Dirty Tricks May Keep 8th District 3rd Party Candidate Bill Scheurer Off the Ballot
Democratic Party fraud to keep Bill Scheurer from running against Melissa Bean?
That’s what today's article by Joshua Holland on AlterNet hints.
It seems that Bill Scheurer hired a guy whose day job is with U.S. Rep. Dan Lapinski to collect 18,000 signatures. Or, at least that's what he thought.
The story says,
In mid-May, a man claiming to be Anthony Constantine from AR Consulting got in touch with the Scheurer campaign and pitched the firm's services: for a fee, they'd help collect the needed signatures. They met, and Scheurer hired the firm.The firm was hired. Scheurer got a progress report every week. Early this week Scheurer was supposed to pay for and receive the signatures. The guy didn’t show up, sick relative and all that.
To continue the story,
finally, Constantine returned a call after being threatened with legal action.One can say that Scheurer was naive to the ways of Illinois Democratic Party politics. That's for sure.
Constantine says it's the first he's heard of any of this. He never met with Scheurer, AR Consulting never cut a deal with his campaign and he definitely doesn't have the thousands of signatures that Scheurer needs to get on the ballot. It's a hard blow for the peace candidate's long-shot candidacy.
There's no evidence linking any of this directly to Bean, or to the Democratic leadership. But Illinois Dems have come out in force against Scheurer -- DCCC Chair Rahm Emmanuel has been particularly vocal.
The only thing that's certain is that Scheurer finds himself missing several thousand precious signatures just ten days before the filing deadline.
Who do you smell?
If you want to help collect petitions this weekend, here are the details.
The AlterNet article pretty well explains what I posted earlier, which is below:
= = = = =
Got this email yesterday from Bill Scheurer’s campaign coordinator Vince DeSecki:
Friends,The deadline for filing is Monday. A Democratic Party challenge is a certainty.
This weekend is the final push to get our pro-peace, pro-working-family candidate on the ballot for the IL-8th Congressional District this November.
People are coming from far and wide (Washington DC, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois) to be part of this historic campaign. Please join them!
Also, bring others with you, spread the word, and have everyone do the same. We expect dozens of people in this celebration of our democracy.
______________________________________________________________________
We are going out on: June 24, Saturday, 10:00 AM; and June 25, Sunday, 12:00 Noon.
We are staging from the Lake Villa Public Library parking lot at 1001 E. Grand Ave., Lindenhurst, IL. Here is the link to a map of this location.
Take the Tri-State Parkway (I-94) exit for "Lindenhurst, Route 132, Grand Avenue, West" and go a few miles west. The library is across the street from Deep Lake Rd.
Thanks to everyone. This is the culmination of all our hard work. See you this weekend.
petition_4bill@yahoo.com
Campaign@WinWithBill.com
hone: 847-543-1253 Mobile: 847-867-6631
If you are interested in Scheurer's candidacy, I posted a fuller article today at McHenry County Blog. It references the others I have written since February.
19 comments:
yes, if you would enjoy utterly destroying the democratic party, this is certainly the way to do it!
Bored,
I've said the party is headed for a royal crack up.
Note Scheuer's supporters are celebrating our Democracy.
It's tough luck for the rest of the world.
The party of FDR, Truman, JFK, and LBJ (a great one too much unappreciated) is long gone.
This guy is "Pro-life"?
I thought Republicans were pro-life.
They won't vote for this guy though, just like they won't vote for Casey in PA.
A Democrat has nothing to gain by taking an anti-abortion position. The Republicans don't really care about abortion. They care about electing Republicans.
The question the US has always faced is what to do when the democratically elected government is not one we want to support.
1953 Iran (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax)
9/11/1973 Chile (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilean_coup_of_1973)
Palestine Today
Iraq and Afganistan Tomorrow
I'm just saying that if I lived in any of these countries I would be at the very least skeptical of any unilateral or "coalition of the willing" US military involvement.
