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| MADIGAN: Picking his own opponent?!? |
When
all the nominating petitions were submitted to the Illinois State Board of
Elections, it seems that Terrence Goggin filed to run for the Legislature as a
Republican. He wants to take on Madigan come the November general election.
SORT
OF. GOGGIN has made similar challenges in the past. It seems he’s one of these
people who likes to run for office. He has delusions of winning. But doesn’t
actually have any kind of organization behind him.
There
are many such people scattered all across the city. For them, the big decision
is whether to use the otherwise blank Republican side of the ballot to get
themselves in the election, or whether to run a token challenge in the
Democratic primary.
Either
way, they’re going to lose.
In
Goggin’s case, there is suspicion that he is just a name that is being used by
Madigan’s political operation to take up a ballot spot, perhaps to throw a
wrench into the mechanism any real Republican might try to use to challenge
Madigan from even getting into the Legislature – let alone being named House “speaker”
for another two years.
IN
FACT, IT is why the Republican Party in Chicago is trying to challenge Goggin’s
nominating petitions. On its face, they’re looking to kick off the ballot one
of their own. It sounds odd, but only if you think that electoral politics is
all about what it appears to be on the surface.
The
reality is that the Republicans don’t have a real candidate to challenge
Madigan. Not now. And, likely, not later this year.
But
they want the March primaries to come and go with no one winning the Republican
nomination.
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| Is their challenge worthwhile? |
If
that happens, then the GOP operatives next spring would be permitted to just
pick someone to be on the November general election ballot. Someone of their
choosing.
IT
WOULD BE a token challenge, just like any challenge that Goggin would put up.
But at least it would be someone they want.
They
can’t just appoint a candidate to take on Madigan if someone actually comes
forth.
Which
is why we’re going to see in coming weeks the efforts to scour through Goggin’s
nominating petitions to knock off so many signatures of support that he becomes
ineligible.
The
Capitol Fax newsletter on Thursday reported about how some of the signatures
look a little funky – as in they look like one person might have signed
multiple times. Not that anybody should start pulling a “Captain Renault”
routine and claim to be “shocked, shocked” to find that a nominating petition could
be less than 100 percent legitimate.
NOW
I DON’T have any evidence as to whether the Coggin petitions are, or are not,
legitimate. Although my experience in viewing nominating petitions is that any
candidates’ signatures of support can be found to have flaws – depending on how
rigid a legal standard is applied.
Personally,
I just don’t think it matters much whether the “Republican” challenger to
Madigan come November is Coggin or someone else.
The
13th Ward on the Southwest Side that provides the bulk of Madigan’s
Illinois House district is one that will overwhelmingly support him.
Meaning,
it’s very possible that the Republican fight to knock Coggin off the ballot so
they can pick someone could easily result in the GOP getting a candidate who’s
just as weak and a “no-name.”
THIS
WHOLE COGGIN challenge could wind up being a waste of time with no worthwhile
end result – almost as lame as the whole “Dump Madigan” theme that Republicans
tried for all elective posts in the 2012 election cycle.
At
least that one was intellectually honest in that it conceded that Madigan was a
power player within the whole Democratic Party – and we realized from the
election results that a majority of voters aren’t bothered by that fact.
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