Challenge Challenged?

Note to operatives searching for that last-minute gift: If any of the candidates who filed in Illinois Senate District 26 or Representative District 52 are on your gift list, your LakeCountyEye recommends presenting them with a framed copy of their birth certificate. Ha ha, as readers of this blog are postnatally aware ...

Unidentified Flying Objections

Sharon Meroni has filed objections against every candidate in Senate/26 and Rep/52 -- for not providing documentation to prove they are US citizens. Legal-eyed operatives may observe that proof of citizenship is not a ballot requirement in Illinois. On the other hand, it costs nothing to file a ballot objection.

So it shouldn't come as a surprise that Meroni's were not the only objections filed there. According to the Daily Herald ...

David McSweeney of Barrington Hills is trying to clear out his competition in the GOP primary for the Illinois House by challenging the petition signatures turned in by his two opponents, incumbent state Rep. Kent Gaffney of Lake Barrington and Danielle Rowe of Island Lake. McSweeney sent out a statement that said, among other things...

"I have taken this step in order to sustain the integrity of the petition process and to respect the high ethical standards that the people of the 52nd should expect from candidates and elected officials. I believe that the Illinois State Board of Elections will determine that both of my opponents will not qualify to be on the ballot."

As it turns out, McSweeney's petitions have been challenged as well.
A primary challenge challenge

(Note #2 to operatives: if you're an election lawyer in Representative District 52, life is good.)

The Herald story never actually names who challenged McSweeney's petitions, mentioning instead an unreturned call to Kent Gaffney and an on-the-record comment by Danielle Rowe that McSweeney is acting like a "bully." Those operatives who would assume the unnamed McSweeney challenger is Gaffney or Rowe would be wrong. Currently the only pending objection against McSweeney is ...

MERONI V MCSWEENEY

Once McSweeney digs up a birth certificate he's in the free & clear. Your LakeCountyEye can't say as much for Gaffney or Rowe.