* As I mentioned last week, there is a longstanding gentleman’s agreement between the two major parties not to challenge each others’ presidential petitions. That’s usually the case within parties as well.
But if you look at the objection page at the State Board of Elections’ website, you’ll see a whole bunch of presidential petition challenges.
Republican consultant Jon Zahm is behind some of those challenges. Zahm said he filed challenges to Mitt Romney’s petitions after Romney’s people filed challenges to Santorum’s and to petitions filed for Santorum’s delegates. Zahm is working for Santorum’s campaign. According to the Daily Herald, Santorum’s delegate petitions are more than a bit iffy…
Delegates for GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum have filed the minimum legal number of petition signatures to appear on the ballot in just four of Illinois’ 18 available congressional districts.
In 10 others, delegates who filed signatures came far short of the 600 required to appear on the ballot, a review of the signatures found. They didn’t file any delegates in four districts.
* Zahm’s challenge of Romney’s petitions is based on the fact that the candidate apparently left out the name of the state that the Notary Public is authorized to work in used a Massachusetts notary…
Your Objector states that the Candidate has filed a Statement of Candidacy notarized by a Notary Public authorized to take acknowledgements of deeds and documents in the state of Massachusetts. It is a mandatory provision of the Illinois Election Code under 10 ILCS 5/10-5 that a candidate for office in the State of Illinois utilize a Notary Public commissioned in the State of Illinois. Not having a valid and legally sufficient Statement of Candidacy invalidates the entire candidacy of the office seeker.
…Adding… From Zahm…
Rich, the submitted copy of my challenge had Massachusetts written in. The issue is that it was an out of state notary. A granite city case invalidated a candidacy on that point alone due to a missouri notary on an illinois petition
Oops.
* From a Zahm e-mail…
I have reached agreement with the Gingrich camp that there will be a mutual release of challenges [today] at 3 pm. The Romney group is moving forward, at this point, with their delegate challenges so I am moving forward with my challenge to their statement of candidacy. I have attached it for you. I am still hoping for a mutual agreement with Treasurer Rutherford. I am continuing with my challenge against Paul as I have found some evidence of Paul activity against the Santorum petitions in concert behind the scenes with Romney.
Zahm’s challenge to Ron Paul’s petitions is based on the allegation that the petitions “list the purported home residence address of Ron Paul as 8000 Forbes Place, Suite 200, Springfield, VA 22151 By information and belief the actual home residence address for Ron Paul is in Lake Jackson, Texas.”
Oops again.
By the way, wouldn’t it be great if the Board of Elections put the text of these challenges online, along with all generated paperwork from the cases? I’d like to be able to go through the transcripts of some of these hearings. Just saying…
* Meanwhile, Congressman Jackson sent out a somewhat strange e-mail last Friday with a long list of endorsements, including from people who have not yet formally said they were endorsing the incumbent…
Last week, he published a list of re-election campaign endorsers including the president of the United States and the mayor of Chicago, but the nine-term incumbent congressman confidently conceded that the presidential and mayoral endorsements were of the word-of-mouth variety and not officially released by Barack Obama or Rahm Emanuel. The comments came during a brief interview at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition Martin Luther King, Jr. breakfast Monday morning.
“I’ve called them specifically and spoke with them and asked them for their support, and they’ve said they’re with me absolutely,” Jackson said.
Former 11th District Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson is challenging Jackson in the newly-drawn 2nd District.
“Everything that comes out of his mouth is questionable and has been pretty questionable for about 17 years,” Halvorson said.
Despite Halvorson’s claims, Jackson’s list seems to hold up…
Jackson has released a list of top elected officials he says are backing his re-election bid, including President Barack Obama, Gov. Pat Quinn and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. […]
Jackson acknowledged Obama and Emanuel have not publicly endorsed him, but he said they’ve pledged their support in private and he expects public endorsements soon. […]
Halvorson challenged Jackson’s list, but an Obama campaign official said the president told Jackson last fall that he would be endorsing him and Emanuel’s campaign spokesman, Tom Bowne, confirmed Emanuel told Jackson last fall in person that he has Emanuel’s support.
Usually, you want to have a big build up to endorsements from a president, a mayor and a governor. Instead, Jackson released them on a Friday before a holiday weekend. Weird.
