I’m not surprised that of five candidates running for the Democratic nomination in the 34th state Senate district, only one’s petitions have not been challenged. That’s how the Democratic establishment rolls.
The petitions of Steve Stadelman, Jim Hughes, Marla Wilson and Glenn Patterson have been challenged, but Dan Lewandowski’s have not. It’s too late for anyone to challenge his petitions because the deadline was Monday at 5 p.m.
Lewandowski is the candidate endorsed by the building trades unions. And while the Winnebago County Democratic Central Committee and its chairman Charles Laskonis have not endorsed a candidate, Laskonis, a business agent for Local 364 of the Electrical Workers union, personally supports Lewandowski.
According to Winnebago County Clerk Margie Mullins, the challenges to Wilson’s and Hughes’ petitions were filed by Brad Long, business agent for the Carpenters Union and president of the Northwestern Illinois Building and Construction Trades Council, and Darren Golden, recording secretary of the building trades council and business manager of the Electrical Workers Local 364.
The petitions of Marla Wilson and Glenn Patterson were challenged by David Antinucci and Connie Riemma, Mullins said. I don’t know them or their affiliations.
Stadelman, who filed nearly twice as many petition signatures as the 1,000 required, called the challenge to his candidacy “politics as usual” and a cynical attempt to limit people’s choices.
“It’s clear Mr. Lewandowski wants no one else on the ballot,” Stadelman said.
Hughes’ campaign manager Larry Anderson accused party Chairman Laskonis of playing favorites.
“You need to remain neutral or resign from your current position (as Democratic chairman). You cannot openly support and work for a primary candidate holding the position you now hold,” Anderson said in a letter to Laskonis.
Laskonis tried to clarify his support of Lewandowski.
“It’s not often the central committee endorses in the primary, and we haven’t done that t in the 34th Senate race,” Laskonis said.
“(Larry Anderson) has told me in conversations that I’m helping Lewandowski. That may be true, but the central committee and I have not made an endorsement.
“I am a private citizen. Dan Lewandowski is a friend of mine, and I have helped Dan Lewandowski, but I help a number of candidates,” Laskonis said.
Word to the wise: Petition challenges are very common around here, from School Board to City Council to County Board to state legislative races. Candidates should expect challenges and avoid getting kicked off the ballot by filing many more signatures than are needed.
Maybe one or more of the four other candidates should have challenged Lewandowski’s petitions. As things stand, he’s on the ballot but the other four have a chance, however slight, of getting kicked off.
It’s too bad for the democratic process, but hey, this is power politics, which is about winning, and nothing else.
I don’t see anything “dirty” about this at all. It is obviously strategy, but perfectly “legal,” indeed, based on law. Not to mention, the candidates who make it through the process anyway can – if they so desire – turn it right back around on Lewandowski later. He can be known as the only candidate on the ballot whose petitions were not certifiably “clean.” He can be known as the only candidate whose presence on the ballot is not entirely justified. And, if he wins because everyone else is eliminated … he’s the next Obama!
When we turn our backs on his stupid thing of attempting to get candidates kicked off the ballot so others can run unopposed, then it ends.
I’ve sat through many hearings in this Village on candidates petitions and seen for myself how unfair the process is and the additional costs those removed had to go through to get back on the ballot.
Politics as usual is the excuse used, when standing up to tell those who file the objections you know their actions are sleezyis what needs doing.
May I suggest, Mr. Sweeny, you tell readers exactly how silly some of the objections are to candidates petitions and how many times these exact same objections are over-turned by a judge at a later date?
And we ask all the time why good people won’t run for office.? They lack the sleeze gene to get into the mud from the very beginning of the process. Time to say if you send a suragate to file an objection, you’ve already proven you’re not fit for job you are asking voters give you.
Per Chuck: “Word to the wise: Petition challenges are very common around here, from School Board to City Council to County Board to state legislative races. Candidates should expect challenges and avoid getting kicked off the ballot by filing many more signatures than are needed.”
Note to the “wise”: The process is there for a reason! Seriously people, the details are not even out yet?? How do we know the candidates that were challenged had enough valid signatures? If candidate is not smart enough to ensure they have the proper number of VALID signatures or doesn’t care enough to ensure he or she does, then they deserve to be challenged. Anyone can stand in front of Best Buy and get signatures to meet the requirements, but if you don’t put in the effort to ensure they are valid (i.e. registered voters and registered at their address) they are no good. How do we know that’s not the case here? Lets be careful not to judge until the details are out. Its unfortunate that people make assumptions without hearing the facts of the challenges.
Its even more unfortunate that people take media stories at face value when analyzing a candidate’s ability or inability to do their job. Here in lies one of the reasons we have the crap for politicians that we do: uneducated voters and voters that take at face value the media’s perception of candidates. I’m sure not one of you has actually taken the time to look into the backgrounds, beliefs, and platforms to understand what each of the candidates is about. That to me is more important than what’s going on here which appears to be using the legal process to certify questionable petitions.
To P.S.: Not certifiably clean? Do you know this for a fact? One can assume there were no issues if they were not challenged. Note: Its of public record via the Illinois Board of Election site that the republicans and one of the Democratic objectioners that challenged Wilson and Patterson pulled Lewandowski’s petitions. They had every opportunity to review and obviously did not find issues relevant enough to file a challenge. Here’s the link for your convenience: http://www.elections.il.gov/ElectionInformation/CandDetail.aspx?CandidateID=16828&ElectionID=32
And to all of the candidates: Grow up! You want to play in the big leagues…then deal with the challenges and stress that comes along with it. If you can’t handle the pressure, you don’t deserve my vote. I want to know what you are going to do for me and this community and don’t care about your opinions or criticisms of other candidates.
I say let everyone run who wants to. You take a position that says the party pros have a right to judge who should run by trying to find the slightest error as an excuse to kick folks off the ballot. no wonder more and more people are turned off by our closed loop political system, the “duopoly” of Republicans and Democats.
NO, I’m saying the opposite. I’d like to let everyone run who wants to, but I’m warning candidates that the party pols don’t like that. They want to control the process and they do it by being ever so persnickity about petitions. They’ve denied people the right to run based on the most insignificant errors on petitions, such as not having the page numbers written in. If the signatures are valid, so what?
Look at the people the parties supported who DID get on the ballot in the past? Surely the parties can do better. Open up the process so more, not fewer people can run. Don’t require 1,000 signatures, require 20.
Lewandowski certainly is “helping” himself. The last time that he lawyered a county board seat away from a board member appointed by a duly elected county board, those resources were diverted away from half a dozen incumbents that were all defeated. What does it say of his party, after chopping up legislative districts across this state, that this is what is done? Hint: Barack did the exact same thing 15 years ago. Gambino has, at least, been a professional in this race.
p.s. What the Democrats did to lawyer that seat away from Mr. Biondo greatly hurt them with the VOTERS.
That intellect, Lewandowski, must be fit for a state job.
If these Dem hopefuls thought running against a Republican was tough (those of them who have), they ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.
The carpenters union and all affiliated bodies are corrupt as hell. Brad Long should be impeached immediately.