On February 11, only ten minutes before the challenge deadline, the petitions of three candidates for U.S. House (in the special election to fill the vacant Illinois 2nd district seat) were challenged. Petitions for the Green Party candidate, and two of the three independent candidates, were challenged. One independent candidate, Marcus Lewis, did not have his petition challenged. Lewis insists he and his campaign had nothing to do with the challenge.
The challenged candidates are Green Party nominee LeAlan Jones, and these two independent candidates: Curtiss Bey and Elizabeth Pahlke. The hearing on the challenges will probably be next week.
Sounds like the Democrats were so busy fighting amongst themselves that they nearly forgot to do their customary challenge of minor party/independent candidates. Darn. If only they had waited another 11 minutes.
And Lewis not having his petition challenged…that’s still somewhat suspicious.
10 ILCS 5/10-10, seen about 3/4 of the way down this page:
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs4.asp?DocName=001000050HArt.+10&ActID=170&ChapterID=3&SeqStart=46700000&SeqEnd=48800000
says this about the timing of any hearing on the petitions and “objections” to them: “The day of the meeting shall not be less than 3 nor more than 5 days after the receipt of the certificate of nomination or nomination papers and the objector’s petition by the chairman of the electoral board.”
Also . . . 10 ILCS 5/10-8 (not as far down the same Webpage) says an objector must be a “legal voter of the political subdivision or district in which the candidate or public question is to be voted on”. Has anyone else here heard word about the challenger’s status in that regard?
Why are the D’s and R’s not challenged? Oh yeah they are the Leviathan that can never ever have a Congress seat go to a minor party. The world will come to and end!
Wouldn’t it be ironic if the Green Party got kicked off the ballot after trying the same tactic that they so vigerouly objected to in 2012 when they challenged 4 minor parties’ petitions and got them kicked off the ballot?