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* It’s been rumored for weeks that Trump was gonna do this (I wrote about it last month sometime), but then he blew it…

Donald Trump’s campaign tried to get his rival Republicans kicked off the ballot in Illinois – but the attempt failed when his state chair failed to bring duplicate copies of the required forms.

The Guardian has learned that on Wednesday, the last day for candidates to object to signatures submitted by rival campaigns to get on the ballot, chair Kent Gray showed up at the Illinois board of elections a few minutes before it closed. Illinois has some of the toughest ballot access laws in the country, and qualifying for the ballot requires gathering a different number of signatures in each of the state’s 18 congressional districts. Candidates often stumble trying to fulfill the state’s requirements; conservative challenger Rick Santorum faced major obstacles in 2012. […]

State politicians have long had a “gentleman’s agreement” that candidates would not attempt to contest each other’s signatures and throw each other off the ballot. But challenging petition signatures as a form of political chicanery in the Land of Lincoln has a long history. Barack Obama first won election to the state senate in 1996 by successfully challenging the signatures of his incumbent opponent and getting her removed from the ballot.

It had been widely reported that the campaign of Governor John Kasich of Ohio, a vocal Trump critic, had problems gathering signatures in Illinois, and representatives of Kasich, along with the campaigns of Florida senator Marco Rubio and neurosurgeon Ben Carson, were monitoring for any objections from rival camps. It seemed that they had dodged a bullet until Gray walked in attempting to object to a number of candidates on the grounds that some of their signatures were invalid, although exactly who he focused on is unclear.

But Illinois law requires that someone objecting to a candidate’s nominating papers bring both the original and two duplicates. Gray only brought the original. His arrival in the board of elections office with just minutes left set off a scramble among those campaigns who had representatives there to monitor proceedings. Several had brought objections of their own to file defensively, only if someone objected to their presence on the ballot.

Apparently, money can’t buy everything.

Even so, for all the big talk from the Kasich supporters here about how Trump probably wouldn’t even make it to the ballot, they narrowly missed a stinging embarrassment.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 2:42 pm

Comments

I wonder if he will get a “you’re fired” call.

Comment by Demoralized Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 2:50 pm
This is very surprising because Kent Gray was at the Wednesday Evening Republican Club meeting last night telling people there that Trump didn’t want candidate’s objected to. He said something along the lines of “I know you may have heard that some candidates were going to object, but New York told me we weren’t going to do that” I’m paraphrasing, only because I can’t remember the exact line.

Comment by Blue Dog Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 2:53 pm
I don’t think it matters much if Kasich is on the ballot. It probably wasn’t worth the cost of the copies to get him tossed off the ballot. Kasich was a late comer to an overcrowded field and is polling around a couple percent.

Comment by A Jack Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 2:54 pm
Sounds like Trump found himself some real superstars.

– MrJM

Comment by @MisterJayEm Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 2:57 pm
BD … you mean Trump lied? That’s so unlike him.

Comment by Spliff Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 3:00 pm
John Kasich is running for President? Since when?

Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 3:01 pm
Kinda like he has forgotten to pay taxes for the past few years as well. No wonder Kent Gray is the Sangamon county GOP’s version of Jim Oberweis.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 3:01 pm
Me wonders if it was a mistake, perhaps Trump’s guy didn’t want to cause problems here for himself down the road.

Comment by OneMan Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 3:04 pm
From what I can tell, it seems as though Kasich loaded up on personalities and failed to land actual workers and people who would do any heavy lifting or campaign duties. How he and his “team” got enough delegate signatures is beyond me. Trump, Rubio, Carson and Paul had the hardest working volunteers (at least from what I saw).

Comment by Team Sleep Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 3:07 pm
You know Constitutionally Trump isn’t eligible to be President of th US…. The Constitution says only ‘Natural Born Citizens’ are eligible… I say, anyone with a head that big could never fit through a birth canal.

Comment by Triple fat Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 3:11 pm
This could have been YUGE!

Comment by Dome Gnome Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 3:16 pm
How do you miss something so basic? Says something about how organized the campaign is.

Comment by JoanP Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 3:18 pm
Kent Gray and Donald Trump. Has there ever been a more perfect team?

Comment by girlawyer Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 3:21 pm
Trump always has the “best people”

Comment by DecaturGuy Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 3:29 pm
Spliff - more like Kent was misleading. He led us to believe that Trump did not want objections when it appears that an attempt at objections was made.

Comment by Blue Dog Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 3:31 pm
At least nobody fell through the railing this time. #BobDole

Comment by Blago's Luxurious Grey Mane Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 3:54 pm
Hopefully, he was late from being at the IRS office all day. Or the Circuit Clerk

Comment by LincolnLounger Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 3:56 pm
This is the kind of operation that is going to “make America great again”?

Comment by Precinct Captain Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 3:56 pm
Kent Gray is just like Donald Trump- all talk and no substance. Lots of hot air

Comment by Give me a break Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 4:07 pm
Clinton’s delegates are being challenged in the 18th iirc, and those signatures look short.

Feel the Bern.

Comment by Formerly Known As... Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 4:49 pm
Kent gray and Sheila Simon…..there’s a pair to draw to…

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 5:10 pm
Running late and arriving unprepared. No worries, Kent, you would still qualify for “superstar” status in the Rauner Administration.

Comment by Courser Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 5:40 pm
Actually, he was meeting with Sean Penn for an interview and couldn’t break away.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 7:25 pm
He was doing his taxes and let time slip away.

Comment by Dr X Friday, Jan 15, 16 @ 11:37 am