Silverstein fights for political life; harassment, or should he wither away?

There are some who think that state Sen. Ira Silverstein, D-Chicago, is interesting because of the sexual harassment allegations he is being forced to confront.

SILVERSTEIN: Fighting for political life

Silverstein is the guy who has a female lobbyist contending his behavior toward her was so upsetting and inappropriate that she had to have herself admitted to a hospital to cope with her hair falling out and excessive weight loss.

THE SENATOR HAS consistently claimed he didn’t do anything deliberate to hurt her and has offered up one of those apologies (he says he’s sorry “if I made her uncomfortable”) that tries to say as little as possible. But that also means he’s refusing to be pushed out of politics because of what he might have done.

He went ahead and filed nominating petitions so he could be on the March 20 primary election ballot and seek another term in office, where he hopes to run against three individuals who seek to challenge him.

The part of this saga that intrigues me is that Silverstein faces a serious ballot challenge that could get him kicked off the primary ballot altogether. The Chicago Tribune reported Monday that Silverstein’s attorneys say they believe he’ll be able to beat back the challenge and stay as a candidate.

Yet incumbent legislators are supposed to be able to enjoy the benefits of incumbency, meaning they’re not supposed to have to fight for their very political existence. Which means Silverstein is going to have to spend much of a campaign fund on the legal fees fighting the ballot challenge.

AT STAKE IS the fact that Silverstein, in order to get himself a spot on the ballot for his Illinois Senate post, had to come up with nominating petitions containing at least 1,000 valid signatures of support from registered voters.

Which for a credible campaign shouldn’t be all that difficult.

Knowing that the definition of “valid signatures” can be flexible depending on how stringent Election Board officials are in reviewing petitions, Silverstein filed petitions containing in excess of 1,900 signatures.

FRANKEN: He chose to fade away

Yet when Chicago elections officials completed their review, they found Silverstein had only 955 valid signatures. Which would put him 45 signatures short of the minimum required, and mean that as of now, he’s off the ballot for March 20.

THE CHICAGO ELECTIONS board on Monday held hearings in which the signatures found invalid were being reviewed, to see if perhaps a mistake was made and some of them really were valid.

If Silverstein can “rehabilitate” 45 signatures, he’s back on the ballot. And yes, “rehabilitate” is the word that Elections Board officials use to describe the process.

Now I’m sure some people are going to try to claim all these ballot challenges are just a way of trying to harass Silverstein off the ballot altogether – pressuring someone who won’t just admit to sexual harassment and resign the way that U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., chose to do when he was hit with such allegations.

I’m not about to claim that Silverstein is the victim in this case. What intrigues me is that it shows just how much of a judgment call it can be to determine what is, and is not, a valid signature on a political nominating petition.

I’D HAVE A hard time believing that Silverstein, who has been a state legislator since 1999, is such a political amateur to think that he really filed nominating petitions that were so flawed – nearly half of all the signatures!

Of course, if a less stringent review of those nominating petitions had occurred, perhaps most of them would have been approved, and there’d be no such political battle such as what is occurring now with Silverstein.

Board to decide Silverstein fate

Some people like to think that these kinds of things are cut and dried and definitive – a signature is either flawed, or isn’t. The reality is that it usually winds up as a judgment call on somebody’s behalf, and perhaps we should be focusing our attention on that process.

Because my own observation from watching the electoral political process throughout the years is that often the people who are being challenged are being harassed by their political opponents. Although if allegations against Silverstein bear any accuracy, then this form of punishment may be letting off scot free.

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