Greens challenge Quinn's action on "Protect Incumbents Act"

Green Party leaders have sharply questioned Gov. Pat Quinn's action
regarding House Bill 723.  HB723 adds additional hurdles to candidates
who are "slated" onto to the general election ballot.  On Tuesday,
Quinn issued an amendatory veto, inserting language that would place a
non-binding public question on the February 2 ballot regarding ethics
standards for public officials, but making no other changes to the
bill.

The text that Quinn has added is not in and of itself being called to
question, but Quinn's unusual use of the amendatory veto and praise of
the legislature's language in HB723 deeply trouble Greens.  In issuing
his amendatory veto Quinn called the bill "an important measure that
will help ensure ethical conduct and transparency."

"This bill has nothing to do with transparency or ethics," said Phil
Huckelberry, Illinois Green Party Chair.  "The bill is all about
making life easier on incumbents, something Quinn should be opposing
on principle.  Instead he's decided to play games with democracy."

Slating is a process by which a party committee can nominate a
candidate for a given office after a primary election in which no
candidates ran for that office.  Slating has been used frequently by
all three established parties, including the Green Party, for numerous
offices from Congress to County Board.

Called the "Protect Incumbents Act" by Greens, HB723 adds a new
requirement that slated candidates must collect petition signatures
from voters.  The number is equal to the number required to have
appeared on the primary ballot, but the collection period is 45 days,
half as long as the primary ballot collection period.  Green leaders
believe the new requirements will deter candidates from seeking to be
slated and will make it easier for rivals to have slated candidates
thrown off the ballot.

Bob Mueller, candidate for State Representative, 47th district
(Westmont), believes that Quinn's action belies his true priorities. 

"Pat Quinn seems to think it is okay to lay off state workers in these
hard times, and then turn around and give the corrupt, dysfunctional
state legislature even more job security," said Mueller.  "The
amendatory veto may be intended to bolster Pat Quinn's image as a
reformer, but it actually completely undermines it."

Huckelberry authored a detailed analysis demonstrating that, thanks to
already disproportionately high signature requirements, state
legislative races were already widely uncontested, with half of all
incumbents seeing no challenger in the 2008 general election.  By
making slating more difficult, Huckelberry argues, HB723 will lead to
a sharp increase in uncontested races for state legislature, leaving
incumbent legislators less accountable to their constituents.  Gov.
Quinn's office received the analysis weeks before the amendatory veto
was issued.

Huckelberry said that there is some evidence that lawmakers designed
HB723 to hinder the Green Party.  "We didn't invent slating," said
Huckelberry, "but once we began to use slating to challenge entrenched
incumbents, the legislature moved quickly to essentially take it
away."

Despite the restrictive ballot access, the Green Party will be running
a number of challengers for state legislature and other offices across
the state in 2010.

"By stifling competition and shutting voters out of the process,
Democrats continue to prove that they don't deserve power," said
Jeremy Karpen, candidate for State Representative, 39th District,
(Chicago/Logan Square), who officially kicked off his campaign
earlier this week.  "The more voters find out about the Green Party,
the more they stand with us."


Huckelberry's paper, "Incumbency, Competitiveness, and Slating in
Illinois General Assembly Elections", is available on the Illinois
Green Party's website at:

http://www.ilgp.org/groups/gov/otherfolder/ploneexfile.2009-08-27.4790751577