*** UPDATE *** Halvorson has a new poll. From Anzalone-Liszt…
* Almost every likely primary voter (96%) can identify Jesse Jackson Junior, compared to only 56% who can identify Debbie Halvorson.
* Despite his 40-point advantage in name-identification, Jackson is polling under 50%, and only
leads by 13 points (48% Jackson / 35% Halvorson). […]
* A large segment of the African-American vote is in play; In spite of his 98% name ID with African-Americans, Jesse Jackson, Jr. only gets 63% of them in the current vote.
* Halvorson’s profile appeals to voters across racial lines. On the informed vote only 52% of her voters are white, while 40% are African-American, and 6% are Hispanic.
48 percent is awful close to 50 plus one. Just sayin…
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* The Progressive Change Campaign Committee released a poll of likely 10th CD Democratic primary voters with this gushing statement…
Democratic primary voters overwhelmingly want a bold progressive candidate who will fight for Wall Street accountability and government investment in jobs — not a conservative Democrat like Brad Schneider.
But the actual poll showed no overwhelming sentiment either way…
Q1 If the Democratic primary for Congress were held today, and the choices were Ilya Sheyman, Brad Schneider, John Tree, and Vivek Bavda, for whom would you vote?
Ilya Sheyman…………………………………………. 23%
Brad Schneider……………………………………….. 21%
John Tree……………………………………………….. 5%
Vivek Bavda…………………………………………….2%
Not sure………………………………………………….49%
The poll has a margin of error of +/- 4.8 percent, but using probability figuring, there’s a 67 percent probability that Sheyman is ahead. But that’s assuming this poll was conducted properly.
* A buddy of mine had an interesting take on the results, however. He believes the polling shows that the new Internet age means candidates are getting their message out before paid or even much earned media kicks in. Ten years ago, unknown candidates like these would barely register a blip on a polling radar screen. Now, half of the polling sample has made up its mind, even though none of the candidates have really spent a whole lot of money.
* And speaking of money…
Illinois Democratic House hopeful John Tree, who jumped in the 10th district primary late–in November–raised $101,000 in the past quarter and on Tuesday released a list of endorsements.
Tree, an Air Force Reservist and businessman, faces major competition from Brad Schneider and Ilya Sheyman for the nomination in the north suburban district. The battle is over who will face freshman Rep. Bob Dold (R-Ill.) in November.
Tree has about $80,000 cash-on-hand and pumped about $20,000 of his money into the race. Schneider and Sheyman have not released numbers yet for the quarter ending last Dec. 31.
Tree announced backing from David Wilhelm, a former Democratic National Committee chairman and Pete Couvall, Former Vice-Chairman of the Lake County Democrats and Treasurer of the Waukegan Democrats; David McArtin - Grant Township Democratic Committeeman; Rob Nesvacil - President of Wheeling Township Democrats; Kathleen Sances - Wheeling Township Democratic Committeewoman and Sue Walton - Palatine Township Democratic Committeewoman.
* In other news, this Progress Illinois story reminded me to say something about the circuit court clerk’s race…
With two months to go, the race for Cook County Circuit Clerk is an odd mix of wonky discussion on how to run a judicial bureaucracy — and hyberbolic charges and counter-charges by 12-year incumbent Dorothy Brown and challenger Rick Munoz, who has been Chicago’s 22nd Ward alderman since 1993. […]
Munoz’s campaign is fixated on Brown’s mini-scandals, like the incumbent paying her “Director of Investigations” to moonlight as her chauffeur. […]
Brown’s campaign, meanwhile is focused on the “fraud” committed by the Munoz campaign – that the challenger filed 28,000 phony signatures in his petition for clerk. But while Brown continues to publicly make the charge, the formal objection to Munoz’s signatures was actually withdrawn from the Illinois Board of Elections.
* But Chicago Magazine’s exposé on politicians and gangsters took a look at Ald. Munoz…
Indeed, crime in the heart of Little Village is higher than in much of the rest of the city. Statistics show that the police district that covers 26th Street and nearby parts of the 22nd Ward had the ninth-highest number of reported violent crimes and the fifth-highest number of homicides citywide in 2011.
