Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool already faces an uphill battle in gathering 25,000 petition signatures to get him on the ballot in his independent run for assessor.
A caveat in state election law might present another challenge for the erstwhile Democrat.
The law states that no one who has sought petition signatures for a campaign can gather signatures for another candidate in the same election cycle. That could pose a problem for Claypool, as he ramps us bid for assessor.
But Tom Bowen, Claypool’s campaign manager, is taking the challenge in stride.
“It is an extra step, and every extra step add complexity, but that’s offset by the incredible (number) of random people e-mailing the campaign, going on the Facebook page,” he says.
In the week since Claypool announced his candidacy, Bowen says there has been an outpouring of support for the campaign. Volunteers have been soliciting signatures since last week. They were at U.S. Cellular Field for the White Sox home opener last Monday, and were at Wrigley Field for the Cubs opener yesterday.
“As many hits as we got on the Web site, there were actually more hits on the ‘download the petition’ page. In other words, people were forwarding the page to friends,” he says.
Bowen says that is evidence that the campaign can get the required signatures, and the thousands more it is gunning for.
But given the scrutiny Claypool’s petitions are likely to get from his chief competitor, Board of Review Commissioner Joseph Berrios, Bowen says the campaign is gunning for thousands of more signatures.
Dick Simpson, a former alderman and professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, says the campaign should shoot for at least 50,000.
“Twenty-five thousand is as still a very high signature requirement. You really need to get close to 50,000 because they will be challenged,” he says. “On the other hand, if you can’t get those signatures, as well known as Claypool is, then he probably can’t win the election anyway.”
Bowen says the campaign is being very careful about who solicits signatures. Claypool’s campaign Web site makes it clear that those who have petitioned for candidate before cannot help Claypool. If it is found that a petitioner has garnered signatures for another campaign, that petitioner’s results are invalid.
“Any folks that circulate for us, a great many precautions will be taken to make sure they did not circulate in the primary,” Bowen says. “We will make sure that all the signatures are genuine. We will make sure the circulators are well-trained and we will make sure that the sheets are numbered correctly. We take this very seriously because we expect a legal challenge.”
Even if Claypool gets the required number of signatures, Simpson says more challenges await the campaign.
“If you can get on the ballot successfully and he really does have 50,000 signatures … then he would have a real chance in the race because he can get the free media coverage,” he says. “The other question is are people going to be willing to give him more than the $1 million for the paid media, the ads on TV, the direct mail.”