11:42 am:
Yup, spot on. One more thing to consider is the lame duck session. If Kirk were to pull it off, he would probably not allow Congress to pass sweeping legislation after the election by providing a NAY vote to cloture.
- BigTwich - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 12:10 pm:
“Isn’t there a little known Judicial Canon that let’s you avoid this stupid remedy? Something like double-secret probation?”
de minimis non curat lex
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/de+minimis+non+curat+lex
- BigTwich - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 12:15 pm:
Anyway, Roland has a point. If there is going to be an election people should have a right to have some kind of shot at it as if it were, well, an election.
- Cincinnatus - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 12:31 pm:
“de minimis non curat lex”
A diamond is worth less than a Lexus?
;-{)>
- fedup dem - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 1:30 pm:
I’m not surprised about anything coming out of the warped mind of Judge grady. Nearly 30 years ago he teamed up with then US Attorney Dan Webb in prosecuting Cook County Commissioner Martin Tuchow over actions Tuchow supposedly committed as a private attorney (the apparent goal of Webb was to nail Tuchow, then the chairman of the Cook County Board’s Finance Committee, and get him to give the feds the goods on other elected officials, presumably County Board President George Dunne). All Grady 9as the judge) and Webb (as the US Attorney) accomplish was to destroy the career of the first politician to slate a woman for a Chicago City council seat and the first politician in this town to slate an Asian-american for office. When Tuchow was convicted, John Stroger took over as Finance committee Chairman, paving the way for era of John and then Toddler Stroger. I’m sure the people of Cook county want to thank Judge Grady for that act public service as well! With judges like Grady busy wrecking our society, who needs to worry about people like Osama bin Laden and his cohorts?
- Confused - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 1:46 pm:
Why is there so little media coverage on the question of why the special election was not called in 2009 in the first place? Even Rich is quiet on that issue, and he generally catches the procedural details that the sun-times and trib tend to miss.
- the Patriot - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 3:10 pm:
I have missed the explanation as to how Burris is still sitting in the seat if his appointment was not legal. Did the court address this?
- Pat collins - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 4:33 pm:
de minimis non curat lex
Literally “About small things, the law does not care”.
I would like a consularis like you Cinncinatus would know that :)
- BigTwich - Tuesday, Jul 27, 10 @ 4:39 pm:
“Why is there so little media coverage on the question of why the special election was not called in 2009 in the first place?”
I think the Judge said the only date the Governor could have designated was November 2010.