Petition challenges leave Biggert alone on GOP primary ballot

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Jack Cunningham

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Updated: April 10, 2012 11:54AM

Longtime U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert will be the lone Republican in the 11th Congressional District primary, after the State Board of Elections removed her two opponents from the ballot.

The Board of Elections last week upheld challenges to the candidacies of Kane County Clerk Jack Cunningham and former Joliet mayoral candidate Diane Harris over problems with addresses on their petitions.

“Any time you have a clear shot without a primary is really a good thing,” Biggert said. “It will give me time to devote more energy and resources in running in the general.”

The decision was especially stinging for Cunningham, who — as clerk — is in charge of elections.

“I’m an elected official and if we did it wrong, we don’t belong on the ballot,” Cunningham said. “It over and it’s time to move on.”

Republican and Democratic candidates are required to collect signatures of 600 district residents on election petitions. Often the signatures are challenged by other candidates or supporters who argue the petitions were not filled out correctly. The goal is to disqualify enough signatures that the candidate no longer meets the minimum requirement.

In the 11th District Republican primary, all three candidates faced ballot challenges.

The problem with Cunningham’s petitions centered on a worker who incorrectly recorded his address on the petition sheets, officials said.

Cunningham said in the past he and his supporters have gathered the signatures he needed. However, preparing for the upcoming elections and the illness of his chief deputy clerk, Jay Bennett, (who died in January) spurred Cunningham to hire a firm to gather signatures on his election petitions. Cunningham admitted the process got away from him with an outside company involved.

He said he was disappointed, but he won’t challenge the board’s decision in court.

“I was enjoying talking about the national issues,” said Cunningham, who ran for Congress in 1972. “I waited 40 years for a district without an incumbent so I think I can wait two more (years).”

Harris was removed over problems with addresses that were incorrect or not in the district. Harris did not return calls for comment.

The board unanimously rejected challenges to Biggert’s petitions.

Cunningham, 73, said back when he filed to run, he did not think Biggert, 74, would be jumping into the race for the new 11th District next-door to her current district.

Illinois Democrats drew the oddly-shaped district (It looks like a genie emerging from a lamp) to connect Democratic voters in Aurora and Joliet in the hopes of creating a suburban Democratic district. They extended Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley’s Wrigleyville-based district all the way out to take in Biggert’s home in Hinsdale, so she opted to run in the new 11th, which includes much of her former district including portions of Burr Ridge and Naperville.

This would be Biggert’s eighth term in Congress.

Biggert will face the winner of the Democratic primary. The candidates are former U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, former Aurora Township Clerk Juan Thomas and Orland Fire Protection District President Jim Hickey.