After the first Monday in December 2018, such a person might be addressed as "Your Honor."
It's a weak joke, perhaps.
But I get comments with distressing regularity about this candidate, or that one, being a "shill." Most of these get flushed.
But what is a shill, you ask?
A shill is a person who files for election to a particular office at the behest of another candidate, a pseudo-candidate with no serious intention of campaigning and with every intention of withdrawing if asked to by the person who put him or her up to it.
In judicial elections, females with Irish surnames are frequently accused of being shills, circulating and filing in a race with the goal of keeping 'serious' candidates -- many of whom also seem to be females with Irish surnames, by the way -- from choosing to run for that vacancy. (I'll leave it to you, dear reader, to decide if this seems just a
teensy bit inconsistent.)
Is there anything illegal about being a shill?
I couldn't find anything that prohibits it in the course of my research. But I don't pretend to be an expert. So I reached out to a prominent election lawyer and asked him the question. The election lawyer, who asked not to be named, said that he also knows of no legal prohibition against recruiting a shill or filing as a shill.
So... are there really a lot of shill candidates in judicial elections?
My election lawyer contact said he doesn't think there are a lot of shill candidates in judicial races; there may not be any at all.
That was my perception, too.
Sure, some candidates work 24/7 at campaigning and fundraising and go everywhere and see everyone... and some candidates get their name on the ballot and hope for lightning to strike. In 1996 I was one of those looking-for-lighting candidates. I finished dead last in my race. On the other hand, in 1994, I campaigned as hard as I could and raised money and spent more and went everywhere that would let me in and stood outside a lot of other places besides... and I still finished dead last.
I wasn't a shill on either occasion. I was merely an inexperienced and ineffective candidate.
No one bothered trying to 'steer' me toward this race, or away from that one, either time I ran. I wasn't important enough to be of concern to anyone.
However, in the run-up to the opening filing date, on November 27, it is just possible that some current candidates have been contacted with offers of help with petitions... or campaign contributions... or endorsements... or some other good and valuable considerations... but only
if the candidate chooses to run for the
Smith vacancy... not the
Jones vacancy. I don't say this
has happened, only that it
might have.
A novice candidate, or a naive one, might even be flattered by offers of help, even offers with strings a mile long. But beware. Candidates, if someone offers you free advice, and that someone is not your spouse or significant other, that someone might be working for someone else.
My advice, candidates, is trust in the Lord alone -- and watch everyone else like a hawk. Candidates should be wary even of persons they hire. If the doctrine of
caveat emptor has fallen into disrepute in other areas, it is alive and well in the non-beanbag world of Cook County politics. I don't suggest you reject all offers of help or refrain from hiring help where you can. Just don't place your future entirely in anyone else's hands. Stay vigilant.
Of course, the maxim
be careful what you wish for can also come into play: Some political sharpies, working surreptitiously on behalf of judicial candidate Zyzwcyz, for example, might 'steer' first-time candidate Mary Margaret McGillicuddy and two other women with Irish surnames and limited political savvy into the race Zyzwcyz expects to make. The goal is to have the fair colleens split the votes that are traditionally cast for women with Irish surnames, creating a clearer path for a Zyzwycz victory. But what if Mary Margaret's campaign catches fire? What if the other women drop out? (
And, for the record, the names Mary Margaret McGillicuddy and Zyzwycz were chosen because they do not appear on the Master Roll of Illinois attorneys. I checked.)
Trying to 'steer' or plant candidates can be fraught with peril in any race, for any office: I don't subscribe to conspiracy theories -- but if you had told me, two years ago, that some Democratic Party sharpies had, through however many intermediaries, flattered or otherwise 'steered' a certain megalomaniacal Manhattan multi-millionaire into making another run for the White House, with the aim of wreaking havoc in the national Republican party and making the eventual Republican nominee (who couldn't
possibly be the aforementioned multi-millionaire) that much more vulnerable to the inevitable Democratic candidate, well, I'd have believed you. In fact, even after the various Russian revelations, sometimes I still think this is the only explanation that truly fits the facts. I can imagine these nameless, faceless persons (well,
I can't put names to them), agonizing like Zero Mostel, as Max Bialystock, "
Where did I go right?"
Anyway, candidates, even though you probably won't see it here in the comments, some of you are sure to be called shills in the days to come. Don't take it personally.
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