Thread: Illinois GOP officials say Trump may not make ballot

No wonder many people are loathe the GOP. They are just the Democrats with a different handle. All dirty power grubbing bureaucrats. IMO
Illinois GOP officials say Trump may not make ballot

[FONT=inherit]Donald Trump on the campaign trail. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

Ben Carson lands in Chicago for fund-raising on Thursday, but with a week until petition circulating begins, he’s among the top three presidential contenders who lack solid organizations in Illinois.

Carson, Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina are seriously lagging more established Republican presidential candidates — Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Marco Rubio — in laying a foundation in Illinois.
“I don’t know that Trump gets on the Illinois ballot,” Republican strategist and former Illinois GOP chair Pat Brady said, in an interview. “Absent a significant organization, you’re just not going to get it done in this state.”
Brady is backing Gov. John Kasich of Ohio. But other top Illinois Republicans are making similar predictions.


Illinois Republican chairman Tim Schneider, who is remaining neutral in the primary, told POLITICO that potential delegates for Bush, Kasich and Rubio have called the state’s GOP headquarters to volunteer for those campaigns.
Not so for Trump.

“I can’t tell you we know right now who to contact if someone wants to be a Trump delegate,” Schneider said. “I’m not sure the Trump campaign understands the complexity of having delegates in every congressional district.”
A Trump spokeswoman did not immediately respond for comment.

Petitions start circulating Oct. 8 and candidates have until January to get them in.

But the rules in Illinois are daunting, especially if you’re a Republican in this mostly blue state. That’s because each candidate needs three to four delegates in each congressional district who are willing to collect signatures on petitions for themselves and get signatures for the candidate.

This includes the deep blue swaths of the state where Democrats rule.

Brady said Trump “asked all the usual suspects” to be delegates, but “they all turned him down.”

Schneider said the total number of signatures is “significant,” but said he believes Trump, Fiorina and Carson can still make the cut-off — if they get going soon.

Illinois has a Republican governor — Bruce Rauner — for the first time in more than 12 years. Rauner and the senior elected Republican, U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, are remaining neutral in the presidential primary contest.

In some states, getting on the ballot isn’t this challenging.

“Not in Illinois — probably because somebody is making money off the petition printing contract,” Brady said. “It is a brutal process here. Anybody who’s a real contender has to have an operation up and running now.”

Brady, who was GOP chair during the last presidential cycle, said that Mitt Romney “basically sealed the nomination in Illinois last time.”

He said that Rick Santorum, who was leading polls at the time, didn’t make it on the ballot in more conservative Illinois districts that would have supported him.

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/articl...ot-make-ballot

More evidence that Republican party returned nothing to the man for signing a pledge. However, it also is concrete evidence that one should not put faith in the republican party, either, and makes the air around their candidates somewhat stifling.

2012

GOP candidates fail to get on some primary ballots

By The Associated Press
on January 13, 2012 at 12:17 PM, updated January 13, 2012 at 12:20 PM


Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry (L-R) are introduced before a Republican presidential candidate debate at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Many of Mitt Romney's presidential challengers are having trouble fulfilling a fundamental requirement of running for public office: getting on the ballot.

Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman have all failed to qualify for the ballot in at least one upcoming GOP primary.

In other states, they have failed to file full slates of delegates with state or party officials, raising questions about whether these candidates have the resources to wage effective national campaigns.

And if one of them were able to marshal enough anti-Romney forces to challenge the front-runner, the ballot blunders could limit their ability to win delegates in key states.

The exception: Ron Paul, who appears to have avoided such pitfalls so far.

"This is why you need a real-life, no-kidding-around campaign," said Rich Galen, a GOP strategist and former Gingrich aide who is neutral in the 2012 race.

"All these guys who have been crowing that they found a new way to run for president, it's like saying I'm inventing a new airplane, and it has only one wing."

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, won the first two contests, in Iowa and New Hampshire, and he is leading in the polls in South Carolina and Florida, the next two states to have primaries.

Romney raised $56 million in 2011 for his campaign, giving him big financial and organizational advantages over his GOP rivals.

Those advantages are on display as many of his competitors miss deadlines or fail to collect enough signatures to meet ballot requirements in upcoming contests.

Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who came within a few votes of winning the Iowa caucuses, didn't get on the ballot in Virginia or the District of Columbia. His campaign also filed incomplete slates of delegates in Illinois and Ohio, which could limit his ability to win delegates in those key states.

Virginia has been a tough ballot to crack for several GOP candidates because the state requires campaigns to collect signatures from at least 10,000 registered voters. Romney and Paul were the only ones who made the ballot for the March 6 primary. Perry sued, and he has since been joined in the lawsuit by Gingrich, Huntsman and Santorum.