"wars" of the late 20th century
Korean - UN Authorization
Vietnam - No UN Support
First Persian Gulf War - UN Support
Second Iraq War - No UN Support
The above comments were prior to my posting the new top of this article about AlterNet's article suggesting dirty tricks against Bill Scheurer's campaign.
great... Scheuer wants to go pacifist with tough guys in the world, but gets shellacked by tough guys in Illinois.
Every few months I spend the night in a homeless shelter. I back up the social worker in case someone gets sick and she needs to leave to take them to the ER.
A lady who cooks meals for the shelter also stands out front of Hastert's office protesting the war. She asked me if I was ever scared a homeless person would go off their meds and get violent. She couldn't stay over night for fear of that.... told her hey, stuff happens.
Well, I can't say he had it coming to him, no one does, but he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed to rely on "progress reports". You have to see the signatures in front of you before you ever believe they exist. And you certainly don't wait until the week before the deadline to do a signature turn-in. Really bad petition management strategy. He should have caught this two weeks after hiring whoever.
That said, I don't put it past the Democrats to do something exactly like this. They run ghost candidates, kick people off ballots, write anti-democratic election laws, intimidate opponents and voters, and a whole host of shenanigans. I hope they catch the person who did this. That's gotta be illegal somehow since it was outright fraud.
If he had made it on the ballot, Bill Scheurer would have joined a very elite group of people in US History.
"4) Throughout all U.S. history, there are only four individuals who have ever successfully overcome a signature requirement greater than 10,000 signatures in order to gain a place on a ballot for U.S. House of Representatives. They are Frazier Reems, an independent member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio who had to collect 12,920 valid signatures in the 9th district in 1954 in order to run for re-election; Jack Gargan, the Reform Party nominee for Florida's 5th district in 1998, who had to collect 12,141 valid signatures; Steven Wheeler, an independent candidate in California's 22nd district in 1996, who had to collect 10,191 valid signatures; and Steve Kelly, independent candidate for Montana's At-Large seat in 1994, who had to collect 10,186 valid signatures."
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:H.R.1941.IH:
I'd suggest he file lawsuits immediately challenging the ballot access laws. One in federal court using Storer vs Brown and the above information that only 4 in US History has met a requirement like Illinois' and no one in Illinois history has EVER met the requirement; and one in state court using Article III, Section 3.
He can use the money he didn't spend on signatures. That would be a great way to get back at the Democrats for their dirty tricks. Force them to change our WORST IN THE WORLD ballot access laws.
The article mentioned emails going to the supposed petition gatherer that weren't answered. Were there any coming from the person claiming to be Constantine? If there were, it's trivial to find out where the emails came from. If they did receive emails, why is nobody tracing the IP address?
Maybe the chump can learn a lesson from all this, get off your ass, go face to face with the people, and ask them to vote for you. Asking someone to get the signatures instead of having people that are behind you asking for them is sad. I say let him learn a lesson and not take the process for granted. Patrick McDonough
Umm Patrick, only 4 people in the history of the US has been able to get that many signatures for US House. No one EVER has done it in 90 days. EVER! The lesson to be learned about the process is that it is corrupt by the design of the Anti-Democrat Party. It's not his fault he needs to hire petitioners, it's the Anti-Democrat, Fidel Castro wannabe's fault.
Isn't Constantine the guy who is in business with Strama known as the pig.
Why is a conservative encouraging people to help a liberal get on the ballot as an independent?
And Cal, if a Libertarian or Constitution candidate came along with an independent bid... don't ya think the Republican Party would challenge?
....snore....
What a lame story to waste so many bits and bytes on.
nw burbs, the independent deadline was last December, the earliest in the US.
Cal knows better than most Topinka and the Reps might challenge. Although they didn't in 2004. But whatever point you were trying to make with that question, nw burbs, is completely irrelevant and a bigger waste of bits and bytes.
Seems like we have another anti-democrat that doesn't want political competition if nw burbs thinks this story is a waste. Figures. Go Castro!!!