But, as Montes points out, there are no surveillance cameras posted anywhere along 26th Street. He blames Ricardo Muñoz, the alderman for Little Village. Muñoz, an admitted ex–gang member, has served on the City Council since 1993. Critics cite the alderman’s well-established ties to the Latino gangs in Little Village and also note that Muñoz’s father and his nephew were, on separate occasions, arrested for trafficking fake IDs.
Montes, a gadfly who frequently holds protests to focus attention on the lack of police blue-light cameras in his ward, suspects that Muñoz has intentionally kept cameras out to help protect the gangs—a position shared by several law enforcement sources and Muñoz’s various political opponents. (The installation of surveillance cameras at high-crime corners, according to police figures, has cut drug-related crime by 76 percent and so-called quality-of-life crime by 46 percent. Aldermen can pay for the cameras out of the more than $1 million in discretionary funds they receive every year. Muñoz, however, hasn’t bought one.)
Over time, Montes has gathered more than 1,500 signatures of Little Village residents and business owners supporting the installation of cameras on 26th Street. “My question is: Why does [Muñoz] oppose cameras so much?” Montes says. “Why would you oppose these cameras when you have high crime in your area? You’re the alderman. You see crime going on. Why does he ignore it?”
Muñoz says 26th Street doesn’t need taxpayer-funded cameras: “The business strip should fend for themselves.” He adds that cameras should mostly go around schools and parks. As for the suspicions that he deliberately keeps cameras out to protect street gangs, he answers, “I grew up in the neighborhood, and these statements are coming from haters. They’re just rumors.”
That campaign will get a whole lot nastier if Brown wants it to.
* Other stuff…
* Kirk’s Trover to head to NRSC
* Rutherford: GOP attacks prep Romney for Obama
* Illinois congressman wants to slash members’ pay, cut sessions
* Perry endorses Tim Johnson legislative effort to make Congress part-time
* Kinzinger urges GOP presidentials to “stop attacks on free market”
* Kinzinger, Manzullo dispute over voting records: “What the real issue here is, when you look at the difference between Congressman Manzullo and I, he’s going for his 21st year in Congress and I’m going for my third.”
* Bustos gets Illinois AFL-CIO endorsement
* McSweeney raises over $143,000
* Recent withdrawals in Cook County subcircuit races
* Two more candidates survive challenges in 6th Subcircuit
* VIDEO: Joe Walsh - Public Affairs - 2012-01-03
* VIDEO: John Tree - Public Affairs - 2012-01-08
* VIDEO: Cliff Surges - Public Affairs - 2012-01-08
- Fed up - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 2:02 pm:
Considering that Munoz family has made considerable money from selling fake ID’s on 26 th st it is not surprising he doesn’t want cameras catching the action. Not sure if someone with Munoz gang connections should be in a position to control court paper work
- Dirt Digger - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 2:06 pm:
Munoz: Constituents should “fend for themselves” against criminals.
The mail doesn’t even write itself, it’s already written and waiting for postage.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 2:07 pm:
“The ILGOP - Where Gentleman Agreements Go To Die, And Elections Are Lost Before They Begin”
- ChitownHV - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 2:09 pm:
The weirdest thing about Montes’ criticism of Muñoz is that Montes’ dad was 22nd ward Streets and Sanitation superintendent for most of Muñoz’s tenure. Since garbage pickup can make or break an alderman, the ward superintendent has traditionally been an alderman’s most trusted guy, so to have one’s son criticize an alderman is unheard of.
- The Captain - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 2:11 pm:
In all the years Tim Johnson has been in Congress he’s only passed two bills, one honored the U of I tennis team for winning it all and the other one changed the name of a post office. I’d say Tim Johnson is WAY ahead of the curve on making Congress part-time.
- Son of a Centrist - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 2:14 pm:
Zahm and Jackson are both long on talk and short on walk. I don’t trust anything either of them says.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 2:35 pm:
Dear Republican “consultants” and “campaign professionals” involved in petitions for President and Convention Delegates,
If your ONLY job was to get those petitons filed, and filed correctly… you failed.
If you were the first to challenge any of the others and broke the “gentleman’s agreement”, you are a dope, AND you failed.
