The deadline for presidential candidates to file in the Illinois Green Party, and the Illinois Democratic Party, had been in early November. Challenges to the petitions of all Green and all Democratic presidential candidates had been filed. However, all challenges to both sets of candidates were found baseless, and were dismissed, on December 6.
The four Greens running in the Illinois presidential primary are Cynthia McKinney, Jared Ball, Kent Mesplay, and Howie Hawkins.
The Illinois Green presidential primary is only the 3rd minor party presidential primary in that state since the 1920’s. The other two were the Illinois Solidarity presidential primary in 1988 (won by Lenora Fulani), and the Libertarian presidential primary in 1996 (won by Harry Browne).
Wasn’t Illinois Solidarity the party that Adlai Stevenson III started in 1986, after he had won the Democratic primary for governor? Several Lyndon LaRouche supporters had won the Democratic nominations for other offices, and Stevenson didn’t want to run on the same ticket with them.
How long did Illinois Solidarity last?
It must be easy to start a new party in Illinois. Also, I’ve never understood how a non-resident like Alan Keyes was able to run for U. S. senator from Illinois in 2004. The state obviously has short residency requirements for candidates.
There’s a good summary of the history of the Illinois Solidarity Party at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarity_Party
> It must be easy to start a new party in Illinois.
Starting one is “easy” but getting candidates on the ballot is a different story. The Illinois Green Party (ILGP) had to collect nearly nearly 40K signatures in 2006 just to get Rich Whitney on the ballot for governor, and he had to get 5% to in the general election to establish the ballot line. It took us years of unsuccessful ballot drives to expose Democratic tricks to kick us off the ballot, and develop the know-how to actually make something like this happen.
The fact that we have been relatively successful in this latest round of objections shows that the ILGP is no fluke. It might have been easier to not show up for court and just let all the objections stand and slate all the same candidates later. But there was a serious behind the scene effort to fight these objections…a lot of people worked together on this. I’m constantly surprised at what the ILGP is able to do with no budget and people just volunteering in their free time.
Richard, how did the Libertarians get a primary in 1996? Who got 5% in 1994?