Oh yeah, and nw burbs, why would libertarians help Nader, Greens, and Socialists get on the ballot when the Anti-Democrats were trying to kick them off? They don't have much in common politically. Maybe it has something to do with principles, such as the principles of free and equal elections in America. But that's something you and the Anti-Democrats wouldn't know anything about.
Skeeter...."republicans only care about electing republicans" yeah, and Democrats care about people...thanks for the laugh.
"Anit-Democrats" That's almost clever. But it isn't.
It ain't beanbag.
Jeff, Take a chill pill dude.
I was making the point that if an independent was trying to run against a Repub like, say, McSweeney -- the Republican Party would do everything in its power to knock them off the ballot, whether they ran as a Libertarian or Constitution party candidate under those rules or as an indy under the independent candidate rules.
Listen, I'm all for "the more the merrier"; that is part of why, I believe, America is America.
In this case though, I think it says much more about Scheurer's incompetence than any sort of "dirty tricks". A decent candidate is going to expect so-called "dirty tricks" (which is really a relative term as it is) -- an incompetent candidate will be oblivious.
It is Scheurer's incompetence that led him to trust a complete stranger without doing any background research into that person or their firm. And it is his sour grapes that led him to even attempt a run against Bean in the first place.
(And need I also point out, since none of the conservatives pontificating here have mentioned it, that Bean is not even mentioned in this at all. It is Lipinski's guy who is mentioned, and Lipinski, Jr is already under suspicion of employing dirty tricks, notably in the primary.)
...And can Cal not answer for himself?
- NW "the Anti-Democrat" (whatever that made-up word means) Burbs
Anyone dumb enough to hire someone he didn't know, without references, to do such an important job, and who thinks that elections are something you buy your way in to certainly belongs in Congress. Maybe he can chair Ways and Means sometime.
And Jeff, I fail to grasp exactly why it is you solely blame the Democratic Party for the fact that third party candidates struggle to get on the ballot. Although I think the laws do favor potentially successful third party or independent candidates to get on the ballot, i.e. Sen. James Meeks. If we think that even candidates with no chance of winning should be allowed access to the ballot, why have any signature requirement at all?
Did I not say "he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed" ?
Anti-Democrat isn't a made up word. Anti meaning against, and democrat meaning advocating or adhering to the principles of democracy. Democrats in Illinois have proven they are against the principles of Democracy. I pick on the Democrats more than Republicans for a whole host of reasons, mostly because they and Madigan have complete control over the GA and won't even allow bills like HB758 to come out of committee. They refuse any meetings to even discuss our worst in the world ballot access laws. They just made it even harder for Rs and Ds to run against incumbents in the primaries. Their AG is arguing in court that our worst in the world ballot access laws making it harder for "other" candidates is absolutely fine. The whole party with only a few exceptions is dispicable living up to the definition of democrat.
YDD, that explains why Meeks ran as Honesty and Integrity Party instead of as an Indepednent. YDD, how you can think our ballot access laws, THE WORST OF ANY DEMOCRATIC JURISDICTION IN THE ENTIRE FREAKING WORLD, favor "other" candidates is beyond any logic whatsoever. They are the worst in the world, YDD, why can't you grasp that?
You know, many states don't have any signature requirements at all. They don't have any ballot clutter or confusion problems. They require low fees that they can be exempted from if they are poor, but they require nothing like Illinois does.
By your logic, why not allow the two dominant Shiite Parties in Iraq to make it 500 times harder for Sunni, Kurd, Christian, and Jewish parties to have candidates on the ballot? Why are they using proportional representation in Iraq and Afghanistan instead of just allowing the two dominant Shiite Parties to rule everything? Sen. Meeks was and is a Democrat and he is an exception, not any type of example. The fact remains no independent has been on the ballot for State Rep or Senate for the past 25 years and no independent has EVER met the requirements for US House since the current laws were put in place. There is absolutely no reason to require "other" candidates to get more signatures than the Rs or Ds, let alone 500 times more.
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