If you were in charge of any aspect of the petition process and failed to ask an “Andy Raucci” or any of the other “petition gurus” to LITERALLY write your petition documents, you are a bigger dope than those in charge of getting the petitions and you failed.
If you are part of the Rutherford “juggernaut” and this was your test run for governor, you failed and embarrassed Dan.
If you are Dan Rutherford and you are reading this, you need better political “experts” and not the novices who CLAIM to be experts. They failed you when its about the set-up of petitions, even before a signature is checked!
Any person, who made it their business, during this fiasco to get petitions done, should be ashamed that simple “double-check” procedures were so blatently skipped, that everyone had to save face by breaking a “gentleman’s agreement” because SIMPLE, first step procedures are just blown off.
The biggest loser in all this, thus far, is the Rutherford Camp. Honestly, you couldn’t take 10 minutes to get petitions cleared on verbage? I will say this;
Dan, if you are going to run for “bigger and better” and you want to get into this “nickel and dime” petition garbage, who is going to want to circulate your petitions next time? Did ya think about that before “challenging”?
Another test for the Rutherford “juggernaut”, another fail.
Treasurer Dan Rutherford, please evaluate where your house is politically, and get it in order. Remember, the same people you are “fighting” are the ones you will probably need later.
I will wait for the Rutherford “Tweet”.
- One to the Dome - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 2:35 pm:
Does Halverson even have a list?
- Tom - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 2:37 pm:
Another bit of bad news for Halvorson is 63% of blacks are with Jesse today. That number will only go up. By election day, JJJ will be closing in on 90% of them. Nothing Halvorson can do about it. Just saying…
- Shore - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 2:37 pm:
The only instance in recent years I can think of where a white candidate won a seat with a black majority population was in tennessee with a jewish man named stephen cohen in harold ford jrs seat. In that race-an open seat race to replace ford, there were something like 7 black candidates who split the vote enabling cohen to win by 2-3 points with 30 percent of the vote. I am not sure how halvorson does this.
Tree helps dold because he’ll divide the moderate slice of that primary between himself and schneider opening things up for scheyman who is the only one of those candidates courting the left wing and a much easier general election candidate to defeat.
- Dooley Dudright - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 2:38 pm:
To notarize in Illinois, or not to notarize in Illinois, that is the question………….
Heh. Dueling statutes, anyone?
The ever-popular “Uniform Recognition of Acknowledgements Act”, 765 ILCS 30/2, provides in part:
“Notarial acts may be performed outside this State for use in this State with the same effect as if performed by a notary public of this State by the following persons authorized pursuant to the laws and regulations of other governments in addition to any other person authorized by the laws and regulations of this State:
(1) a notary public authorized to perform notarial acts in the place in which the act is performed…
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 2:41 pm:
I’m starting to think those GOP presidential candidates don’t like each other very much….
- KR - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 2:50 pm:
Ron Paul’s candidate petition has his home address as required. the petitions for delegates are the only things using the campaign office address, so there is no validity to the challenge.
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 2:54 pm:
I actually thought it was clever of Jackson to release his “list” of endorsers quietly and quickly. Once he did that, all Halvorsen could do was complain and say “Nuh uh.”
Even if none of these were official endorsements, almost no one is going to ask that Jackson not use their names. It puts the burden of removal on the endorsee, not the endorsed. Like I said, clever.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 2:58 pm:
47 Ward -
I totally agree. Can’t “unring” the bell and getting it out there “rang” pretty loud.
The only endorser that was missing was Mayor Quimby.
- cal city - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 3:13 pm:
Assuming that African American voters will not support a non-AA candidate is certainly the conventional wisdom. I think Halvorson’s momentum, and these poll figures should give Jackson and others pause when considering that. I don’t think many expected her to be this close.
Its certainly a long road to haul, but I think Halvorson has a good chance. Jackson’s dirt might finally stick to him as there’s now someone able to throw it.
- Skeeter - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 3:48 pm:
The real shame of the Munoz thing is that a lot of us were really hoping for an adult to challenge Brown.
Brown has been an absolutely terrible Clerk. Files are a mess, staff stands around, and dockets are simply not reliable. Her staff can make it miserable to practice in the Circuit Court of Cook County. Rude is the rule.