Santorum is the only major candidate who will be left off the ballot in the District of Columbia primary April 3, said Paul Craney, executive director of the DC Republican Committee. The party provides two ways to get on the ballot: Pay $10,000, or pay $5,000 and collect signatures from 296 registered Republicans in the heavily Democratic capital city.

"It's not easy, but it can be done, if you are a serious presidential candidate," Craney said. "All the presidential candidates who are serious about winning the nomination will be on the D.C. ballot."

Santorum adviser John Brabender acknowledged that Romney has more money and a larger campaign organization. But, he said, Santorum's campaign has gained resources and momentum since the close finish in Iowa. Romney, he said, has been running for president for the past six years, giving him more time to build his organization.

"It's a different campaign than it was earlier," Brabender said.

Huntsman, the former Utah governor, failed to get on the ballot in Arizona or Illinois.

The requirements to get on the GOP ballot in Arizona are pretty easy — all you have to do is fill out a two-page form.

Twenty-three candidates managed to do it properly, so they will be on the ballot for the state's Feb. 28 primary.

Huntsman, however, was left off the ballot because his filing had a photocopied signature and wasn't notarized, said Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett.

"If you can't get on the ballot around the country, you're a regional candidate, by definition," said Rich Beeson, the Romney campaign's political director.

"Barack Obama is going to be on the ballot in all 50 states, and so will we."

Gingrich, the former House speaker, didn't make it on the ballot for primaries in Missouri or Virginia, though he has joined the lawsuit to get on the Virginia ballot and Missouri won't award any delegates based on its Feb. 7 primary. Instead, Missouri Republicans will hold caucuses March 17.

Perry, the Texas governor, made the ballot in Illinois, but he will only be eligible to win one delegate in the state's March 20 primary — a contest in which 54 delegates will be up for grabs.

It will take 1,144 delegates to win the nomination at the Republican national convention this summer.

Illinois has a unique way of awarding delegates to candidates.

The winner of the state's GOP primary doesn't necessarily get any delegates. Instead, Republicans will vote for the actual delegates, who are listed separately on the ballot but are identified by the candidate they support.

Each of the state's 18 congressional districts will elect three delegates, for a total of 54. To appear on the ballot as a delegate, candidates had to collect signatures from at least 600 registered voters in the district where they are running.

Only one Perry delegate filed signatures by the deadline, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections. Gingrich, Paul and Romney filed full slates, while only 44 Santorum delegates filed signatures.

Ron Michaelson, who served as executive director of the Illinois State Board of Elections for nearly 30 years, said he doesn't remember presidential candidates having these kinds of problems in previous elections.

"They're concentrating so heavily on the early states, devoting so many resources there that they're not looking down the road far enough," said Michaelson, now a visiting assistant professor at the University of Illinois in Springfield.

The system in Illinois is designed to keep fly-by-night candidates from crowding the ballot, said Christopher Mooney, another political science professor at the University of Illinois.

"It keeps people who don't know what they're doing out of the arena," Mooney said.

http://www.masslive.com/politics/ind...to_get_on.html

Trump should know what needs to be done and get it done if he's running a serious campaign to be the next President of the United States.

Regarding these quotations from the article about Trump not making it on the Illinois ballot:

‘“Idon’t know that Trump gets on the Illinois ballot,’ Republican strategist and former Illinois GOP chair Pat Brady said, in an interview. ‘Absent a significant organization, you’re just not going to get it done in this state.”’


“Brady said Trump ‘asked all the usual suspects’ to be delegates, but ‘they all turned him down.’”

You see what is going on here; the ballot process is stacked in favor of the good old boy RINO establishment .


If Trump is denied the GOP nomination because he could not get on the Illinois ballot, there will be hell to pay from furious patriots; you can be certain of that. Like maybe we work against whomever gets the GOP nomination-- unless he is hell fire to stop the illegal alien invasion, no amnesty, no anchor babies, mass deportation etc.

But if it comes to that, do not stay home patriots write in Jeff Sessions that way the pundits will be forced admit that the GOP lost because of patriots angry about the illegal alien invasion.

Originally Posted by csarbww

Regarding these quotations from the article about Trump not making it on the Illinois ballot:

‘“Idon’t know that Trump gets on the Illinois ballot,’ Republican strategist and former Illinois GOP chair Pat Brady said, in an interview. ‘Absent a significant organization, you’re just not going to get it done in this state.”’


“Brady said Trump ‘asked all the usual suspects’ to be delegates, but ‘they all turned him down.’”

You see what is going on here; the ballot process is stacked in favor of the good old boy RINO establishment .


