Libertarian, Green Party politicians seeing blocks by established parties

PEORIA — Several familiar central Illinois faces may not make it on election ballots after all, thanks to a series of challenges to their third party candidacies for statewide offices.

Libertarian governor candidate Chad Grimm of Peoria, running mate Alexander Cummings of West Peoria and Green Party secretary of state candidate Sheldon Schafer of Peoria could be booted from the ballot along with the rest of their nominees for constitutional office thanks to the objections filed by Democratic and Republican party loyalists.

Both campaigns are trying to make an issue of it, both in the court of public opinion and, in the case of the Green Party, in a federal courtroom where they sued this week challenging a number of issues in the petitioning process and the review by the Illinois State Board of Elections.

Schafer — a two-time Green Party candidate for Congress in the 18th District — said the problem has grown with changes in the election code, “each year making it harder and harder so that fewer and fewer people can participate in the political arena.”

Illinois law requires candidates from third parties — and those running as independents — to submit many more signatures already to get on the ballot than those running under the banner of the established parties, Republican and Democrat. For statewide office, while candidates from the two familiar parties have to file 5,000 names on nominating petitions, others must come up with 25,000 people willing to provide a John Hancock. (It’s higher still in some congressional races; in the 18th District, a candidate would have to file more than 16 times the 1,014 signatures a GOP candidate would need or the 626 a Democrat has to file.)

That’s one of the most direct ways Republicans and Democrats make common cause to discourage competition, a longtime observer of state government said.

“They’re not going to try to make it easy for people who are going to challenge the monopoly,” said Kent Redfield, an emeritus professor at the University of Illinois-Springfield. “The rules are written by the people in power … The Democrats and Republicans will fight each other on (changing) different aspects of election law on early voting or same-day registration, but when the issue is a challenge to the monopoly that the Democratic and Republican parties have on Illinois elections, clearly the rules are written to discourage third parties and independent candidates.”

The Libertarian Party ticket turned in 43,921 total signatures, and not quite 24,000 have been challenged by a pair connected to state Republicans. The Green Party ticket fielded just fewer than 30,000 signatures and about 12,000 have been challenged by an official connected to state Democrats. Constitution Party candidates also face a similar challenge.

For Grimm, the hearings and line-by-line review of petitions is “nothing that I haven’t gone through before,” he said earlier this week, freshly back from eight hours reviewing signatures at the election board’s headquarters in Springfield.

His petition signatures were challenged two years ago when he tried to run against state Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, D-Peoria, and a local panel tossed him from that ballot. This time, the party got a much more substantial cushion of signatures.

But while the challenge is going on, party volunteers and candidates take time away from work to be there for hearings. Meanwhile, “it’s very hard to raise money when you can’t say you’re (officially) on the ballot,” Grimm said, labeling it “absolutely one more way” to wear down third party campaigns.

“This is just tying up the process,” he said.

Schafer agreed, calling it — and the need for so many more signatures to begin with — “an onerous process, way, way beyond reasonable limits” and a challenge to any group’s ability to build a party over the long term.

He defended the value of third parties, even if candidates aren’t yet winning many elections.

“Third parties have always introduced different perspectives into campaigns and different ideas,” he said. “As long as third parties are shut out of the process, it becomes more and more ingrown. … I’ve said many times that if we keep doing what we’ve always done, you keep getting what you’ve always got.”

Voters, too, Schafer said are more discouraged than ever — particularly in the current campaign — with their choices from the two major parties, and described how much easier it was to get signatures on petitions compared to his two runs for Congress.

But Redfield said from his years of watching political matters, the courts may not find much merit in the lawsuit the Greens filed, particularly the argument that it’s unconstitutional to require new parties to file a full slate of candidates for all statewide offices. He said that so long as there’s some kind of logic behind the reason, courts tend to defer and say such matters are “a policy decision best made by the Legislature.”

Likewise, on the process for handling some of the signature reviews and challenges, “just because something is wrongheaded or inefficient doesn’t make it unconstitutional,” Redfield said. “… The courts would just as soon not referee an election contest.”

Chris Kaergard can be reached at ckaergard@pjstar.com or 686-3135. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisKaergard.