No matter what some liar tells you, it is never easy to get people to properly sign nominating petitions for judicial office. It's difficult to get friends to do it, much less strangers. And you need a whole lot of strangers to sign if you have any hope of surviving a petition challenge. You need a whole lot more signatures than that if you have any hope of avoiding a challenge completely.
And as hard as it is to go knocking on the doors of people you don't know, even on a glorious afternoon in autumn, knowing there are registered voters peering out at you from behind the blinds, actually seeing them, and standing there feeling like an absolute fool until the persons inside give up and open the door or you give up and slink away, how much harder it must be in this Covid-afflicted primary year, when signatures must be gathered in the dead of winter.
What strategies can be employed?
The Cook County Democratic Party has always done petitions in bunches. All nine countywide slated candidates are listed on one petition; one signature thereon is a signature that counts for all nine. The ward organization of, say, a hypothetical Ald. Filch cares nothing for eight of the nine, but pushes the paper for all to help out the one in the alderman's favor. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, an equally hypothetical Ald. Grab likewise cares nothing for eight of the nine, but the one favored by Ald. Grab's organization is not the same one who enjoys the blessings of Ald. Filch. And so Ald. Grab's people push paper to support that candidate -- but all nine benefit. The signatures add up.
However, how does one garner signatures when the ink in the pen may be frozen?
I've been looking online to see what candidates are doing. Here's a screengrab from an Instagram post I saw this morning:
I can't tell from this if these two candidates are circulating joint petitions or merely having an event where persons may sign their individual sheets.
But the idea of running as an alternate ticket is not new this year; it has been done forever. Some of these "tickets" are the most temporary of coalitions -- banding together just long enough to get the joint petitions filed, then all proceeding individually. Some counter-tickets actually share resources and provide mutual assistance after the petitions are filed. At this stage of the campaign, it is hard to tell which is which.
Readers may have seen non-slated candidates circulating joint petitions already; I'm working on verifying some reports of these now. If you have information about petition signing events or alternate tickets, email me at jackleyhane@yahoo.com.
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18 comments:
Hammer and Taylor are running on a slate along with Carmen Quinones and Dan Balanoff. Pictures can be found on Facebook.
Also, Jack - if you can't get friends to sign your petitions, they aren't really friends.
Anon 1/27/22 @ 9:40 -- I'll look for confirmation, but I have been looking right along and I haven't seen it.
Anon 1/27/22 @9:43 -- Agreed, obviously. But I was talking about getting friends to sign properly. So their signature looks just like their ballot application signature on file. And that they know enough not to sign another candidate's petition for the same office (or, say, the Party's judicial slate petition) or (and it happens) sign a petition for a candidate of another party.
Re: Anon 1/27/22 @9:40,
I found a Facebook photo that confirms that slate and also show Taylor is seeking the Brennan vacancy (Dems slated Brookins), Quinones is seeking the Hyman vacancy (Dems slated Nowinski), Balanoff is seeking O' Brien vacancy (Dems slated De La Cruz), and Hammer is seeking Sullivan vacancy (Dems slated Donnelly).
There's a third slate. I can't remember all the names on it, only Beth Ryan's.
If people are just thinking about this issue now — when they have known for months when the circulation period would be in the dead of winter — then perhaps they should sit out this cycle and wait for a normal cycle where people can just collect 50,000 pieces of trash and hope it yields them their minimum number. This cycle is not for newbies who are not serious. And Dan Balanoff better submit better sheets than what he had in 2019 or else he will be sitting out this cycle too.
I saw someone circulating in 8. Former judge. Didn’t think he lived in 8. Did he move(again)?
yep, gotta keep backup pens in shirt pocket to keep ink flowing
The party ain’t gathering a damn thing for the “slate.” Toni can’t even get signatures. Brave new world.
The last time a black woman tried to run against a black man slated countywide was in 2018. We knocked her off the ballot and will do the same this time too. Traitor.
Lisa Taylor has every right to run against Howard Brookins if she wants. Howard doesn't want to be a judge. In six years, he's run for Congress twice, judge twice (well, sorta) and only wants two things: to no longer be Alderman of the 21st Ward and another pension is Howard's Endgame. Taylor is a real lawyer and will make an excellent jurist. Taylor will probably sweep him in the 21st Ward. Unless they are desperate to get rid of him and vote for him just to get him out.
Where is all of this hate towards Alderman Howard Brookins coming from? When the riots hit Chicago in 2020, he was the LEADER who convinced Walmart to stay in the 21st Ward. For all of you affluent lawyers living in Sauganash, Hinsdale, Riverside, Evanston, etc., there are places in this county where food insecurity is a daily fact of life and Howard Brookins has genuinely helped people who couldn't help themselves. Leave Howard alone. I am. And I am a person who doesn't like him personally, but respects what he has done for the community-at-large and plan to vote for him. Because so many others of you are pure opportunists who could never do much with your law licenses anyway and being a state court judge will be the apex of your sad excuse for a legal career. Howard is a far better choice. Good luck, Howard.
I would stand outside the Daley Center, but Tim Evans and the rest of them aren't coming into work anymore so there are no people.
What’s the definition of insanity?
I just walk into the local tavern and get a bunch of drunks to sign. I have been doing quite well in the North Halsted Street bars.
Anon 1/31/22 @ 11:06 has one of the more innocuous comments of a particular type that is starting to back up in my comment queue -- while s/he is clearly offering terrible advice (a legitimate signature obtained from an intoxicated person is likely to differ so substantially from that same person's ballot application signature as to create a problem when petition signatures are reviewed) at least s/he is not encouraging people to commit actual crimes in the gathering of signatures.
Some of the comments you're not seeing involve brilliant ideas like providing drugs in exchange for signatures, or making them up entirely (as in copying from a list of registered voters in a high-rise without, you know, actually bothering the residents of said high-rise).
I realize that comments will become more, um, robust as we get closer to the primary, and I know readers seem to like the bitter, twisted, jaded comments best (otherwise decent, responsible people have told me as much) -- but, c'mon people, think of the social studies and/or civics teachers who encourage their students to visit this site to learn about how elections work. Think of the children!
And now a word about reading comprehension. In reluctant recognition of the fact that political discussion has become ruder and cruder, especially as the election season gets underway in earnest, I have allowed some comments through recently that have included disparaging remarks about the judiciary generally -- "knuckle dragging", "mutants", etc. (you know, the kind of mean-spirited comments that some readers lap up like the cat laps up cream). I have not allowed comments through that refer to specific people as mutants or whatever. And if I ever have, it wasn't on purpose -- maybe I looked at the comments before the morning coffee kicked in or something -- maybe I pushed the wrong button.
I realize that, in the online world, reading comprehension is sadly diminished.
Which makes me feel so happy about mandatory efiling... but whatever....
And I also realize that, in the online world, people deliberately misconstrue things for their own purposes. But let's not get crazy here, people. Don't react to a provocation that wasn't.
Discipline will get you results that motivation can't. So quit your whining and go out there and get some signatures, you maggots!
-- R. Lee Ermey, USMC (ret).
Actually, Jack, one of the comments DID suggest that someone commit an unlawful act. Candidates are prohibited from circulating petitions in bars. No, circulating in a room (say, at a ballroom at McCormick) where there is a bar somewhere across the room is NOT a problem. But walking into Glascotts or Miller's Pub IS a no-no.
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