One of the best pieces of legislation sponsored by Sen. Mike Frerichs this session is SB 733, which would make the ballot requirements for third-party candidates equal to what they are for established candidates. The bill, sponsored by Frerichs in the wake of Illinois Democrats' disastrous challenge to Frerichs third-party opponent in 2006, passed out of the State Senate unanimously, but now appears dead in the House.
Illinois Greens who were heartened by the Illinois Senate's recent passage of SB 733 are calling for the House to take up this legislation instead of shelving it in favor of an inferior piece of legislation in HB 632.
"Illinois is finally on the verge of stepping out of the dark ages of ballot access rights," said Phil Huckelberry, Chair of the Illinois Green Party's Government and Elections Committee. "Now it looks like Mike Madigan is trying to keep us there after all."
SB 733 would lower ballot access hurdles for "new" party and independent candidates in Illinois to the same level as that for whichever "established" party has the highest threshold in a given jurisdiction. The Senate passed SB 733 unanimously on March 30, but on April 30 the bill was assigned to the House Executive Committee, a sign that House leadership intends to shelve it...
HB 632 would only impact signature requirements for independent candidates for state legislature. The existing requirements were found unconstitutional in Lee v Keith, forcing the legislature to rewrite at
least part of the law. HB 632 originally had similar provisions to SB 733, but was amended within the House to take away the best components. HB 632 subsequently passed the House unanimously on May 2 and is now before the Senate.
A few local Green Party activists caught up to State Rep. Naomi Jakobsson at a recent coffee to inquire as to her position on the bill, which is sponsored by State Rep. Bill Black in the House.
Tom, Kevin and I really didn't learn anything new. Tom asked her about HB 632 which is a ballot access bill for independent candidates to which she really doesn't have an answer and says she'll look into it. Right now, IL Greens are mad because a much superior bill came from the Senate, SB 733 which lowers the requirement for independent candidates at 1% of the previous vote. HB 632 sets it at 5% I believe, Illinois would still have one of the most prohibitive ballot access laws in the country. I could tell Ms. Jakobsson was a little nervous (and surprised!) to see Tom and two other Greens. From my POV, she was really eager to talk to someone else besides Tom or me, but to be fair we couldn't hog up all her time. Really, we weren't trying to accost her or anything, we just wanted to see where she stood on the issues as our representative...
I was throughly unsatisfied with her answers (she just doesn't sound like she has a grasp on the substance of legislations and it seems like EVERYTHING is esoteric to her) , but eh I'll give her credit for at least holding the coffee talk...
Shocking.
Naomi gets the same credit, I would give the CU MTD. Both hold meetings but neither acts on what they hear at the meetings.
I'll give credit where credit is due; I'm glad she had this gathering with constituents even though she didn't charm the pants out of me. I just felt really irked when she said there was no landmark or big legislation in Illinois that would follow Europe or California's example. I understand there powerful interests in the state like Big Coal, but there's going to be cap in carbon emission sooner or later. We might as well be ahead of the game. Where's the leadership and independence you touted during the campaign Representative Jackobsson? How about introducing some legislation to cut and cap carbon emissions. Even some corporations are realizing that reigning in carbon emissions is an inevitability with many like DuPont clamoring for a carbon trading market (on their terms, of course). http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6933745
I do not understand why people continue to vote for Jakobsson. Abram was a much better candidate. I'm starting to think even Bradfield would have been better...