Free & Equal, Inc. defending candidate’s rights across political divide

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Christina Tobin
Phone: 312-320-4101
Email: Christina@freeandequalinc.com

Free & Equal, Inc. defending candidate’s rights across political divide

Tuesday, Nov. 17 — Free & Equal, Inc. announced today that it will defend Democratic gubernatorial candidate William “Dock” Walls’ right to be on the Illinois election ballots in 2010.

Walls joins Republican state House candidates Deb Leticia Gordils (District 11), Phil Collins (District 17), and Anita Forte-Scott (District 56), who have also employed Free & Equal’s help in defending their nominating petitions against attempts to knock them off the 2010 ballot.

An attempt has been made to invalidate nearly 90 percent of Walls petition signatures, by friends of his incumbent challenger, Gov. Pat “The Reformer” Quinn. A Nov. 12 article in the Chicago Tribune states that Quinn admitted that supports of his may be behind an effort to knock Walls off the ballot, only a day after he claimed not to know whether his campaign was involved.

The full Chicago Tribune article can be found here.

The article notes, “The ballot challenge represents an about-face for Quinn, who in 1996 chastised then-U.S. Rep. Dick Durbin for challenging the petitions of another candidate in their race for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination.”

“Quinn’s people used a shotgun approach to try to invalidate Walls’ signatures, meaning they tried to invalidate a large number of signatures with no legal justification,” Free & Equal Chief Executive Officer Christina Tobin said. “The man who was supposed to break Illinois’ chain of bad governors and be a reformer has now stooped to wasting taxpayer resources for a strictly political end.”

The petition requirement to run for Governor in Illinois is 5,000 signatures of registered voters. Walls submitted over 9,900 signatures.

Walls said, “It is irresponsible for Pat Quinn to challenge our valid petition signatures and try to deny the people of Illinois a choice on election day. Quinn’s reckless disregard for the established procedures which require due diligence in the challenge process shows he is willing to put winning above the democratic process.”

Free & Equal will appear at 10 a.m. today before the State Board of Elections to help defend Wall and Forte-Scott’s nominating petitions. The hearing for Collins, meanwhile, is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Cook County Board of Elections at 69 West Washington St. in Chicago.

Gordils’ line-by-line binder check is scheduled for 1 p.m., Wednesday, November 18, on the 6th floor of the Chicago Board of Elections at 69 West Washington St.

To run for state House in Illinois, candidates must collect 500 signatures of registered voters. Gordils and Collins submitted over 600 signatures each, while Forte-Scott submitted over 900.

Attempts to challenge the petitions for each of these candidates can allegedly be linked to Kevin Artl, who is the Chief of Staff for Illinois House Minority Leader Tom Cross. Artl, however, has denied that he has anything to do with the challenges.

Free & Equal is considering a Freedom of Information Act request to uncover Artl’s payroll for the petition-checkers used to challenge these candidates. This information will help determine if state and Republican Party employees were used to check these petitions.

If true, these efforts raise serious questions about the use of government employees in a campaign capacity.

Free and Equal, Inc. is headed by ballot-access crusader Christina Tobin. Tobin has helped secure ballot lines for numerous independent candidates and alternative political parties, including the Constitution, Democratic, Green, Libertarian, Republican and Socialist Equality parties. As Ralph Nader’s National Ballot Access Coordinator in 2008, she helped collect more than 500,000 signatures to put Nader on 45 state presidential ballots and the District of Columbia, more than any other third party or independent candidate.

In 2004, Tobin sued Democratic Party State Chair Michael Madigan for allegedly using full-time state employees to knock Ralph Nader off of the presidential ballot. A Freedom of Information Act request was submitted for the payroll in question. The FOIA request was denied in court because it was “confidential information.” A complaint filed by Ralph Nader was submitted to attorney general Lisa Madigan, daughter of Michael Madigan. As of yet, five years later, no action on the complaint has been taken.

Free and Equal, Inc. is a full-service, ballot-access consulting and petitioning firm. Free and Equal, Inc. is a nonpartisan firm that works with candidates from across the political spectrum. Free and Equal, Inc. does not endorse any candidates for office.

FREE AND EQUAL, INC. SPECIALIZES IN DEFENDING NOMINATING PETITIONS AGAINST CHALLENGES.

TOBIN AND THE STAFF OF FREE AND EQUAL, INC ARE AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY TO DEFEND SIGNATURES IN ILLINOIS.

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