Lyons Village President Chris Getty will apparently be the only independent candidate on the 4th Congressional District ballot in November. Hearing officers for the Electoral Board of the Illinois State Board of Elections are recommending that independent candidates Chicago Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez and Mayra Macias be removed from the ballot for not submitting enough valid signatures to get on the ballot.
The Electoral Board will vote Tuesday morning on whether to accept the hearing officers’ recommendations but they almost always do so. Many signatures on Sigcho-Lopez and Macias’s petitions were challenged by supporters of Democratic nominee Patty Garcia and enough were disqualified to leave the two candidates short of the required 10,816 valid signatures to get on the November ballot as independents.
Garcia, the former chief of staff for retiring Congressman Jesus “Chuy” Garica was the only candidate in the March Democratic primary because of what appears to have been a slick maneuver in which Chuy Garica initially filed to run for another term but then Patty Garica filed to run just moments before the filing deadline. Chuy Garcia then withdrew from the race citing health and family concerns. Patty Garcia and Chuy Garica are not related. Chuy Garica gave Patty Garcia a heads up that he was going to withdraw from the race.
Getty, Sigcho-Lopez and Macias, a former Democratic operative, cried foul over the time-honored way for an incumbent to assure that their chosen successor face no primary opponent and announced plans to run as independents. It is hard to get on the general election ballot as an independent, 10,816 valid signatures on nominating petitions are required compared to only 697 valid signatures that were required to get on the ballot in the Democratic primary. Getty’s petitions were not challenged.
After many of Sigcho-Lopez’s and Macias’s signatures were challenged and disqualified, hearing officer Joseph Craven determined that Macias was 486 signatures short of the required 10,816 and hearing officer Barbara Goodman determined that Sigcho-Lopez was 1,222 valid signatures short.
Macias and Sigcho-Lopez decried the move to knock them off the ballot as anti-democratic.
“Byron and I earned our places on this ballot with over 34,000 signatures from the community,” said Macias in a statement issued by her campaign referring to the number of signatures she and Sigcho-Lopez submitted. “Patty García knows she can’t win at the ballot box against serious competition, so she continues to try to remove their choices. Clearing your competition isn’t a campaign strategy — it’s disenfranchisement.”
Sigcho-Lopez also released a strong statement decrying the petition challenge after receiving the hearing officer’s recommendation.
“It’s clear this process has been rigged from the very get-go,” Sigcho-Lopez said in a statement texted to the Landmark. “We’ve collected thousands of signatures and have more than enough petitions to stay on the ballot. Chuy Garcia wants to appoint a handpicked successor, and Patty Garcia knows she can’t win with any competition. Ultimately, it’ll be the people of the 4th District who lose.”
Sigcho-Lopez’s lawyer Andrew Finko has raised constitutional arguments against the process arguing, among other things, that the disproportionate number of signatures required for an independent candidate is unconstitutional. He is expected to challenge the Electoral Board’s ruling in court.
Along with Getty and Patty Garica Republican candidate Lupe Castillo and Working Class Party candidate Ed Hershey will be on the November ballot.
Ironically removing Macias and Sigcho-Lopez from the ballot is likely to hurt Getty’s chances in November. Getty is positioning himself as a centrist anti-Washington candidate appealing to voters fed up with both Democrats and Republicans. His chance for an upset win would probably be better with Macias and Sigcho-Lopez on the ballot because they, along with Patty Garcia, are progressive Hispanics who would seem to appeal to the same sort of voters in the heavily Hispanic district that includes large portions of the southwest side of Chicago as well as Riverside and Brookfield. Sigcho-Lopez is the alderman of the 25th ward in Chicago and is a Democratic Socialist while Macias has worked on Democratic campaigns, including Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign for president and for Planned Parenthood. A split vote among Hispanic progressives would make it easier for Getty to finish first in a crowded race.
Patty Garica’s campaign announced on July 16 that it raised more than $80,000 in the second quarter and has raised more than $350,000 since she announced her candidacy late last year.
Federal election records indicate that Chris Getty for Congress campaign has raised $188,169 for his congressional campaign thus far and had $131,646 cash on hand as of June 30. Getty also has $121,105.94 in his local Citizens for Chris Getty campaign committee but donations to federal campaigns are subject to strict rules.