Overturning Republican State Senator Dan Cronin’s efforts to restrict DuPage County candidate ballot access, Democratic State Senator Don Harmon and Democratic State Representative Paul Froehlich sponsored a bill passed in the Illinois General Assembly last Friday that requires DuPage candidates to collect the same number of signatures to get on the ballot as is required by every other county in Illinois. The legislation moves to Governor Rod Blagojevich’s desk, where he is expected to sign it into law.
Senator Cronin’s legislation that passed last year, but hasn’t yet affected elections, tripled the number of required petition signatures to get on the ballot in DuPage compared to the rest of Illinois’ 101 counties. The move was seen as a partisan effort by Senator Dan Cronin, who serves as Chair of the DuPage Republican Party, to hamper the then growing and as of last primary now officially dominant DuPage Democratic Party, by leveraging the more established Republican Party infrastructure in DuPage.
The Daily Herald quotes DuPage Democratic Party Chairman Bob Peickert saying that having “a different formula for DuPage County than anywhere else [in Illinois]…makes no sense.” State Representative Paul Froehlich said of his and Harmon’s efforts, “We are now going to have equality in DuPage.”
On a personal (and public) note, I know that Don Harmon and Paul Froehlich worked hard on this one to make sure that candidates in DuPage had at least the same ballot access as candidates in other Illinois counties. This is a fundamental issue of providing more candidate choices for DuPage voters to choose their democratically elected representatives. Both Don and Paul deserve both our thanks and support for being on the side of greater democracy (small “d”) in DuPage and Illinois.
Comments 3
“We are now going to have equality in DuPage.”
Is this a joke, So will the dems actually walk and get the signatures?
Wurf, what does it matter? The DEM’s go around the process and slate the candidates anyway, right?
Posted 02 Jun 2008 at 8:13 am ¶I’m very happy about this development. I’ve reviewed the revised statute, and it will ensure all Illinois counties will be subject to the same, fair rule. From what I can tell, all state senators voted unanimously to approve this measure.
Posted 02 Jun 2008 at 1:30 pm ¶Hi RedPickUpTruck and Audie,
RedPickUpTruck (is it Fred’s - had to ask) part of the process - Democratic, Republican and now Green Party is to slate candidates for seats where no one has submitted nominating petitions. While I would agree that having candidates getting to know voters earlier in primaries, particularly contested primaries (a rarity in all three parties), is preferable - there’s no doubt that candidates who do not go out and meet the voters are at a substantial disadvantage in the race. Since slating candidates just puts them on the ballot in the general election, where a vote is still needed to win elected office, voters still have the ultimate say. Offering voters a choice of candidates in the general election strikes me as a much better way to go than to not offer a choice.
Audie, couldn’t agree more about the “happy development.”
Posted 03 Jun 2008 at 9:02 pm ¶Post a Comment