In contrast, just down the street in federal court, the dockets are right 100% of the time. Within hours of every court appearance, a copy of the order is e-mailed to counsel. Not sure what happened on a date? Log in to the system and easily review the docket and even get copies of all pleadings. Kids get sick the morning before a routine court appearance? Call the clerk, who lets the judge know and then either have it re-schedule or appear by phone. Practicing in federal court is a joy in large part because the clerks are so professional.
It is an absolute shame that we will have to deal with four more years of either incompetent Brown or gang-loving Munoz.
John Fritchey has suggested consolidating certain functions of county government. This sure seems like a great time to abolish the Court Clerk as an elected position, and hire a professional to run the office.
- Aldyth - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 4:06 pm:
The Republican candidates for president are demonstrating that they do eat their own.
- Fed up - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 4:16 pm:
Skeetter
That would be an excellent platform for the new Reform Cook co President to advance. This is a job that should be professionalized. Their are many political offices that should not be an elected position.
- Esquire - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 4:42 pm:
The notary public issue that Zahm raising is an unusual one. Two appellate court districts in Illinois have produced two different results when addressing this issue. The more recent opinion from Southern Illinois held that the notary needed to be from Illinois while an earlier case decided in Cook County held that a foreign notary could be used for a statement of candidacy form.
Flip a coin or get the state supreme court to reconcile the two different opinions.
- Monkey's Uncle - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 5:00 pm:
Several months ago the rules for placing Delegates/Alternates for Presidential nomination on the Illinois ballot were reaffirmed. No changes were made.
The law states that in order to be on the ballot the candidates for Delegate/Alternate need 600 valid, registered voters’ signatures from within that Congressional District.
Speaker Gingrich, Congressman Paul and Governor Romney’s campaigns filed slates of Delegates/Alternates in Illinois and all had over 600 signatures.
The Senator Santorum campaign in Illinois filed slates in 14 of the 18 Districts. Of the 14, only 4 had 600 signatures. No objection was filed for any District that had the required 600. One District had only 614 signatures and no attempt was made to vet signatures to bump them to be below the 600. There will be candidates for Delegate/Alternate for Senator Santorum on the ballot.
The 10 Districts that objections were filed had:
CD 1 356 Signatures
CD 2 179 Signatures
CD3 214 Signatures
CD10 422 Signatures
CD 11 378 Signatures
CD 12 261 Signatures
CD 15 250 Signatures
CD 16 222 Signatures
CD17 227 Signatures
CD 18 117 Signatures
As one can see, the minimum requirements are dramatically lacking.
The first day one could circulate a petition was October 8 and the rules were reaffirmed months before. All of the campaigns had the same amount of time.
No objections were filed for technical violations, strictly those that, on the face, did not have the minimum number of signatures.
Dan Rutherford
Illinois State Treasurer
220 West Howard Street
Pontiac, IL 61764
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- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 5:08 pm:
Did I call the “Tweet” or what?!?!?!?
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 17, 12 @ 5:22 pm:
So … a Gentleman’s Agreement doesn’t amount to a hill of beans?
Further -
By the time the Primary gets to IL, there will be a Nominee so the delegates at that point are … moot … in determining … anything.
Just remember … when “courtesy” isn’t given, do not expect it later in return … Karma.
- siriusly - Wednesday, Jan 18, 12 @ 12:42 am:
Today, I agree with Shore (but not usually). 10th Cong. Bob Dold really wants Sheyman as his opponent.
Sheyman may have a lot of early energetic supporters but I’m really hopeing that when the adults start paying attention, Sheyman will be in 3rd place when it’s over.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Jan 18, 12 @ 8:12 am:
Some typical insight from Dennis Byrne as to what Americans are looking for in a president, from yesterday’s Trib:
–They’re looking for someone who has accomplished the important stuff, like controlling runaway budgets; not a naif who moved almost directly into the White House from the dark precincts of the Illinois Legislature.–
The “dark precincts of the Illinois legislature.” That’s not a phrase you run across every day. Where are those “dark precincts of the Illinois Legislature,” anyway? Are they down by the Rathskeller? In the tunnels over to Stratton?
I wonder what Byrne means by that? I wonder if anyone bothers to edit the Trib’s edit page anymore.