Peoria Times-Observer
Wednesday, July 10, 2002
They are at it again.
In 1998, a challenge from the Republican Party kept the Libertarian Party of Illinois off the ballot for state-wide offices, including Jim Tobin, its candidate for governor.
Tobin never had a chance to win, of course. But if he had been in the race, he might have taken votes away from Republican George Ryan and handed the election to Glenn Poshard.
This year, the LPI nominating petitions contained 51,000 signatures, more than double the 25,000 required by law. Republican and Democratic candidates are only required to have 5,000 signatures. On that ballot are North Peorian Steve Burgauer, who is running for U.S. Senate, and gubernatorial candidate Cal Skinner.
Last week, two GOP party officials in Logan and Sangamon counties filed a challenge to the LPI's nominating petitions charging, among other things, that not every signature had been witnessed by a notary public before being stamped. The Republican protest claims 29,000 of the 52,000 signatures collected by the Libertarians are not valid.
If successful, Burgauer and other Libertarians would be left off the ballot.
If minor parties like the Libertarians have to get 25,000 signatures on their nominating petitions, then so should the Republicans and the Democrats.
There should be some standards for those wishing to be on the ballot. Otherwise, voters would have to wade through dozens of names, many of whom would file for an ego boost.
But, there should be room at the table for issue-oriented "third parties," like the Libertarians, the Reform Party and the Green Party. Front runners rarely stick their necks out on issues, so the good, new ideas often come from those who have nothing to lose anyway.
The 2002 race for governor desperately needs an injection of intelligence and relevancy. Instead of debating school funding, prescription drug prices, or new roads, candidates have been sparring over trivial matters, such as the Pledge of Allegiance.
The Peoria Times-Observer is not endorsing the Libertarian Party candidates, but would like to see the ideas they bring to the table included in the debate.
Ballot challenge would kick local candidate out
of race for U.S. Senate, and cost taxpayers
By DeWayne Bartels of the Times Newspapers
Wednesday, July 10, 2002
Last week, members of the Illinois Republican Party filed a challenge with the Illinois State Board of Elections in a bid to knock Libertarian Party members, including North Peorian Steve Burgauer, off this year's November ballot.
Burgauer knew he would face challenges when he decided to run for the U.S. Senate on the Libertarian ticket.
Getting taken seriously is perhaps the biggest challenge for third-party candidates. This effort by the Republicans, however, shows this is not a problem, he said.
"We're being paid attention to," Burgauer said. The challenge is a sign Libertarians are being taken seriously, as well as an indication of the Republican Party's desperation, he said.
Irvin Smith, the Republican Party chairman for Sangamon County, and Carla Bender, circuit clerk for Logan County, last week filed the challenge to the Libertarian petitions.
Bender -- who is also the Logan County campaign coordinator for the Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Ryan -- said partisan politics is not the reason she filed the challenge.
"The purpose of this is to ensure the integrity of the political process," she said.
Regardless of the purpose, this challenge, Libertarians say, will come with a cost to Peoria County taxpayers.
Among the accusations being leveled by Republicans is that the notary publics who signed the petitions were not present when the petitioners signed them.
Burgauer called the GOP effort ridiculous and a small bump on the campaign trail.
"The campaign, so far, is going excellent. I'm getting a lot of press and raising capital," he said.
"When you start a campaign, you have hopes and realities to deal with. You always feel you'll reach everybody. That's not realistic. But, it's not even the political season yet, and we're doing quite well getting our message out."
Burgauer chuckled, and said the Republican effort could well end up being a plus for the Libertarians.
"We talk about the need for competing political parties in places like Afghanistan, and here we have Republicans in Illinois bordering on totalitarianism," Burgauer said.
An attack on Libertarians, Burgauer said, was not totally surprising, given the problems the Republican Party is having of late -- such as Lee Daniels stepping down as head of the state GOP amid allegations his staff did campaign work on taxpayer time.
"I'm surprised only by the intensity of this effort," Burgauer said. "We expected a challenge. Jim Ryan is running scared. The conventional wisdom is that we are a bigger threat to the Republicans than to the Democrats. Most Libertarians are Republicans who got turned off by their politics.
"They're bringing out the big guns after us. They're going all-out. They'll invest $400,000 to $500,000 in this. That's a sign of a nervous party. I think we'll prevail and end up an even bigger threat."
Republicans were not the only ones leveling charges. On July 3 in Peoria, the Libertarians showed they can return as good as they get.
"After seeing some of the accusations from Irvin Smith and Carla Bender on their petition challenge, we are shocked at how frivolous this challenge is," Mike Ginsberg, vice-chair of the Libertarian Party of Illinois, said in a prepared statement. "This is obviously a desperate move by the Illinois Republican Party because they are afraid of a little competition from candidates who know how to say 'no' to higher taxes."
The Republican protest claims 29,000 of the 52,000 signatures collected by the Libertarians are not valid.
"They have allegedly already cost taxpayers more than 200 hours of overtime last week when they were scouring these petitions in Du Page and Cook county offices," Ginsberg said. "The burden of proof is on them about the notaries, and everyone involved is ready to walk into court and testify. The only fraud going on here is them reaching for straws. Someone should check Carla Bender's phone records to make sure she wasn't working on this petition challenge from her office. I don't see how she can even be involved in this when she is supposed to be doing her elected job."
Bender said she would welcome an inquiry into her office phone records.
The cost to taxpayers, Ginsberg said in Peoria on July 3, could be significant. Peoria County taxpayers will pay about 5 to 7 percent of the total cost of checking every petition, he said.
"We collected a couple thousand signatures here. Peoria County voters were generous to us," Ginsberg said. "Some of this challenge will fall in Peoria County, and the taxpayers here will bear some of the cost of this."
The Libertarians claim that a 1998 investigation into a similar attempt by the Republicans to throw them off the ballot uncovered that 73 state employees worked on the Libertarian petition challenge, and at least 19 of them were also being paid by taxpayers. This, they claim, was never investigated by then Attorney General Jim Ryan, now candidate for Governor.
"This type of abuse of government power has got to stop," said Jeffrey Trigg, Libertarian Party of Illinois secretary and Burgauer's campaign manager.
"I heard they were working 12-hour days in government offices last week going over our petitions," Trigg said in a prepared statement. "They better hope none of them were on the taxpayer's dime like 1998. This is precisely why George Ryan and Lee Daniels are in the trouble they are in. Apparently, they can spend more time, money and resources challenging our petitions than they can in making sure government employees are not doing campaign work."