CAPITOL RECAP: Petition filing ends with crowded GOP governor field

By CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS

SPRINGFIELD – Seven teams of Republicans and one team of Democrats have lined up to challenge Gov. JB Pritzker and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton in the 2022 elections.

Monday was the deadline for candidates to turn in their nominating petitions to the Illinois State Board of Elections to get their names on the June 28 primary ballot.

Candidates who were in line at 8 a.m. on the first day of filing, March 7, will enter a lottery for a chance to have their names listed first on the ballot. But those who filed in the final hour before 5 p.m. Monday, March 14, have a chance to be listed last on the ballot.

The State Board of Elections has until Monday, March 21, to certify the petitions. In the meantime, candidates and party officials may try to challenge other candidates’ petition signatures.

Among the last to file in the governor’s race were Republicans Jesse Sullivan, of Petersburg, a political newcomer and owner of the venture capital firm Alter Global LLC, and his running mate Kathleen Murphy, of Warrenville. Murphy is a former spokeswoman for former state Rep. and 2018 GOP gubernatorial hopeful Jeanne Ives.

Their opposition includes Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin and his running mate, state Rep. Avery Bourne, of Morrisonville. They join other teams of candidates who filed earlier: state Sen. Darren Bailey, of Xenia, and his running mate Stephanie Trussel of Lisle; Bull Valley businessman Gary Rabine and his running mate Aaron Del Mar of Palatine; former state Sen. Paul Schimpf, of Waterloo, and his running mate Carolyn Schofield of Crystal Lake; and the team of Emily Johnson, of Wheaton, and Bret Mahlen, of Orland Park, members of the group We Are the People Illinois, which has called for investigations into unfounded claims of voter fraud in the 2020 elections. The website for the group identifies it as consisting of “over 200 people.”

Another late filer Monday was GOP gubernatorial candidate Max Solomon, of Hazel Crest, and his running mate, Latasha Fields, of Chicago. According to his website, Solomon is a native of Nigeria who now practices law in the Chicago area, while Fields is the founder of Christian Home Educators Support System.

One other GOP candidate, Keisha Smith, of Country Club Hills, filed for governor without a running mate, something that a State Board of Elections spokesman said could be grounds for objection and disqualification because state law requires candidates for governor and lieutenant governor to run as a team.

Pritzker and Stratton also face one challenge from within their own party, Beverly Miles, a nurse and U.S. Army veteran from Chicago, and her running mate Karla Shaw.

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CONSTITUTIONAL OFFICERS: Illinois voters this year will also choose candidates for other constitutional offices. The most contentious of those will likely be for the office of secretary of state, where incumbent Jesse White is stepping down after six terms in office.

On the Democratic side, former state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and Chicago City Clerk Anna Valencia appear to be the leading candidates, while Chicago Alderman David Moore and charity director Sidney Moore, of Homewood, are also in the race.

On the Republican side, former U.S. Attorney John Milhiser, of Springfield, and state Rep. Dan Brady, of Bloomington, are competing for the nomination. Also in the race is former Chicago police officer Michelle Turney, who also affiliates with the group We Are The People Illinois.

In the race for attorney general, three Republicans have lined up to challenge incumbent Democrat Kwame Raoul. They include Thomas DeVore, the southern Illinois lawyer best known for his lawsuits challenging Pritzker’s COVID-19 mitigations; Deerfield attorney Steve Kim; and David Shestokas, a former assistant state’s attorney for Cook County who is a hearing officer for the Chicago Board of Elections.

In the race for state treasurer, Republican state Rep. Tom Demmer, of Dixon, and Lake Bluff resident Patrice McDermand, also of We Are The People Illinois, will vie to challenge incumbent Democrat Michael Frerichs.

And in the race for Illinois comptroller, Republicans Shannon Teresi, a certified public accountant from Crystal Lake, and Michael Kinney, of Carol Stream, will compete for the nomination to challenge incumbent Democrat Susana Mendoza.

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FOID CHALLENGE: The Illinois Supreme Court is being asked for a second time to decide whether a state law requiring gun owners to have a firearm permit is unconstitutional – a question the court previously declined to answer.

The case involves a White County resident, Vivian Claudine Brown, who was charged in March 2017 with possession of a firearm without a Firearm Owner’s Identification, or FOID card.

A circuit judge in White County threw out the charge, saying the Illinois law requiring potential gun owners to fill out a form, provide a picture ID, undergo a background check and pay a $10 fee to obtain a FOID card was unconstitutional, at least as it applied to Brown. The judge said it imposed a burden on Brown’s Second Amendment right to keep a firearm in her own home for self-defense.

The circuit court went on to say, even though Brown’s attorneys never raised the issue, that it is impossible to comply with the act in one’s own home. That’s because it would mean anybody who had knowledge of a firearm in the home and exclusive control over the area where it was kept could be construed as possessing the gun and therefore would have to have their FOID card on their person 24 hours a day.

The state appealed that decision directly to the state Supreme Court, but in April 2020, the high court declined to answer the question of the law’s constitutionality. Instead, it said the White County court had rushed to rule on the law’s constitutionality when it could have decided the case on other grounds, namely that the General Assembly never intended the FOID Card Act to apply in the home.

The Supreme Court then sent the case back to White County with instructions to enter a modified order that did not touch on the constitutionality question.

The White County court did that, but then in an unusual move, Brown’s attorneys asked the court to reconsider, arguing that the modified order forced Brown to take a position she didn’t want to take and one that would ultimately be overturned on appeal, thus delaying any final resolution of the case, possibly for years.

The circuit court agreed and reinstated the charges against her. Brown’s attorneys then filed a new motion to dismiss on constitutional grounds. The judge then upheld that motion, finding that “any fee associated with exercising the core fundamental Constitutional right of armed self-defense within the confines of one’s home violates the Second Amendment.”

The state then appealed that decision back to the Illinois Supreme Court. The court took the case under advisement and hosted oral arguments this week but did not indicate how long it might take to issue a decision.

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STATE EMPLOYEE CHARGED: A state employee charged last month with molesting a child now faces a charge of aggravated criminal sexual assault of a patient at the state-run Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center in Anna.

Union County State’s Attorney Tyler Tripp charged former Choate mental health technician Charles W. Mills, 58, of Jonesboro on Thursday. Mills is accused of sexual assault that occurred on March 19, 2020, against a person, identified in the charges as E.K., who has a severe or profound intellectual disability and was unable to give knowing consent.

Mills tendered his resignation but it does not go into effect until March 15, Department of Human Services spokeswoman Marisa Kollias said last week.

According to the Illinois comptroller’s state employee pay database, he received a paycheck as recently as Monday and was paid $41,000 in annual salary in 2021 despite spending the entire year on administrative leave while under investigation.

Mills continued to be paid despite those allegations, submitting his resignation in February only after he was arrested on the unrelated child molestation charges. In that case, he faces four felonies for molesting a child younger than 13 years old.

The child molestation allegations date back to 2020 and were investigated by the Illinois State Police Division of Criminal Investigation. The actions were not related to his state employment.

The allegations against Mills for his assault of a patient at Choate were investigated by Illinois State Police Division of Internal Investigation.

In an unrelated case, two top administrators at Choate face criminal charges for obstructing an Illinois State Police investigation into abuse allegations at the facility.

Center director Bryant Davis and administrator Gary Goins were indicted in June 2021 on official misconduct charges. Court documents filed in Goins’ case on Monday stated that Goins, then the quality assurance manager at Choate, accessed confidential investigative files and directed staff to speak to the victim before police did.

Both administrators remain on the DHS payroll.

 

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government and distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.