Champaign County Ballot Access

[AntiLempa]

And the fight continues. . .

It is hard for a lot of people to look at the issue of ballot access from a non-partisan standpoint. This seems to be especially true for Illinois' Democratic Party leadership. While I would much rather have local Democrats in office than Republicans, it pains me to see how hard the D's and R's fight to keep "third parties" off of the ballots. My stance on ballot access leads me to sign any candidates petition (so long as I am eligible). I've signed socialist, Libertarian, Green, etc. I would even sign Reform, Constitution or Patriot Party petitions.

It's simply not fair that it is so much easier for a D or R to get on a ballot than a G or an L. If this makes sense to someone, please explain it to me!

Here's an article covering the ongoing battle to keep Tom Mackaman of the Socialist Equality Party off of the ballot. Why is it that The Illinois Dems would make an exception to put Bush, their supposed arch nemesis, on the ballot and then fight to keep Mackaman, Nader, and the Greens off? Can it be because the R's agreed to forgive $1 million in campaign fines?

Disclaimer: The World Socialist Party is run by the Socialist Equality Party. Unfortunately few other media outlets are covering this.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jul2004/pres-j17.shtml
Green Party, Libertarians join SEP to denounce attack on third party campaigns

By a reporting team
17 July 2004

Socialist Equality Party candidate Tom Mackaman held a press conference at the University of Illinois in Urbana to condemn the undemocratic and illegal effort of the Democratic Party to remove him from the ballot in November. He called on the Office of the Illinois Inspector General to investigate the use of state employees in the Democrats’ bad faith challenge to Mackaman’s nominating petitions.

Mackaman, who is running for the Illinois House of Representatives in District 103, which represents the cities of Champaign and Urbana, was joined by representatives from the Green Party and the Libertarians who denounced the efforts to exclude third parties from the ballot.

<snip>

Miller said Democratic operatives were challenging his nominating petitions in similar ways as they were challenging Mackaman’s. “People they freely admit are registered to vote in the district are being challenged because they forgot the ‘north’, ‘south,’ ‘east’ or ‘west’ in their street address. Or they forgot to put junior or senior next to their name or a hyphen if they were married and retained their maiden name as part of their last name.

<snip>

Trigg related how the Democrats had recently made a deal with the Republicans to allow George Bush to be placed on the Illinois ballot after the official deadline to certify candidates in the state expired. Michael Madigan offered the Republicans a deal: ‘If you forgive $1 million in campaign fines against Democrats, we’ll change the deadline for President Bush.’

“The Democrats cooperated with the Republicans to put them on the ballot. Doesn’t that tell you who their real enemy is? They had a perfect opportunity to keep the person who they say is their worst enemy off the ballot, but they didn’t do it. They willfully went along with it so President Bush could take advantage of the 9/11 anniversary in New York. Yet they are challenging Ralph Nader, the Green Party and Tom Mackaman. That tells you their real enemy is voter choice.”
<more http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jul2004/pres-j17_prn.shtml>

[chiburb]

1. Well... here you are again!

Been on vacation the last couple of weeks? I've missed your Democrat-bashing threads and posts, welcome back! Or as a real-life Champaign County Democrat told you once:

Ya know what? I am about as left as it gets. Many of the Dems here ARE left of the mainstream as far as Dems go. That is FINE in the urban areas--works for the voters, and left leaning candidates do fine. Those Greens could win IF they play the game and take advantage of the party machine by running in primaries. That, however, is NOT what they have chosen to do.

This is not some exercise in political science in some U of IL classroom--this is real life. These elections impact on thousands of people's lives, and clinging to the dream of creating a new party is a nice ideal, but simply not feasible for now. What they are doing now is putting several important elements of county government at risk, nothing more.

IF it means risking that the GOP wins control of that board back again because a handful of Greens wants to try and prove a point, then, yeah, I will fight tooth and nail to keep illegal candidates from going on that ballot and draining votes off viable Dem candidates.

I have fought for nifty little ideals like protection for the GLBT workers in the county--THAT will be gone if the GOP regains control of that board.

You can kiss the county public health dept goodbye as well--the GOP HATES that idea--and in doing that you will place the rural residents in a situation where they are without important services. You have NO idea of how awful the county restaurants were before they began to inspect them regularly...

Along with that, you can kiss responsible bidder ordinances farewell, along with any real attempt to help minority contractors gain a foothold.

Workers will not have contraceptive coverage, possibly NO coverage for health care. THAT is another battle that has been hard won, along with another ideal we have been working toward which is coverage for same gender partners of workers. (Trust me, you do NOT want to hear about the conversation I had with one of the GOPiglets on that board who felt it was "just ridiculous" for the county insurance to pay for women's birth control pills...)

Frankly, I resent being treated the way I have been here. Not many of you live here, I bet. You want to call it my true colors, but I bet that not ONE of you can tell me the voter demographics in those ares where the Greens are trying to prove a point. Let me clue you in: If they pull too many votes off the Dems you can bet that the GOP WILL regain control of that board.

