Quigley rival knocked off ballot in 5th District; 14th District GOP candidates remain
A Democratic candidate challenging U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley for Illinois' 5th Congressional District seat won't appear on primary ballots in June because he didn't gather enough valid signatures from voters, the Illinois State Board of Elections ruled Thursday.
The elections board also said two Republican candidates in the 14th Congressional District should remain on the ballot despite objections to their petitions.
Chicagoan Rami Blan's removal from the ballot in the 5th District leaves Quigley, also of Chicago, the only Democrat running in the 5th. The district has been redrawn and expanded to include parts of Cook and Lake counties between Chicago's Near North Side and the Barrington area.
Blan couldn't be reached for comment Thursday. A Facebook account set up for his campaign has been disabled, and he hasn't made himself available for interviews.
Malgorzata McGonigal of North Barrington, Tommy Hanson of Chicago and Kimball Ladien of Chicago are seeking the Republican nomination for the seat. Ladien's candidate petition faces an objection, too; a decision from the elections board is pending.
As for the objections in the 14th District, the elections board decided Republicans Scott Gryder of Oswego and Jack Lombardi of Manhattan should remain on the ballot.
Yorkville resident David A. Guss had objected to both petitions.
Guss said Gryder's petition pages weren't properly numbered in sequence.
A Daily Herald review revealed two petition pages for a Republican Illinois Supreme Court candidate were included in Gryder's packet and numbered as if they were pages for Gryder.
A state hearing officer and a lawyer for the elections board said the two errant pages shouldn't invalidate dozens of Gryder's petition sheets, and the board agreed.
Guss alleged Lombardi's statement of candidacy inaccurately describes the office being sought, that his statement of candidacy was modified without being initialed by the candidate or a notary, and that petition pages were numbered out of sequence.
A review of Lombardi's paperwork revealed he identified the district he's seeking to represent as the 14th - but it didn't include the word "congressional," as other candidates' filings did.
Additionally, a signature page for a Republican state Senate candidate was erroneously mixed in with Lombardi's petition pages.
As with Gryder's petition, the state board ruled the errant sheet shouldn't invalidate Lombardi's petition pages. The board also ruled Lombardi's paperwork sufficiently identified the office he's seeking and that Guss failed to state any violation of the notary act.
The newly redrawn 14th District encompasses parts of Kane, Will, DeKalb, Kendall, LaSalle, Bureau and Putnam counties. That covers some West and Southwest suburbs and a big chunk of north-central Illinois.
The other candidates in the race are: Republicans Mike Koolidge of Rochelle, James Marter of Oswego and Jaime Milton of Fox River Grove; and incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood of Naperville.
Republican candidate Susan Starrett of North Aurora recently dropped out of the race. Her petition faced an objection that's now moot, an elections board spokesman said.
Objections filed against the candidacies of Naperville Republican Juan "Johnny" Ramos in the 11th District and Chicago Democrat Andrew Heldut in the 9th District also are moot because both withdrew from their respective races.
Objections to Underwood's and Koolidge's petitions were withdrawn before Thursday's meeting.
The elections board will meet again April 21 to consider more objections against federal and state candidates.
In addition to the objection to Ladien's petition, objections are pending against the paperwork of 9th District GOP hopeful John Elleson of Arlington Heights and 10th District Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider of Highland Park.