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| The Tao of Yogi? |
I
STILL REMEMBER reading the reports about how the movement (calling itself Yes
for Independent Maps) was crowing a month ago when they submitted nominating
petitions that demand the issue be put on the ballots for the Nov. 4 elections
in the form of a referendum question.
Let
the people decide. “Yes,” or “no.” They had 532,264 signatures of support that
they filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections
That
is well in excess of the minimum number of signatures needed in order to
actually get an initiative on the ballot across the state. They won. They
declared victory. They made smug statements about how this, alone, showed the
moral high-ground and desirability of their cause.
There
was no way they could be stopped now!!!
READING
THOSE ACCOUNTS, I recalled thinking they were premature in declaring victory. Way too cocky, as a matter of fact. Somebody was going to wind up eating some serious crow.
Which
is what seems to be happening now.
Reports
this week indicate that the State Board of Elections is finding that the
532,264 signature figure is off, way off.
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| Yogi 'plays' better on TV than most pols |
For
one thing, the elections board says it counted all the signatures, and only
came up with 507,467. Which is still well ahead of the 298,400 valid signatures
required this year (it’s based on voter turnout in recent election cycles, so
it changes) to succeed.
BUT
…
The
state Elections Board handles the process by doing a thorough review of a randomly-selected
share of petitions.
Petitions
containing 25,375 signatures were scrutinized – and 11,568 signatures were
found to be legitimate. That’s less than half!
At
this rate, the petition drive is going to turn out to have produced a lot of
junk (that’s a lot of times that “Mickey Mouse” signed his name to these
documents). May 31 isn’t only the deadline for the General Assembly to conduct
its business. The end of the month (actually, May 30, the last business date,
since May 31 is a Saturday) is when the process must be completed.
SO
UNLESS SOMETHING shifts dramatically in the next week or so, this is going to
wind up being a failed effort.
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| Like many pols, son followed him into family 'business' |
Admittedly,
the Yes for Independent Maps group is trying to fight back, although their
route seems to be one more of whining about the review process being “hasty,”
and the Chicago Tribune reporting about “personal advances” made by state
Elections board officials to the group’s official watchers.
It
sounds like this could be a cause that falls by the wayside. Which doesn’t
surprise me because the whole process of nominating petitions is such a
subjective one. There is so much leeway by officials to declare what is, and
isn’t, valid.
Nobody
should presume this is over until they actually walk into their polling place
and see the question printed on their ballots.
IT
MAY COME across that I’m enjoying this lesson in political reality being taught
to the Yes for Independent Maps group – which at times behaves in ways that
make it seem more like a cause funded by Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bruce
Rauner so he can have something to talk about, rather than an actual concern
for the issue.
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| Yogi comes equipped w/ his own 'yes' men |
It’s
actually funded in part by Chicago Cubs part-owner Tom Ricketts (he gave
$50,000 back in March). Which makes me wonder why he’s not focusing more on his
ball club.
Perhaps
Yogi could come to Chicago and give the Wrigley Field set some advice on what
constitutes a real winning ball club (he would know, 14 World Series
appearances, with 10 of them on the victorious side).
Although
reading through the various lists of Yogi-isms, I came across another one that
I suspect many of our local political people would find applicable – “Half the
lies they tell about me aren’t true.”
-30-
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