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Cohen for guv?

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Illinois

* The clown show never ends in Illinois…

Sneed hears rumbles former lieutenant governor candidate Scott Lee Cohen is angling for a comeback. The millionaire pawnbroker is “intending to run again for high public office” in Illinois, a source said.

Word is Cohen is eyeing a bid to run for . . . governor on an independent ticket!

Ya gotta be kidding?

• But hold on: Cohen spent $2 million on a well-orchestrated race, which he won. After getting bareknuckled by top Dem partymeisters, Cohen — saddled with scandal — withdrew.

From the Illinois State Board of Elections’ candidate’s guide…

A candidate for whom a nomination paper has been filed as a partisan candidate at a Primary Election, and who is defeated for nomination, is prohibited from being listed on the ballot at the General Election as an independent candidate or as a candidate of another political party, and may not file a Declaration of Intent to be a Write-In Candidate at that General Election.

Cohen won the primary, so the “sore loser” provision doesn’t apply to him. If he does run, he’ll need to file 25,000 valid signatures by Monday, June 21.

* In related news…

Candidates for Illinois governor and lieutenant governor would run as a team in their party’s primary under legislation that gained unanimous support from a Senate panel Tuesday.

The Senate Elections Committee endorsed a measure by an 8-0 vote Tuesday to pair the two candidates rather than allowing them to run separately in the primary. The House earlier approved the measure, and it now moves to the full Senate.

The move comes just months after Chicago pawnbroker Scott Lee Cohen, the initial Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, withdrew from the race after embarrassing revelations surfaced about his private life. […]

Raoul passed an identical bill out of the Senate, which is awaiting a vote in the House. As a result, he expects this bill to have little resistance in the Senate.

There won’t be another SLC-like saga again, unless a gubernatorial candidate picks an unvetted running mate.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 10:52 am

Comments

As far as the LtGov law goes, it makes sense.

If SLC does run for Gov and commits personal wealth to it, he could cause some damage. He is (or was) speaking at a group called “Reform Chicago NOW” this week.

Comment by John Bambenek Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 10:56 am
== There won’t be another … ==

Given Illinois’ history, that’s a bold statement.

Comment by Scooby Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 10:58 am
SLC for Guv–seriously???

Only in Illinois!!!
Only in Illinois

Comment by train111 Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 10:59 am
Ok, this makes no sense other than “my ego demands I do something”.

If he HAD to withdraw from LG (and really, I thought at the time he should have toughed it out) WHY would he think he can run again?

Not as bad as Blago’s delusion, but skating in that direction….

Comment by Pat collins Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 11:01 am
Cohen won’t get anywhere if he does get on the ballot. He will be just a sideshow like all 3rd party candidates.
This just shows how political naive he is. A few people give him encouragement on his blog and he thinks there is a landslide of support coming.
He continues to be a joke.

Comment by Nick Adams Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 11:09 am
When does Ringmaster Ned introduce Bozo? Does he get Coookie to run for Lite Gov? When does the Grand Prize Game start? I wonder what is in bucket #6?

Comment by dupage dan Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 11:10 am
I’m sure Cohen is hearing from a lot of people, telling him he got screwed, and he should keep running. News flash, they’re all Republicans.

One would think a pawnbroker wouldn’t be so gullible.

Comment by just sayin' Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 11:11 am
Run, Cohen, run!

Oh, I guess “just sayin’” is right, I am a republican.

Run anyway, Cohen! You are just what this state needs. A democrat to help seal PQs fate.

Comment by dupage dan Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 11:14 am
==He continues to be a joke.==

He beat several “regular” Dem candidates for Lt. Gov. and won that primary. No joke. Nobody in press or the pols gave him any heed. No joke. His alleged misdeeds are just that, alleged. No joke.

If he does get on the ballot, it will give this blog and other “observers” lots of fodder for whom he will hurt more in the election. No joke. And if he wins, the eminently qualified Sen. Brady and Gov. Quinn notwithstanding, No joke.

Comment by Captain Flume Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 11:17 am
Is there any talk of these independent candidates cooperating to gather sigs?

Comment by Carl Nyberg Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 11:17 am
Captain “no joke” Flume,

That would be a scream!

Comment by dupage dan Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 11:22 am
If SLC gets on the ballot, all he needs to do (again, assuming he puts more wealth into this) is re-run those Dan Hynes commercials.

The reason 3rd party guys are sideshows is that they don’t have 7 figures to play with. If the Libertarian Party showed up with $10M in the bank, you’d bet they’d be on the radar.

That said, my guess is that he’s threatening to run for it to get a buyoff.

Comment by John Bambenek Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 11:24 am
This is so sick, but it isn’t doable.

