The Election File: Those 19 men and 19 women who may be picking your next lieutenant governor
Scott Lee Cohen has left a vacancy that’s going to be filled, officially, by the Democratic Party’s State Central Committee. House Speaker Mike Madigan chairs the party, and his spokesman says the speaker will seek input from Governor Pat Quinn and Senate President John Cullerton, neither of whom serve on the committee.
But how is the committee picked? Let’s see what the law says:
In each congressional district at the primary election, the male candidate receiving the highest number of votes of the party’s male candidates for State Central Committeeman, and the female candidates receiving the highest number of votes of the party’s female candidate for State Central Committeewoman, shall be declared elected State Central Committeeman, and State Central Committeewoman from the district. (10ILCS 5/7-8 via Illinois State Board of Elections)
That’s right. You pick them, Democratic voters of Illinois. Here’s the current roster of the Democratic State Central Committee:
BOBBY L. RUSH – 1st CD Committeeman
CONSTANCE A. “CONNIE” HOWARD – 1st CD Committeewoman
EMIL JONES, JR. – 2nd CD Committeeman
CARRIE M. AUSTIN – 2nd CD Committeeperson
MICHAEL J. MADIGAN – 3rd CD Committeeman
HELEN OZMINA BARC – 3rd CD Committeewoman
RICARDO MUNOZ – 4th CD Committeeman
IRIS Y. MARTINEZ – 4th CD Committeewoman
JIM DeLEO – 5th CD Committeeman
CYNTHIA M. SANTOS – 5th CD Committeewoman
ROBERT WAGNER – 6th CD Committeeman
JOAN E. BRENNAN – 6th CD Committeewoman
DANNY K. DAVIS – 7th CD Committeeman
DARLENA WILLIAMS-BURNETT – 7th CD Committeewoman
STEVEN M. POWELL – 8th CD Committeeman
NANCY SHEPHERDSON – 8th CD Committeewoman
WILLIAM MAROVITZ – 9th CD Committeeman
CAROL RONEN – 9th CD Committeewoman
BILL CROWLEY – 10th CD Committeeman
LAUREN BETH GASH – 10th CD Committeewoman
PAT WELCH – 11th CD Committeeman
DEBBIE HALVORSON – 11th CD Committeewoman
JERRY COSTELLO – 12th CD Committeeman
BARB BROWN – 12th CD Committeewoman
KYLE R. HASTINGS – 13th CD Committeeman
JULIA KENNEDY BECKMAN – 13th CD Committeewoman
MARK GUETHLE – 14th CD Committeeman
ELIZABETH PENESIS – 14th CD Committeewoman
TERRY REDMAN- 15th CD Committeeman
LYNN FOSTER – 15th CD Committeewoman
JOHN NELSON – 16th CD Committeeman
LINDA MCNEELY – 16th CD Committeewoman
DON JOHNSTON – 17th CD Committeeman
MARY BOLAND – 17th CD Committeewoman
JAMES K. POLK – 18th CD Committeeman
SHIRLEY McCOMBS – 18th CD Committeewoman
JAY HOFFMAN – 19th CD Committeeman
JAYNE MAZZOTTI – 19th CD Committeewoman
It’s a tough legal question, I’m told, to figure whether these current committee members will get to make the call, or whether the newly-elected committee will. If the meeting of the committee remains at its scheduled date in mid-March, then the new members (like Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.) will get a say. (Those primary results will be “proclaimed” by March 5th.) If the meeting is moved up before then, could the old committee pick a replacement, even though Cohen would not yet be officially nominated? We’ll let you know when we know.
UPDATE: Madigan spokesman Steve Brown emphasizes that the meeting is still scheduled for March 15th. He says it’s his understanding that since this vacancy stems from the primary last week, the vacancy would be filled using the committeemen and committeewomen elected last week.
And here’s something else that’s not so simple: the voting count. From the committee bylaws:
At meetings of the Central Committee, each member shall cast a weighted number of votes as provided by law. Except as otherwise provided in State law or these Rules, all questions shall be determined by a majority of all weighted votes cast on the question.
And how is this weighted vote determined?
In the organization and proceedings of the State central committee, each State central committeeman and State central committeewoman shall have one vote for each ballot voted in his or her congressional district by the primary electors of his or her party at the primary election immediately preceding the meeting of the State central committee. (10 ILCS 5/7‑8)
That is going to be a great show.
blogs.vocalo.org
I’d be happier, actually, if 19 unelected party insiders picked the new LG rather than 19 people who were voted in by only a handful of likely uninformed voters – the same ones who voted in Cohen. That’s not just an indictment of voters, but also the media too who obviously doesn’t bother to look into these people carefully ahead of the primary.
A new law, passed late last year, now requires that candidates to be slated onto a general election ballot collect the same number of registered voter signatures as required in the previous primary. That would be 5,000-10,000 valid registered voters subject to challenge. That should be nothing for the state central committee to accomplish, but since this additional ballot access hurdle was just enacted, they should certainly be required to actually do it.
These were the 2 elections I didn’t vote for in the primary because I had no idea what they did. And I voted for all the judges and every other candidate on the freaking ballot. Where was I supposed to find info out about the people running for these positions prior to this controversy?
The people on this committee, along with the cook county township and ward committeeman, are the core of the Democratic Party in Illinois and Chicago. They are usually responsible for allowing Democratic office holders to retire after winning the primary only to pass their place on the ballot to their children, or the children of powerfull political families. Dan Lipinski, Todd Stroger, Emil Jones, Robert Molero passing his State Rep Dist 21 seat to Michael Zalewski.
The Democratic Primary elects these committee people, who in turn give you the Democratic Party in Illinois that you get. If more Democratic voters paid attention to this, the IL Dem Party would be better for it.
I won’t say I knew CD committeemen and -women had this particular power — it’s interesting, though, and to me it makes sense. It sounds like there will be more to learn about the role as this story plays out — for my part, prior to this I figured that the CD committeeperson was the district analog to the ward committeeperson….basically your local representation into party mechanics.
The Chicagoist has a nice explanation of the ward committeeperson dating from 2007:
http://chicagoist.com/2007/02/26/ask_chicagoist_whats_a_ward_committeeman.php
What’s actually more interesting to me is the fact that there is explicitly a gendered role being defined by law: one rep for men, one rep for women. I’m trying to think where else this is true….