The Tribune Editorial Board gave us an excellent synopsis of how broken our elections are in Illinois in its March 9 editorial (“Why independent candidates rarely make the ballot in Illinois”).
It’s not just independents who have to deal with these ridiculous requirements. This impacts parties like the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, the Democratic Socialists of America, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and so on.
The Libertarian Party of Illinois and the Illinois Green Party have been working with legislators since at least 2013 to reform these election laws.
The first step is reducing the petitioning threshold to equal that of Democrats and Republicans. The second step, which wasn’t introduced until 2016, is reducing the threshold for minor/recognized party status from 5% to a more reasonable rate in line with Missouri and Iowa at 2% or to what the current average is across the entire Midwest at 3%.
To date, it hasn’t gotten anywhere due to the old General Assembly regime (Michael Madigan and John Cullerton) and the current regime (House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and Senate President Don Harmon). The bills haven’t been allowed to leave the Rules Committee in the House or whichever committee the bills are assigned from in the Senate.
Libertarians have also had to fight that same fight since 2020 in Cook County alone, and their growing support since that election is nothing short of remarkable.
Just keep in mind that if you don’t like the Democratic and Republican choices for public offices at the county level, feel free to pull a Libertarian ballot.
— Jake Leonard, political director, Libertarian Party of Illinois, Nokomis
Any good candidates?
After watching endless attack ads by political rivals on TV, I’m wondering if there are any candidates running who are honest, morally principled, not in Trump’s control, not in favor of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and otherwise truthful and deserving of the public’s trust.
Is this any way to conduct elections for public office?
— Michael Dolesh, Chicago
Ohio versus Illinois
I was born in Chicago but have lived most of my life in Ohio. I recognize my native state has quite a history of political shenanigans. But Illinois is in the middle of a good run of competent government without a focus on scandalous intrigue. The development is demonstrated by the fact that the biggest election year issue highlighted in the Tribune’s lead Sunday article (“Lessons in finance, Pritzker’s power”) is the extent of Gov. JB Pritzker’s political influence in a U.S. Senate primary.
Compare that to Ohio where we are in the midst of perhaps the biggest political corruption trial in history. The case has it all — backroom deals, bribes, tainted legislation, dark money contributions — even the suicide of a prominent official at the center of the scandal. We have a Republican senator, Jon Husted, appointed to the U.S. Senate by his close political ally Gov. Mike DeWine and now up for reelection, called as a trial witness. Prior to his appointment, while serving as DeWine’s lieutenant governor, Husted counseled DeWine on the appointment of the chair of Ohio’s Public Utilities’ Commission, the state’s top utility regulator. That appointee, Sam Randazzo, was found after his appointment to have a $4.3 million in his bank account. Two executives of a large utility, FirstEnergy, are now on trial for allegedly bribing Randazzo, who died by suicide after his own indictment.
Husted has not been charged with a crime, but his lieutenant governor fingerprints are all over the case. First is the fact that he and DeWine received millions of dollars from FirstEnergy and its executives. Then, though he had been warned of Randazzo’s questionable past, Husted never objected to his appointment. Called as a trial witness, Husted displayed a faulty memory; he couldn’t recall the content of conversations critical to the case. A senator, appointed by his closest political colleague, who is the recipient of contributions from the utility company and executives accused of bribery and who just can’t seem to recall conversations critical to perhaps the biggest corruption trial in Ohio history.
Illinois may have its corrupt political past, but Ohio is living in the corrupt present.
I now tell my Chicago relatives to enjoy what they have.
— Stephen Gladstone, Shaker Heights, Ohio
Slanted headline
On March 12, there was a terrifying attack on Temple Israel, a synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan. There were over 100 young children attending preschool at the time. Thanks to the heroic acts of security, well-prepared staff, police and emergency responders, no one died except the attacker. The attack was a shock, but not a surprise, as acts of antisemitism have been on the rise. American Jews have been bracing themselves for further violence since the war in Iran started.
Sadly, I believe Americans have become numb to the increasingly common acts of terror that have plagued our country in recent years. A terrorist attack hardly gets notice if multiple victims aren’t killed.
So I wasn’t surprised when the Tribune reported the Temple Israel attack in the Nation & World section of the paper. However, I was troubled when I saw the front-page headline on March 14 that read “Michigan suspect lost family in Israeli strike.” The article itself is objective and fact-based. But the headline strikes me as biased, implying justification for this act of terrorism.
Many readers never go beyond a headline. Journalists and editors have a responsibility to be balanced in their reporting. This time, they missed their mark.
— Rebecca Jacobson, Highland Park
Bad advice to grads
I cannot agree with Jonathan Zimmerman (“NYU’s decision to air prerecorded graduation speeches is cowardly,” March 15). A graduation speech should be memorable for being inspirational, pithy and blessedly concise. A speech should congratulate the graduates, encourage them to work hard, enjoy their chosen fields of industry and service, and live with moral uprightness. His advice — “Submit one speech (to the administration), and give another” — frames the speaker as one who is unreliable and whose word cannot be trusted.
This is called lying, hardly advice to emulate.
— Pamela J. Pugh, Hamlet, Illinois
Call out censorship
The op-ed by Jonathan Zimmerman reminds me of four years ago when I saw New York University alumnus Adam Sandler give a commencement address at its Tisch School.
Sandler was heartfelt and sincere, but there were plenty of “Sandler” moments guaranteed to offend everyone.
I hope the next celebrity alumnus that NYU invites to give a presumably live, unrecorded, unvetted commencement speech to its graduating class has enough courage to call out this censorship of student thought and message control for what it is. Shame!
— Mike Hughes, Chicago
Jobs at what cost?
I don’t know what the future will hold for Elwood, but my friend in Dekalb, west of where a data center has been built, says her electric bill went up 85% last year.
What good is having the jobs there if you can’t breathe? Or having your taxes lowered if you can’t drink the water, if there is any to drink?
— Georgiana Dodd, Homewood
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