Presidential Candidates File [ or don't ] for Illinois' March 20 Presidential Primary

Today, Jan 6, is the deadline for filing your delegate slate for the March 20, Presidential Primary in Illinois.

INTERESTINGLY... THREE groups filed slates for the Obama delegates, so the state Democratic Party will have to inform the Board of Elections, which slate is the one intended to represent the party and the President.

As per the Republican candidates, from what we now know.... Romney's delegate slate was filed in full earlier in the week, meaning he could pick up as many at 54 delegates.

Some campaigns are not filing a delegate slate - including the Perry campaign. Although, Gov Perry's name WILL appear on the ballot. So what that means is, even if Perry were to win the state's vote count, it would be to no real effect in terms of winning delegates that would be applied to his getting the nomination. It's a beauty contest for Perry.

Santorum folks had yet to apply as of this writing, but may be in the Board of Elections in Springfield as this is being posted, as the deadline is just 18 mins away. The expectation was that Santorum's campaign was making an effort to also post a full delegate count.

Ron Paul's campaign also filed a full slate, so he's in the hunt.

Again -- 54 GOP delegates are at stake. Each campaign has to get 600 signatures per congressional district, in which they hope to elect delegates.

Unlike Virginia, where he failed to get on the ballot, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is expected to file a full slate -- but this is unconfirmed at this point.

Former Louisiana Gov Buddy Roemer -- a former Democrat -- has also filed, but we understand it's a partial slate of delegates, having not collected the required signatures in all the congressional districts... which is btw, a hard thing to do given that certain areas, like Bobby Rush's first congressional district, may not have 600 Republicans in the entire district ! Perhaps, I exaggerate !