If Trump is denied the GOP nomination because he could not get on the Illinois ballot, there will be hell to pay from furious patriots; you can be certain ofthat. Like maybe we sabotage whomever gets the GOP nomination-- unless he is hell fire to stop the illegal alien invasion.

Exactly. I think Trump will get on the Illinois ballot and this is just a negative piece to try to discourage his supporters. I'm sure Trump will come out with a statement about that soon. Maybe tomorrow after he's heard about this article. I'll google now and see if he's made a statement.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward...322300042.html

New Poll Shows Trump Leads GOP Race in Illinois

Trump held 23.3 percent of votes compared to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's 16.5 percent and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's 11 percent

New poll results show that businessman Donald Trump has widened his lead over the other GOP presidential contenders in Illinois.

Victory Research, a political consulting firm, surveyed 801 "likely Republican primary voters" in Illinois from Aug. 16-18, and many of them chose Trump as their candidate.

Trump held 23.3 percent of votes compared to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's 16.5 percent and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's 11 percent.

Rounding out the top six in the poll are neurosurgeon Ben Carson (5.5 percent), Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (5 percent) and former Hewlett Packard executive Carly Fiorina (4.6 percent). Less than one-fifth of those surveyed (17.9 percent) said they were still undecided.

The margin of error for the poll is 3.46 percent.

In another poll conducted by Victory Research in July, Trump took an early lead, but he was only ahead by 1.5 percent.

Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward...#ixzz3nldfFlKY

____________________________

This poll is a little old, but it shows he increased his lead a lot from July to August. Maybe there's another one more current. Still looking for comments on Illinois ballot issue.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...002-story.html

Illinois presidential primary not till March, but scramble to make ballot days away
October 3, 2015

GOP presidential candidate Gov. John Kasich of Ohio takes a photo with a supporter at Portillo's in downtown Chicago’s on Sept. 29, 2015. (Brian Nguyen / Chicago Tribune)
Rick PearsonChicago Tribune
Bush, Kasich, Rubio most active GOP campaigns in Illinois

Though it's still more than five months before Illinois takes its turn on the presidential nominating calendar, it's only a few days before the process of weeding out the pretenders from the contenders officially begins here.

On Thursday, presidential campaigns can start gathering signatures to secure a place on the ballot for their candidate, and more important, for their delegates to the Republican and Democratic nominating conventions.

The efforts in Illinois represent a test of early organizational strength and the national reach of campaigns that now are largely focused on the first few states with primaries and caucuses in early February.

On the crowded Republican side, supporters of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich have been the most active in recruiting delegate candidates. But among the current front-runners — businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump, neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former business executive Carly Fiorina — there's been little activity.

Among Democrats, Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to have no trouble putting together a campaign in her birth state. But the status of her rivals in Illinois, including Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, remains uncertain.

On its face, Illinois' access rules don't appear too onerous to keep campaigns that haven't shown much organization here off the ballot, such as Trump, or a potential late-starting Democratic Vice President Joseph Biden.

But, warns Illinois House Republican leader Jim Durkin, "It's much more daunting than it appears."
Hillary Clinton to campaign in Chicago Nov. 2
Hillary Clinton to campaign in Chicago Nov. 2

"It's not easy. You can be the most popular person in national polling and it doesn't mean a damn thing. It's all about organization," the veteran lawmaker from Western Springs said.

Durkin, who spearheaded the 2000 and 2008 Illinois presidential campaigns of John McCain, said the first time around he didn't finalize the paperwork to put the Arizona senator and his delegates on the Illinois ballot until five minutes before the filing deadline.

But Durkin also knows that committing too early to a candidate can have its pitfalls. An early supporter of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's now-ended Republican presidential bid, Durkin said he will focus on state legislative contests and not immediately back another candidate for the White House.

The real work for presidential campaigns is putting together slates of pledged delegates for the national nominating conventions for the March 15 Illinois primary ballot — 54 who are directly elected by GOP voters to go to Cleveland and 102 voted by Democratic primary-goers to go to Philadelphia.
John Kasich hits Chicago to raise money, sell himself to GOP voters
John Kasich hits Chicago to raise money, sell himself to GOP voters

Under the rules of the national Republican Party, Illinois' presidential primary marks the beginning of a stretch of primaries and caucuses where the number of convention delegates awarded won't be based on how the candidates finish.

Instead, the real voting comes in the contest for the delegates, who are elected separately from each of the state's 18 congressional districts. As is the tradition in Illinois' GOP primary, the vote for a Republican presidential candidate is known as a "beauty contest" with no effect on how many delegates are awarded.

And so the campaigns are lining up supporters to gather signatures. For the presidential contenders, it takes only 3,000 valid signatures from voters to get on Illinois' primary ballot, with a Jan. 6 deadline.