Call me a Dem party animal, call me narrow minded, call me any damn thing you want, but I'll fight you to the mat to protect the ideals we have accomplished and continue to work toward. This is high stakes stuff for those of us who live here, and the poly sci experiments need to be conducted someplace else.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=150&topic_id=657&mesg_id=699&page=

[chiburb]

2. Or as I said to you a couple of weeks ago:

I have read every one of your posts in the Illinois forum and not ONCE have you said anything good about the Democratic Party. Also, a search of your posts shows nothing in any other forum.

So: what is your purpose here other than to bash Illinois Democrats?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=150x715#724

[AntiLempa]

3. I was on vacation!

I was on vacation, had a great time.

I'm sorry that you feel like my threads are Democrat bashing, they aren't. They are really bashing the restrictive ballot access laws in the United States. If it makes you feel better, I get just as upset when I hear about the Republicans limiting access to the Libertarians, Constitution Party, or Reform Party.

While it's true that I am no fan of Party bosses, such as Michael Madigan, I do think that the individuals within a party can do some great things. The post that you copy and pasted illustrates some of those accomplishments. For that I thank the Dems. In fact, I recently spolke at a Young Democrats fundraiser that helped to bring in over $1,000. My speech included praise and criticism. People clapped, noone booed. After my speech, I was approached by many of the older party members and they offered praise.

Now let's get back to the topic on hand: do Illinois' super restrictive ballot access laws for thrid parties bother you?

[chiburb]

4. To quote Cuban Liberal who answered you the last time

You posted the same screed here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=150&topic_id=657&mesg_id=657&page=

"The emphasis should be on why they screwed up their petitions."

The laws are VERY clear in terms of what Greens have to do to gain ballot access for a given office. If they can't do it properly, that is NOT the fault of the Democratic Party--- it is the fault of the Greens. I'm tired of this utter bullshit about 'opposing democracy' when the fault lies squarely with the candidate and his/her petitions!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=150&topic_id=657&mesg_id=742&page=

Just out of curiosity, can we look forward to more threads on the exact same subject, county, and party?

[AntiLempa]

5. Ballot Access

My claims remain the same, the ballot access laws are a farce. WHy is it ok for the Dems/Repubs to screw up but not a "third party"? Why is it ok to change the law for Bush or the local Dems that turned in the wrong paperwork? Why is it ok to make it more difficult for one party to get on the ballot than another?

And does it bother anyone that a party is using government money to engage in partisan politics? I hate it when the Republicans do it and I hate it when the Dems do it (I would even hate it if the Socialist Equality Party did it!) I keep posting about this because it is a serious issue that is not being addressed on these boards. The US left needs to take the pro-democracy route and change the anti-democratic ballot access laws.

Does it bother you that a lot of the challenges are frivolous and without merit? How about the fact that it has been admitted that the D's and R's do this to suck-up the other parties time and resources?

[chiburb]

6. Ok, I'll bite...

1. "I keep posting about this because it is a serious issue that is not being addressed on these boards. The US left needs to take the pro-democracy route and change the anti-democratic ballot access laws."

It IS a serious issue, but not as serious as other issues. At least to me, and I don't presume to answer for everyone in Illinois. Why don't you raise the issue in General Discussion and see if anyone wants to agree or argue? As for the "US left" needing to do anything, please note that the D is capitalized in Democratic Underground. The 2 "d"s in your sentence are not. Perhaps you should be posting this at the Illinois Leader? Or write an LTTE at the Tribune?

2. "Does it bother you that a lot of the challenges are frivolous and without merit? How about the fact that it has been admitted that the D's and R's do this to suck-up the other parties time and resources?"

Absolutely not! If your Socialists or Greens can NOT follow the rules or come up with enough LEGAL signatures on their petitions, then fuck 'em. In fact, I'll make a donation to either party that's challenging illegal petitions! That'll be my contribution to taking the "pro-democracy route".

Finally, as it says in the 1st reply to your OP, there are too many DEMOCRATS working too hard to make Champaign County an AMERICAN place to live and work to tolerate your "political science" lab experiment. I'm not a Mod or Admin, but I suspect that your DEMOCRAT-bashing threads won't be tolerated much longer. Then you'll have something else to complain about at your next forum.

[davsand]

7. Oh good lord...

So NOW it is about ballot access for the entire nation or the entire state of Illinois--yet you choose to bash the Champaign County Dems? I gotta say, I'm just over it.

Here's a news flash--if you want to play with the big dawgs you better have your game on when you show up. That means getting legal signatures on petitions and putting up cadidates that are legal ones. When your guy decided to run for State Rep that was a decision that put him in a ring against some awful big meat eaters, and he should have been ready for it with *MORE* than ample legal signatures on those petitions.

This continued bashing of the Champaign County Dems is both silly and a waste of your time. I'd suggest you start NOW looking for serious candidates who are willing to get on the ballot legally. Might I suggest (again) you look for a Cunningham Township Supervisor to run in the Dem primary?


Laura
A Champaign County Dem willing to give Cheese to go with that Whine...