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| Never-was gubernatorial candidate Ameya Pawar will have counterparts following this week's nominating petition filing period. |
FOR
ALL THOSE people who have been going about throwing out hints that they want to
be candidates for electoral office, they’re going to have to show the required
support levels indicating they’re deserving of a ballot slot.
Between
8 a.m. Monday and 5 p.m. Dec. 4 (a.k.a., next Monday), the candidates will file
their petitions showing signatures of support from people indicating they’d actually
vote for this person.
Now
I know some people think this is unfair – they think it ought to be easier to
actually get on the ballot. Let everybody on the ballot (they’d say); let the
voters decide on Election Day.
Yet
I think there is too much clutter in these early stages, and candidates for
office ought to be capable of defending their ballot existence by showing some
support.
JUST
THINK THAT there are about eight people saying they want to be the Democrat
running next year for Illinois governor and for state attorney general.
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| DAIBER: Will he continue to exist? |
Most
of us can’t even come close to naming all of them, and the only people who
truly want all of them hanging around are the ones interested in causing political
confusion.
As
in the only way they can win is if enough people cast votes for them without knowing
who they’re supporting. Which may sound ludicrous, but does anyone seriously
think Mark Fairchild or Janice Hart would have won Democratic primaries back in
1986 based on their merits?
Yes,
those are the two followers of Lyndon LaRouche who managed to win that year’s
gubernatorial and Illinois secretary of state primaries, with voters not
realizing their tie to the would-be presidential hopeful that some consider
more fascist than Democrat.
MY
POINT IS that there have been people trying to talk themselves up as candidates
even though there’s really no evidence anybody wants them or would support
them.
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| RAOUL: How many opponents will remain? |
As
for one-time gubernatorial hopeful Ameya Pawar who came to the realization a
few weeks ago he couldn’t win the Democratic primary, he’s alone. Although it’s
quite possible that many of the other seven people who think they’re going to
be running for the office will fail to meet the standard to get on the ballot.
Their
campaigns will end before they even began. Will Bob Daiber (the regional
schools superintendent from the part of Illinois down near St. Louis) still be
around?
Or
will this officially become a less-cluttered J.B. Pritzker/Chris Kennedy
political brawl? We’ll see come next week.
JUST
AS MOST of us likely can’t even come close to naming all of the Illinois
attorney general dreamers on the Democratic side. If a few of them disappear
before ever becoming official, it will be more comprehensible to the
electorate.
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| STROGER: Will he have valid signatures? |
It
will be the same for many other political offices. Personally, I’m curious to
see the Democratic primary for Cook County Board president, where Toni
Preckwinkle has two challengers talking up long-shot campaigns against her.
But
Todd Stroger has only declared himself a candidate as of last week. Can he
truly produce nominating petitions with enough valid signatures of support by
this week?
Anything’s
possible, but I’m sure that Preckwinkle operatives are counting on Stroger
doing a sloppy-enough job that they can challenge his petitions and keep him
off the ballot that way. Which means the serious politicking can get underway
following this coming week, rather than the stupid speculation we've been engaging in up to this point.
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