For delegates to the Republican convention, the number of signatures varies by congressional district — from a low of 145 in the West Side's 4th Congressional District to 1,014 in central and west central Illinois' heavily Republican 18th Congressional District.

Each GOP presidential candidate can field a maximum of three delegates and three alternate delegates per district, and they can run as a slate for petition-gathering purposes.

Former House Republican leader Tom Cross of Oswego is serving as a co-chair of the Bush campaign in Illinois, along with former Gov. Jim Edgar and U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Channahon. Cross said he, Edgar and Kinzinger also will run as delegates on a slate that includes state Sens. Bill Brady of Bloomington, Karen McConnaughay of St. Charles and Sue Rezin of Morris.

"We have, for all practical purposes, filled out our slate of delegates," Cross said. "I've been involved in calling people both to serve as delegates and in supporting us. We will be good to go when we start circulating petitions."

Cross noted that recruiting delegates isn't just a matter of putting a name on the ballot but finding experienced and well-known people who can serve to verify the quality of the presidential contender.

"In Springfield, (veteran state Rep.) Raymond Poe is an example," said Cross, who added that the campaign plans to roll out its full list of delegates soon. "The challenge for all campaigns is to have those types of people statewide in every congressional district."

Nancy Kimme, a former chief of staff for the late Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, is acting as senior adviser to the Kasich campaign in Illinois. She said the Ohio governor signed his statement of candidacy, a precursor to get on the ballot, during his first fundraising visit to Chicago last week.

"We're going to be ready on day one with our delegates. We're almost full now and we're running them through the vetting process," Kimme said.

"You've got to start the process now. You have to identify folks. And you have to have a commitment from the campaign to produce the resources as needed," Kimme said. She said the campaign plans to roll out its delegate slate when petitions are circulated next week.

Republican state Sen. Michael Connelly of Lisle is heading up the Rubio effort in Illinois and said he is well on his way to building out the Florida senator's delegate slate.

"It's a lot of work. You don't appreciate the madness of the gerrymandered Illinois congressional districts until you're engaged in this process," Connelly said of the Democrat-drawn congressional district maps.

Among the Rubio recruits are state Sens. Dan Duffy of Lake Barrington, Jim Oberweis of Sugar Grove, Dale Righter of Charleston and Jason Barickman of Champaign and state Reps. Mike Fortner of West Chicago, Tom Morrison of Palatine, Mark Batinick and John Anthony of Plainfield and Barbara Wheeler of Crystal Lake. Other Rubio recruits include former state Rep. Jil Tracy of Quincy, former U.S. Rep. Bobby Schilling of Colona and former state Rep. Al Salvi of Mundelein.

The importance of early organizing and fielding a full slate of delegates was evident in the state's Republican primary in 2012, when former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum sought to upend the momentum building for the GOP's eventual nominee, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Romney, with more money, better organization and well-known delegate candidates, won 42 of the 54 elected delegates at stake in Illinois, though he defeated Santorum by only a 12-percentage-point margin.

Santorum won only a dozen elected delegates after failing to file any delegates in four of the state's congressional districts — including districts that were favorable to his social conservatism.

Democrats in Illinois use a hybrid system that's more complicated.

Presidential candidates are awarded a proportional share of delegates based on how well each White House contender does in each congressional district. But a candidate doesn't get any delegates unless he or she gets at least 15 percent of the vote. If a candidate is entitled to delegates but didn't field any in a congressional district, they will be appointed at a meeting of party officials in May.

The number of delegates elected from each congressional district in the primary varies from four to as many as nine based on a formula that considers Democratic votes in previous presidential and governor races. Only 500 valid petition signatures are needed for Democratic delegates, and they can run as a slate in each congressional district.

Kevin Conlon, a longtime Clinton supporter who is helping coordinate the former secretary of state's Illinois ballot access, said the campaign is close to finishing its full slate of 102 delegate candidates.

"We've had close to 300 applications from people who want to be considered as delegates," Conlon said. "We've done meetings in different parts of the state and sent information to county chairmen and the Cook County (Democratic) Central Committee to generate interest."

Though Biden has not announced whether he will seek the Democratic nomination, a draft Biden committee is based in Chicago and has been encouraging supporters to join. But the draft movement is a super political action committee and cannot directly participate in official candidate activities.

As is often the case, the question remains whether there will be any presidential contest by election time in Illinois. Starting with the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1, roughly half of the GOP delegates and 38 percent of the Democratic delegates will be selected before March 15.

In addition, Illinois shares its primary date with Florida, Ohio and Missouri, and voters here could find any remaining competition for the nominations heading elsewhere.