"Write In Terry Link" May Be Lake County Dems' New Campaign Slogan

In what may prove to be a supreme political embarrassment, State Senator Terry Link (D-Waukegan), who also happens to be the Democratic Lake County Chairman, is facing a serious petition challenge from his primary opponent, former North Chicago Mayor Jerry Johnson.

Link needs 1,000 valid signatures from registered voters in his district (the 30th) which stretches from Waukegan in the north, down to Buffalo Grove in the south, and includes all or parts of North Chicago, Mettawa, Green Oaks, Riverwoods, Lincolnshire, and Vernon Hills. For the last two elections cycles, Link has had no primary challenger, and so Link is not used to having his petitions subject to any serious scrutiny. In 2006, Link blew away Republican opponent Shields Township Supervisor Chuck Fitzgerald in the general election.

Link filed for the November 2008 election with about 3,125 signatures, according to TA's sources. At 25 signatures per page, that's about 139 pages. The Johnson campaign has been reviewing the signatures and claims that only about 20% of the signatures were valid, in that the remaining signatures were out-of-district voters, individuals whose voting registration or addresses could not be verified, or had similar flaws. That means Link ended up with about only 600 good signatures, when he needs 1,000.

Interestingly, Link circulated NO PETITIONS himself. I guess he is too busy down in Springfield helping Emil Jones run the State Senate to mingle with the people. His wife, a well-known lobbyist, circulated one petition, but did not fill it up. The vast majority of the remaining petitions (about 119 sheets) were circulated by TWO specific individuals. This is where the majority of "bad" signatures occurred.

I will try to have a link up to the review petition that was filed by Johnson later today.

The interesting thing is what may happen if Johnson's challenge is upheld, and Terry Link gets kicked off the Dem primary ballot. While normally Johnson would then be the only remaining Dem candidate and would be the nominee in the primary election, Johnson himself faces a challenge to his own petitions. TA's sources indicate that the challenge to Johnson may very well be successful. That means the Dems have NO candidate, and must do one of two things: run a write-in candidate, or wait and appoint a candidate to fill the open slot after the primary election. If both Johnson and Link survive the respective challenges, the campaign goes on with Senator Link having the heavy advantage of money and resources.

If both Link and Johnson kick each other off the ballot, it will set up a write-in war between Link and Johnson, or perhaps another candidate. It is my understanding that a write-in candidate would need as many write-in votes as you would need to have a valid petition filing, so 1,000 write-ins are needed. What does this mean? This means that you can expect to have Emil Jones parachute in with a Dem goon squad, and we will no doubt have 2 or 3 Dem workers from Chicago at EVERY precinct, handing out "Write-in Terry Link!" fliers, along with a massive mail campaign. I doubt Link will take the blame for the bad petitions, but I am sure that Jones and Link will spend whatever they need to in order to assure Link's position as the Dem nominee in November 2008. Link can't afford to sit back and nominate himself as the candidate after the primary (basically his choice since he conveniently is Dem party chairman) because if a successful candidate writes-in (such as Johnson), there is no open spot to fill with an appointment.

Stay tuned for further developments...

UPDATED: TA has also learned that Lake County Democratic vice-chairman Pete Couvall has filed a challenge against Green Party candidate David J. Kalbfleisch in the 10th Congressional District race. Any guesses as to why the Dems want to knock the Greens off the ballot wherever possible?