Green Party gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney declared victory Wednesday, though he won no office.

With unofficial returns showing that Whitney had grabbed about 10 percent of the votes cast for governor, it appears the Green Party will become an established political party across Illinois.

"As far as getting our candidates on the ballot through petitioning we'll be on a level playing field with the Democrats and Republicans at least for the next four years," Whitney said.

By winning more than 5 percent of the vote, the Greens will not have as strict signature requirements to meet when filing election petitions over the next four years, election officials said.

"It doesn't happen very often," said Dan White, executive director of the Illinois State Board of Elections.

The last time a political organization became a statewide established party was in 1986, when Democrat Adlai Stevenson III tried to distance himself from two Lyndon LaRouche candidates who were nominated in the Democratic primary. Stevenson instead formed the Illinois Solidarity Party for his unsuccessful gubernatorial run.

With unofficial returns Wednesday showing Whitney took 345,000 votes, Whitney said he hopes the results change viewpoints on third parties in Illinois.

"Breaking through this psychology of defeatism is terribly important," he said. "We haven't overcome it, but our showing this election will go a long way toward overcoming it."

Whitney, 51, a lawyer from Carbondale, said he knows some of the votes came from people casting protest votes against Republican Judy Baar Topinka and Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but he doesn't think that can account for all of his support.

With little money, Whitney mounted a low-key campaign, traveling around the state to talk about Green Party platforms. Over the weekend, he was hit by Republicans for being a top national official of the Socialist Labor Party as recently as the early 1990s.

Whitney shrugged off the criticism, saying it was part of his "political evolution."

"Despite efforts to paint me or the Greens as fringe candidates, when we're talking about the budget, school funding, single-payer health care and clean government, I was running on a more mainstream platform than the other two candidates," Whitney said.

Whitney said the Greens will now focus on building precinct organizations.

cyednak@tribune.com