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| HARDIMAN: He lost by winning? |
They’re
more the mechanism by which certain campaigns can be harassed into submission.
Even if the candidates are able to survive the challenge, the fight to stay on
the ballot can suck what little life they had right out of them!
THAT
EVEN APPLIES to the Illinois State Board of Elections, which on Thursday wound
up closing the case that was brought against Tio Hardiman. He’s the activist
type from suburban Hillside who will now be on the March 18
Democratic primary ballot against Gov. Pat Quinn.
His
campaign was being threatened because of the fact that his lieutenant governor
running mate (Brunell Donald) was being challenged. It seems she moved to a new
address in Chicago since the last election cycle and hasn’t bothered to
re-register to vote.
Which
means that technically, she can’t vote from her current home address – which is
grounds for declaring someone ineligible to vote.
She
could have been booted from the ballot – which would have left Hardiman without
a running mate. Theoretically, that could have been grounds to make his
campaign ineligible. It would have resulted in lengthy court fights to figure
out if someone can run for governor without the said running mate.
BUT
THAT’S NOT going to happen.
For
on Thursday, the day that Donald likely was to be removed from the ballot, the
attorneys representing Quinn’s interest in this matter said the objection was
being withdrawn.
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| RADNER (as Litella): Violins on TV sensible as Donald |
As
the late actor Gilda Radner’s “Emily Litella” character from Saturday Night
Live of old would have said, “Never mind!”
Nobody
really cared if Donald lived at a legitimate address. It was just a
technicality that could be used to smack her about. Now, she’s totally weakened
by the matter. It doesn’t matter if she’s on the ballot, or not.
THE
QUINN INTERESTS have prevailed, even if the Hardiman/Donald ticket is there to
take a small percentage of votes from people who don’t want to vote for
Quinn/Paul Vallas – and think the Republican candidates are a batch of dinks.
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| QUINN: The frontrunner, for a change |
It
gets worse when you get into the political world of municipal elections –
because oftentimes the electoral boards consist of the political establishment that
is being challenged.
Those
people do each other the political favors of knocking off the would-be
challengers to their allies.
At
the state level, the board is a little more distant from those officials. But ultimately,
they’re only able to rule on the arguments put forth by attorneys for the
political interests.
THE
WILLINGNESS OF Quinn allies to drop their “concerns” about Donald now that they’ve
used them to beat up on her doesn’t mean the issue wasn’t legitimate.
Or
that there isn’t a legitimate legal question about whether a gubernatorial
candidate must have a running mate on the ballot with him/her – now that state
law says candidates must name someone prior to the primary, rather than run
with whoever happens to win a completely separate lieutenant governor primary.
Not
that the Hardiman/Donald ticket was ever going to be competitive.
Take
the latest reports about campaign finances into account. As of Dec. 31, the
Hardiman campaign had only $550 in the bank, and had only raised $15,000 during
the last three months of 2013. The Capitol Fax newsletter reports that only
$2,000 of that was donated – the rest of it was Hardiman’s own money.
COMPARED
TO THE $4.5 million campaign fund Quinn has accumulated, including sizable
donations from organized labor interests.
Which
means Quinn will have sufficient funds to take on whichever of the Republican
challengers manages to prevail in that primary election.
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