When a perennial candidate filed last week as a write-in seeking the Democratic nomination for Sangamon County circuit clerk, it fed into fears that this was a setup to prevent Democrats from naming a viable candidate later to take on incumbent Republican Circuit Clerk TONY LIBRI.
Well, it appears there is no plot. The perennial candidate, MICHEAL GRAGG, 45, is just doing what he does. And if history is any indication, he won't get on the ballot this time either.
That's because, unlike years ago, write-in candidates in partisan primaries need a minimum number of votes to get their names on the general election ballot. That number is the same as the number of petition signatures that would have been required to file for the office. That means Gragg would have to get 237 write-in votes in the March primary election, said STACEY KERN, director of elections for the county.
Well, when Gragg ran as a write-in for the circuit clerk nomination in 2008, he got 135 votes — not enough at the time to get on the ballot. When he ran as a write-in for Ward 3 alderman in 2007 — forcing a primary because he was the third candidate — he got just two votes.
He also filed to run in the 1994 Democratic primary for state representative, but he was removed from the ballot because he had too few petition signatures.
Sangamon County Democratic Chairman JIM MOODY wondered, when he heard there was a write-in on the Democratic ballot, whether it was some sort of pro-Libri plot.
That's because Moody hopes that a more viable Democrat, KRISTIN DiCENSO, will transfer from one state job to another so that federal funding affecting her current post won't get in the way of a candidacy. The federal Hatch Act prohibits certain political activity by federally funded workers.
DiCenso isn't on the March ballot, but the party could appoint DiCenso to a vacant spot on the November ballot after the primary — as long as no one is nominated by voters in the primary.
Gragg, who said he has always been a Democrat, and Libri both said they haven't talked and they absolutely denied any link.
Gragg told me he just thinks the office needs a change. He and his wife, TRACEY, both live on disability, he said. He's visually impaired and claimed that Libri's office doesn't offer adequate help.
Libri said he's dismayed that someone who needs such services isn't familiar with them. He said there is a computer program on Sangamoncountycircutclerk.org to aid the visually impaired (it's called BrowseAloud), which can be used in the office or remotely by computer. Another change Libri made was having the office's service counters physically lowered to accommodate people in wheelchairs. He said his office has received "rave reviews" for such steps.
Gragg is clearly a flawed candidate. His past and current wife have both taken out orders of protection against him, he said. Records show the current one has done it several times — the last was dismissed just last week, when she didn't show up in court.
At times, "I don't like the way he … treats me," Tracey Gragg said, but she added that he does not hurt her physically. She also recently filed for divorce, but said she plans to withdraw that filing.
More than we need to know?
State Treasurer DAN RUTHERFORD is going to continue to let Facebook and Twitter readers know what he's doing, even if some people don't seem to care.
The post came just days after New Year's. While I can't be sure who he was responding to, it came shortly after a Jan. 3 Chicago Tribune story noted that Rutherford includes personal details of his life in posts and also has a Facebook page in the name of his car, nicknamed Pongee (something I wrote about during the 2010 campaign). In a column I wrote, I also wished Rutherford a little less time on his hands so his Facebook readers don't get so many details of his workouts.
Perhaps it's needless to say, but many Facebook followers of Rutherford don't like naysayers like me.
Thanks for that, Mr. Treasurer.