Greens to Oppose HB 723 at Senate Hearing Today

From the Illinois Green Party

SPRINGFIELD - The state's Senate Elections Committee will hold a hearing today on House Bill 723, which if enacted would protect Illinois' incumbents by effectively ending the practice of slating, which will almost certainly decrease the number of competitive elections in Illinois.

"Legislators in Illinois have an aversion to having someone run against them," said Dan Kairis, of Elgin, who himself was slated in 2008 to run for State Representative, 55th district. "Rather than accept competitive elections as a necessary function of a democratic system, here we have legislators who want to avoid facing any competition in the future."

Kairis and other Illinois Green Party members will be attending the hearing to voice opposition to the bill. The ILGP is urging its members and anyone else interested in bringing democratic reforms to Illinois to call their state senators and tell them to vote NO on HB 723.

To slate a candidate under current law, leaders of an established party meet and choose a candidate, based on a weighted vote. Slating can occur after the primary election if no candidate was nominated in the primary, or if the nominated candidate drops out or passes away.

Currently, the three established parties in Illinois who can slate candidates are the Greens, Democrats and Republicans.

If HB 723 passes, the process to fill vacancies in nomination would be become much more difficult, complicated and resource intensive. Candidates would not only have to seek the approval of party leaders, but they would also have to collect a massive amount of signatures in a short timeframe. The additional requirements would also create more paperwork, which leaves candidates even more vulnerable to filing challenges that could keep them off the ballot. In fact, HB 723 would make running as an independent or creating a new party a much simpler an alternative for a candidate than running on an established party ticket.

Despite the availability of the current slating option, in the November 2008 general election, 59 of 118 Illinois House seats and 20 of 40 Illinois Senate seats went unopposed in the general election.

"Even though half of all legislative seats go uncontested anyway, HB 723 will ensure there are many more uncontested races," said Steve Alesch, co-chair of the DuPage County Green Party, which slated a number of candidates in 2008, including an opponent to Rep. Mike Fortner (R-95th), the bill's chief sponsor in the House. "This will have a chilling effect on democracy."

"With the scandals of Govs. Ryan and Blagojevich not far behind us, the citizens of Illinois are demanding reforms that would reduce the unchecked power of our elected officials," said Tom Abram, of Urbana, member of the Illinois Green Party coordinating committee. "This bill is the exact opposite of reform, and it would only further erode the public's trust and confidence in our electoral system."

The bill passed the House earlier in April with a 112-4 vote. The Senate Elections Committee will hold its hearing today at 1 p.m. in Room 400 of The Capitol.