Third Party Activists on Illinois HB 723: “The Protect Incumbents Act”

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The Free & Equal Elections Foundation held a press conference at its headquarters this past Monday, where Illinois Governor Pat Quinn was urged to issue a veto on HB 723, a bill nicknamed the “Protect Incumbents Act”

“HB 723 would make it nearly impossible for third parties to slate candidates in Illinois,” said Free & Equal Chair Christina Tobin. The bill would make it so that when no candidate of an established party runs in a primary for a particular office,that party can only fill the vacancy in nomination if the candidate they “slate” collects a large number of signatures.”

Representatives from various Illinois Third Parties were also on hand to explain the significance of HB 723.

Illinois Constitution Party Chair Randall Stuffelbeam said, “As Chairman of the Illinois State Central Committee of the Constitution Party; as a member of the board of directors of Free and Equal Elections; and as a potential candidate for Governor of Illinois in the 2010 elections, I am vehemently opposed to any provision, legislative or otherwise, that prevents candidates and voters from having fair and equal access to the electoral process.  By providing an unfair advantage to incumbents of the two major parties, voters are robbed of the opportunity of having a full spectrum of candidates from which to choose.  This unfair and unequal advantage goes against every principle this great nation and the state of Illinois was built upon. I stand with Free and Equal and all minor parties in opposition to HB 723 in calling upon Governor Quinn to veto this bill.”

Kent McMillen, Press Relations Chair for the Libertarian Party of Illinois, added,”If Governor Quinn wants to reform the political culture of Illinois, he will veto this bill and work to level the playing field between all political parties and independent candidates. This will give voters real choices in Illinois elections. For instance, it takes 5,000 signatures for established parties to get on the ballot for governor in Illinois, but it takes 25,000 signatures for other parties. These type of laws discourage many candidates from even attempting to get on the ballot. New people with fresh ideas will lead to real reform in Illinois politics. Rather than creating new obstacles to getting on the ballot, legislators should be removing them.”

Richard Winger of Ballot Access News also weighed in: “Already Illinois voters have a shocking absence of candidates to vote for.  In the November 2008election, out of 157 state legislative races, there was no contest between a Democrat and a Republican in 86 of those races (in other words, over half!).  And HB 723 will just make the lack of choice even worse.”

The Free & Equal Elections Foundation continues to urge Governor Quinn to veto this corrupt legislation.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 3:13 pm. It is filed under Illinois. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.