Cohen would have to present himself as a non-traditional candidate worthy of voter consideration. While he has the non-traditional part down, he is too obviously unworthy of voter consideration.

Quinn and Brady leaves open an entire bloc of voters to harvest by a third party candidate. Whitney should be the biggest benefactor of this, but the guy isn’t delivering. If the Greens can land a celebrity who can campaign, then they could make 2010 quite a year. I, among hundreds of thousands of Illinois Democrats are utterly disillusioned with our current governor and will not vote for him - but are not so disillusioned to vote for a downstate GOP state senator.

This is a year for a third party. Quinn doesn’t deserve the office, Brady is nuts, and I’d like to vote for a gubernatorial candidate. Right now, if the election was today, I wouldn’t be voting in that race because both guys are losers.

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 11:29 am
SLC would have no shot but it would be fun…

Comment by OneMan Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 11:32 am
LOL!!! He might have a chance.

Comment by Levois Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 11:34 am
Im not sure that Cohen hurts quinn more than brady. All those voters who voted for cohen would have to hold their nose and push it again. Instead, i think they would likely go for quinn instead of vote for cohen again knowing what they know now.

Comment by not sure Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 11:35 am
It certainly would be interesting. Running on his job platform that won in the primary would attract attention and votes from both parties. Realistically getting 25,000 valid signatures is going to be tough, and I really think this is just an attention getting ploy with no real intent by SLC to actually run.
JMHO

Comment by downstate hack Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 11:38 am
SLC will have to spend another $2 million just to get 25,000 valid signatures to get on the ballot. That’s a freak-load of signatures.

I’m not taking this story very seriously.

Comment by ZC Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 11:39 am
SLC definitely seems to want something, and he appears to be poking those who have something to give.

But VanMan makes a good point that this is a great year for a Third Party Candidate. There were plenty of good, moderate Republican candidates in the Primary, and now “hundreds of thousands” of us are saddled with a much-more-conservative-than-we-are candidate. And, well, I cannot vote for Quinn; I just don’t think our State can stand to flop around for four more years.

So Green Party, pull it together why don’t you. Can you please very clearly connect environmental industries and new technologies to Illinois economic growth? Can you do some research to identify what specific businesses you would make the centerpiece of an agenda to grow our economy, based on job creation, projected industry growth and overall sustainability? A fresh, firm and economically-focused platform may draw us. It would probably bring in the kids too.

Comment by KeepSmiling Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 12:25 pm
VM,

=Quinn doesn’t deserve the office, Brady is nuts, and I’d like to vote for a gubernatorial candidate. Right now, if the election was today, I wouldn’t be voting in that race because both guys are losers.=

Contradicts earlier statements in which you emphatically state you want to vote the bum out. How do you do that if you don’t vote?

Voting for 3rd party candidates even in this climate is a wasted vote.

Comment by dupage dan Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 12:34 pm
ZC-

Last I checked, market rate is about $1.75 for a signature. 25,000 x $1.75 is somewhat less than $2M. In fact, even if you double that to 50,000, the cash involved is about a rounding error compared to what SLC put into his LtGov run.

Comment by John Bambenek Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 12:40 pm
Maybe Blago will be his running mate? Cohen can blame everything on Madigan when on the stump, and Blago can blame everyting on Madigan when on the stand. I know it is illegal to monetize an appointment, but is it illegal to monetize merely being slated?

Comment by Cousin Ralph Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 1:01 pm
As far as elections go from entertainment / excitement value - Bill Brady vs. Pat Quinn is going to be a snoozefest. Yes, yes I know ideologues both - but they don’t excite people at all. Even though I think he’s gross, I would really like to see SLC get into the race it would at least be fun to watch and oddly I think it would help boost turnout.

Comment by siriusly Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 1:33 pm
Rich,
Can someone ask him about his ‘ethics standard’ he ran on for candidates to run for office? and how he sees himself shaping up in that examination?

Comment by dem doug Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 1:41 pm
=== I’m sure Cohen is hearing from a lot of people, telling him he got screwed, and he should keep running. News flash, they’re all Republicans. ===

I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re his well-paid political consultants and the local bosses who fleeced him the first time around, looking to extend the gravy train.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 2:59 pm
VanillaMan — please please please vote for Rich Whitney.

Comment by Segatari Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 4:52 pm
Mayor Daley is simply being consistent in his position concerning throwing people who win primary races overboard for subjective reasons; Cohen’s and Ginnaoulous’ histories were well-known and availble for inspection prior to their primary wins. That is why Mayor Daley made the fair and valid comparison between Giannoulous and Cohen.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 8:53 pm