In frigid temperatures, candidates line up to submit petitions for March 19 primary
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Bundled up against frigid temperatures, dozens of candidates for state and federal offices, some represented by surrogates, lined up outside the Illinois State Board of Elections office on Monday to file petitions for the March 19 primary ballot.
Waiting with stacks of signatures in an otherwise barren strip mall before the state’s election authority opened its doors at 8 a.m. were hopefuls for Congress and state legislative seats, as well as various judgeships.
Submitting petitions on the first day of the weeklong filing period makes candidates eligible for the top ballot position in their race. If they’re in line during the closing minutes on the last day for filing next Monday, they take part in a lottery to appear last on the ballot. Political lore holds that candidates whose names appear first or last in a crowded field gain a slight advantage.
Up for election and reelection are all 118 Illinois House seats, 23 of the Illinois Senate’s 59 seats, all 17 congressional seats and 77 judicial seats.
Among the candidates braving the cold were U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, a progressive Democrat from Chicago running for her second term on Capitol Hill, and her freshman colleague in Congress, U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, a Democrat from Springfield.
Chicago Ald. Raymond Lopez waited in line to hand in his petitions in a bid to unseat veteran U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia in the Democratic primary. Also submitting petitions in the Democratic primary was Jesse Reyes, an Illinois appellate judge who is vying to unseat incumbent Joy Cunningham on the state Supreme Court.
First in line was Cherita Logan, who arrived in Springfield on Saturday on behalf of longtime U.S. Rep. Danny Davis. On Sunday night, she was keeping warm inside a camper in a vast empty parking lot outside the elections board office. But by 7 a.m. Monday, she was waiting outside the election board’s door with petitions for Davis, who is seeking a 15th term to represent the 7th District, which covers parts of Chicago’s West and South sides, downtown and near west suburbs.
“Elders used to say ‘Never put off for tomorrow what you can do today’ and in case any kind of issues happen, I was going to be here with those petitions and get them filed,” said Logan, a deputy coordinator for Davis, who has been in Congress since 1997. “But you want to be first. It’s competitive.”
Davis faced his stiffest challenge in years when he defeated progressive Kina Collins by slightly more than six percentage points in last year’s Democratic primary before running unopposed in the general election. Collins is expected to run again, but Davis also figures to face a primary challenge from Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, who has come under scrutiny in the last few months after the Tribune reported that several now-former employees of her office accused her of ethical lapses or misusing public resources for her private benefit.
Earlier this month, the city’s Board of Ethics ruled that Conyears-Ervin violated the city’s ethics code in a probable cause finding related to those allegations.
A surrogate for Conyears Ervin handed in her petitions at the elections board Monday. Later, in a telephone interview, Conyears-Ervin downplayed the ethics board’s ruling.
“The voters of the 7th Congressional District will not be fooled,” she said. “They know that is a gross misrepresentation of not only the hard work that I do, but also the work of the employees in the Chicago treasurer’s office.”
On the Republican side, what is expected to be one of the most competitive congressional primaries began to take shape as both U.S. Rep. Mike Bost of Murphysboro, who’s vying for a sixth term, and challenger Darren Bailey of Xenia, a former state senator who mounted an unsuccessful bid for governor last year against Democrat J.B. Pritzker, filed petitions.
Unlike in his statewide bid for governor, Bailey, 57, will be running in solid Republican territory in his bid to unseat Bost, 62, a Marine Corps veteran and former state representative. The 12th Congressional District covers all or part of 34 of the state’s 102 counties and geographically represents roughly the southern third of the state.
Since announcing his candidacy for Congress on the Fourth of July, Bailey has gone on the offensive against Bost, painting him as a member of the Washington establishment. Outside the election board Monday, he dubbed Bost a “do-nothing congressman” and talked about how parts of southern Illinois have seen a “serious lack of opportunity.”
“The incumbent has been a congressman for (about) 10 years, been a state rep for 20 years above that. You tell me what experience gets you whenever this state has continually declined,” Bailey said. “That’s why I’m here because I’m frustrated with the status quo and I’ll stand against all that nonsense.”
Bost has secured several endorsements from southern Illinois Republicans, and on the national level he’s received support from top conservative firebrands such as Freedom Caucus co-founder U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California, as well as from the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Bost, who chairs the Veterans Affairs Committee in the Republican-controlled House, brushed off Bailey’s criticism, citing the importance of experience in Congress.
“I’m not old. I’m not senile or I’d run for president,” Bost said outside the elections board, an apparent reference to the GOP refrain that President Joe Biden is unfit for office. “That’s vitally important to make sure that we have someone with experience there (on the VA committee). And (Bailey’s) going to have to say what he’s got to say.”
Bost and Bailey share similar positions in opposing abortion rights and supporting gun rights. A crucial element in the race could be whether former President Donald Trump makes an endorsement.
Both candidates have been endorsed by Trump in past elections, and Bailey has actively courted Trump’s backing even after downplaying the former president’s support in his losing bid for governor.
“President Trump carries a big factor,” Bailey said Monday. “I anticipate that in March I will have his endorsement and seal the deal. But I think at the end of the day the people know I’m going to fight for them.”
Bost said that if Trump endorsed Bailey, “it would hurt me a little bit personally” because of the former president’s past support.
In a Chicago-area congressional race, Lopez said he filed his primary challenge to Garcia, who’s seeking a fourth term, because he wants to give 4th Congressional District voters a choice between a candidate “who just focuses on rhetoric or one who’s going to focus on results.”
In his third aldermanic term representing a South and Southwest side ward, Lopez has tried to portray Garcia, who also filed signatures, as too progressive for the district.
“I want to get back to the Democratic Party that most of us grew up with,” said Lopez, who announced his intent to run for mayor in the last election but later dropped out in order to run for reelection as alderman. “The Democratic Party that believes in helping people, that government had a role, but that it was more focused on being a positive force in people’s lives, not focusing on ... this extremism.”
Also among the first day filers was a primary challenger to Democratic U.S. Rep. Bill Foster of Naperville in the vast west and northwestern 11th District, which is also headed toward a three-way GOP primary.
Qasim Rashid of Naperville filed to challenge Foster, a 13-year congressman, in the Democratic primary, while Jerry Evans of Warrenville, Kent Mercado of Bartlett and Susan Altman-Hathaway of Geneva filed in the GOP contest.
While a resident of Virginia, Rashid lost a general election bid for the state Senate in 2019 and for Congress in 2020. Evans has lost two previous GOP primaries in the 11th District.
In the west suburban 6th Congressional District, three-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Sean Casten of Downers Grove faces a primary challenge from Charles Hughes of Chicago, who lost two previous congressional primaries. Niki Conforte of Glen Ellyn filed for the GOP primary, which she lost two years ago.
In the far west and northwest suburban 14th District, three-term U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood of Naperville was the lone candidate to file in the Democratic primary Monday. Filing for the Republican primary was James Marter of Oswego, who since 2016 has lost three previous GOP congressional primary bids as well as a U.S. Senate primary.
Pearson reported from Chicago.
