Libertarians will be on November ballot

Party files for several state offices,

Eureka professor running for U.S. Senate

By Jennifer Davis of the Journal Star

Tuesday, June 25, 2002

Illinois has never elected a Libertarian to the U.S. Senate, but Eureka College professor Steven Burgauer of Peoria hopes to be the first.

Burgauer was among the statewide slate of candidates filed by the Illinois Libertarian Party with the State Board of Elections. Libertarians turned in more than 52,000 voter signatures - more than double the required 25,000 signatures - by Monday’s deadline.

"Illinois is ripe for some kind of change," said Burgauer, a former stockbrocker who now teaches Business Economics at Eureka College.

Republicans and Democrats alike are disillusioned with Illinois politics, especially now with the ongoing federal investigation into corruption at the secretary of state’s office under Gov. George Ryan. Now there are new charges that Republicans used state employees for campaign work on state time.

"The Republicans have a certain amount of stink on them," Burgauer said.

Still, Kent Redfield, a professor with the Illinois Legislative Studies Center at the University of Illinois at Springfield, "would be amazed" if Libertarians actually win in November.

"A third party candidate can become a ‘none of the above’ vote," Redfield said. "It’s more of a case of the protest vote. Partisan identity is pretty strong in Illinois" and getting 30 percent or more of the vote statewide "is an awful lot of votes."

Instead, Redfield said third-party candidates can impact close races between the two main parties. That’s why the established parties will challenge the Libertarians’ petitions as invalid under state law, in an effort to keep them off the ballot.

"We took great care" in collecting signatures, Burgauer said, adding that the Libertarian party also is prepared financially to fight the expected challenges.

The Libertarian statewide slate filed Monday also included: former Republican state lawmaker Cal Skinner of Crystal Lake for governor; Jim Tobin of Berwyn for lieutenant governor; Gary Shilts of Montgomery for attorney general; Matt Beauchamp of Chicago for secretary of state; Julie Fox of West Dundee for comptroller; and Rhys Read of Des Plaines for treasurer.

Mike Ferguson of Peoria, who was collecting signatures to run as a Libertarian against state Rep. David Leitch, R-Peoria, did not file by the 5 p.m. deadline. He couldn’t be reached for comment Monday.

Also Monday, the state Green Party filed petitions for Richard Anders Vikstrom of Chicago to run for U.S. Senate. Carl Estabrook of Champaign also filed for the Green Party to run in the 15th Congressional District against U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Sydney.