Illinois' ballot access requirements for anyone but a "RepubliCrat" are draconian, to say the least! For this congressional candidate, time is running out. by USAF Vet Dan
(libertarian)
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Shameful, is it not?
To get on the ballot in the 14th Congressional District, Republicans and Democrats are required to submit only about 800 signatures. The Libertarian candidate, however, must get more than 11,000! This is a shameful and transparent attempt to lock out everybody but the RepubliCrats and this has the direct effect of limiting the voters' choices.
A unique opportunity
Let me set the stage for this unique opportunity. Former Speaker of the House, Denny Hastert, recently resigned as Congressman of my district. A special election was held to fill the vacancy. The Republican candidate, Jim Oberweis, a four-time loser, became the nominee by beating out true conservative, State Senator Chris Lauzen in the Republican primary by using very dirty campaign tactics and lies about Lauzen and his record. This turned off many of Lauzen's Republican supporters. Many of them sat out of the special election to replace Hastert. That special election brought more negative campaigning by Oberweis. Millions of dollars were spent by the candidates for the special election. Big spending Democrat, Bill Foster, won the special election despite the fact that this district is traditionally very heavily Republican.
Foster wants to implement socialized medicine as well as other big-spending boondoggles. This is not an agenda that will fly in the 14th Congressional District. Yet many constituents are turned off by the heavy handed tactics of Oberweis and his neo-conservative pro war agenda. Oberweis is not well-liked in this district. Now Oberweis and Foster are the RepubliCrat nominees in the general election in November. Oberweis, for the reasons stated above can not win.
Meanwhile, Congressman Ron Paul has reignited the flame of freedom. Citizens from all walks of life are rallying to the cause of freedom. Young people are especially energized by the promise of freedom that Dr. Paul has sparked.
It's time
It's time to bring true Constitutional principles back to Congress. It's time to restore freedom to America. It's time to bring our troops home from Iraq and from every other country in the world, to protect our country, not to act as the policeman of the world backing an Unconstitutional agenda of empire. (Oberweis wants to keep the war going.)
It's time to lift the economic burdens that rampant regulation and the stifling income tax imposes on American citizens. It's time to lift the heavy hand of government surveillance that has taken away our personal rights through the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act and other unconstitutional encroachments on liberty. It's time to release the creative genius that once was America to solve the crisis of ever-rising energy costs.
It's time to restore honest, Constitutional money to our monetary system.
Buoyed by Congressman Paul's great success at rejuvenating the fight for freedom, it's time for Libertarians to join Dr. Paul in Congress. This time, constituents of the 14th District may have a real choice in November.
In my travels around the district, I have talked to many voters. So many of them have told me that they won't vote for either RepubliCrat candidate because they are "so awful". I truly believe we have a great chance for victory! However, we must clear the first hurdle - ballot access.
The hurdle
To put this hurdle into perspective, 11,000 signatures equates to more than 11% of the total number of 14th CD voters who voted last Super Tuesday. If it takes 10 minutes to get one signature, it will take 2,500 man hours to reach our goal. Volunteers from three local Ron Paul Meetup Groups and the Libertarian party have already obtained about 4,000 signatures but, in order to meet the deadline, we have no option but to hire professional petitioners.
I, like many of you, have already reached down deep to financially support Ron Paul and other "Ron Paul candidates"... and I'm not a millionaire like my RepubliCrat opponents. But considering the severity of the crises our nation currently faces, I have decided to match, dollar for dollar, donations up to $10,000.
It will take a minimum of $15,000 to secure the signatures we need. To ensure that there is enough time, we need to raise $7,500 by the end of Memorial Day (I'll put in the other $7,500).
Donations can be made at www.TimeForDan.com. If you feel that the voters' choice should not be limited by ballot laws that clearly have been established to maintain the RepubliCrat status quo, then won't you please consider helping us? All donations, no matter how small, will help greatly and will be most appreciated. Together, we can demonstrate that our hunger for liberty and freedom exceeds the boundaries the "policy makers in Illinois" thought were unattainable.
In pursuit of liberty,
Dan Druck (A.K.A. USAF Vet Dan)
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It's not quite as bad in Michigan. A Republicrat needs about 1,000 signatures per Congressional district. Everyone else, like Dr. Kervorkian in the 9th District, needs 3,000. The taxpayers had to come up with $30 million for those primaries last January, where the Republicans are only going to count half the votes and the Democrats will count none of them. We have another primary for non-presidential races in August.
As long as those two parties are in power, those are the rules. Fairness will have to come from within those two parties, as improbable as it seems. Or you will have to get a state judge who is liberty minded. The states control the elections.
Good luck!
ROBERT NIGHTINGALE, Candidate: Republican Precinct Delegate for 4th Ward, City of Niles, Michigan, August 5 Primary. More liberty, less government!
$7,500, eh? Hmm .. if everyone who read one of my articles this month sent you 75 cents for each read, you'd have it. So I'll encourage them all to do that.
Alas, I can't contribute -- I'm a Canadian citizen -- but I did try to help by posting a link to your column, and your website, onto the Daily Paul today. They don't seem all that interested in boosting Libertarians' candidacies - the focus seems to be all on Republicans - but I'm hoping at least some of them will decide that partisan rivalry belongs on the other side, in both parties.
Be careful. I ran against Dan Burton as a Libertarian in '86 and during that election year one of the state legistlatures (I can't recall which one) held an "emergency" meeting of their legislature to double the ballot access signature requirement to keep the Libertarian off the ballot when he was preparing to file all of his signatures.
They're not above anything! Good luck and God bless.
DigitalBob: I think the 1,000 / 3,000 spread is reasonable. It allows a serious candidate ballot access while prohibiting jokesters from putting their name on the ballot. If we had that spread in Illinois, I wouldn't have complained.
George Dance: A million thanks to you for helping to spread the word! I sincerely appreciate your assistance. I can understand why more focus would be put on Republican candidates due to the assumed "edge" such candidates have regarding electability. But in Illinois' 14th CD, the fact that the Republican candate has already been rejected by the conservative electorate makes this a special case... one that gives the Libertarian a far better shot at victory. A close second to an all-out victory is that, if I get on the ballot, I'll be able to use the campaign to keep the Ron Paul message alive, well, and in the faces of several hundred thousand people.
pamela webe: If I can't clear the current 11,000 signature hurdle, Plan "B" is to sue the State of Illinois on this issue. Increasing the number in the mean time will only provide more fuel for our suit. Plan "B" won't help us in this election year, but it may help us out in two years - not only to reduce the next "hurdle", but to make us more visible to the voters. I prefer to avoid Plan "B" at this juncture and simply get on the ballot, but sometime down the road a level playing field has to be reestablished.
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