Greens Warn Dems about Challenge

Article in the Southern by Nicole Sack on July 8, 2006.

Greens Warn Dems about Challenge
by Nicole Sack
The Southern
July 8, 2006

The Greens are cautioning the Democrats not to use state workers "on the clock" to conduct the petition challenge to keep the Greens' state slate off the ballot.

Rich Whitney, Green gubernatorial hopeful, said despite having the advantage of incumbency and a huge campaign fund, the Democrats apparently don't want to risk letting the voters have a chance to vote Green in the General Election.

"More than 39,000 voters signed our petitions saying they want the Green Party on the ballot," said Whitney, a Carbondale civil-rights attorney. "But that's still not good enough for them. Now they want to use up taxpayer money going through thousands of signatures line-by-line in probably a futile effort to keep the Greens off the ballot."

On Monday, two Chicagoland Democrats filed an 8,000-page objection to Whitney's legitimacy.

Whitney, 51, said Illinois has one of the most restrictive ballot access laws in the nation, but even so, the Greens were able to surpass the 25,000-signature requirement - with all signatures required to be collected in a 90-day window - to get a new party on the ballot. Established parties of Republicans and Democrats are required to collect 5,000 to 10,000 signatures for statewide ticket placement.

"The Democrats say they just want to make sure everyone plays by the rules, but they don't mention that the rules are a stacked deck against third parties," Whitney said. "I have to wonder if the Democrats could find 39,000 people in 90 days to sign a petition saying they really wanted Rod Blagojevich on the ballot."

The Greens are in preparation mode for the binder check. It will be July 11 before the Greens will know how the State Board of Elections will proceed with the review of the objection and the Greens' rebuttal.

It could be mid-August before a final decision is reached.

Jennifer Rose, Whitney campaign manager, said there was some good news from Monday's objection deadline.

"Two Green Party state senate candidates were not challenged," Rose said. "Now they can be called candidates and get to the work of putting their message out across their districts, whereas we have to dedicate a large portion of our time to this challenge and not campaigning - it makes it that much more difficult for us."

Whitney is looking to join Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Republican challenger State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka on the General Election ballot.

nicole.sack@thesouthern.com

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