 Federal District Judge John F. Grady on Monday convened a court
hearing and heard statements on the different possibilities for a
special election, which would be included on the general election
ballot distributed in November.The special election would
determine a 60-day replacement to legally fill the U.S. Senate
vacancy left by Barack Obama, who resigned from the Senate in 2008
to prepare for becoming president of the United States.
Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed former Illinois
Attorney General Roland Burris to fill the vacancy in December 2008.
Last week, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals cited the U.S.
Constitution in ruling that a special election was needed to fill
the remainder of Obama's U.S. Senate term. But the appellate court
delegated the details of determining a format for the special
election to Grady.
Marty Oberman, a lawyer representing the legal team calling for a
special election, said a special election would allow voters the
opportunity to have their say after a Senate vacancy.
"We have a situation where a governor, and this one, a governor
under fire, appoints somebody to sit (on the Senate) for two, more
than two years, and the people got no chance to vote for who is
going to cast these important Senate votes. It's really quite a
crucial principle for our democracy," he said.
Oberman said he and state officials had discussed two ways
Illinois could conduct its special election.
One method would be to allow the central committees of organized
state parties to determine which nominees would get on the ballot
for a special election. The process would be similar to the one
carried out by the Illinois Democratic State Central Committee when
the group went through several hearings before choosing a
replacement for former Democratic lieutenant governor nominee Scott
Lee Cohen.
But Tom Ioppolo, a lawyer for Illinois Attorney General Lisa
Madigan's office, claimed that trying to process new nominees
through central committees would be "burdensome" to the state and
could take up time and money. Ioppolo preferred using the U.S.
Senate nominees already vying for the next term as nominees for the
special election also.
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Tom Wright, an attorney representing Burris, said using the
nominees already on the ballot for the special election would deny
Burris and other interested individuals the opportunity to serve the
60-day period.
Wright went on to say he believed Burris at least deserves the
opportunity to see out the remainder of the term.
"No one else can come up to speed like that. No one else has the
staff that's already on top of these issues. No one else would be in
a better position to finish this office," he said.
But Grady emphasized that legally, Burris cannot receive
preferential treatment in retaining the Senate seat and must be
considered the same as any other citizen interested in the 60-day
term.
Grady told the gathered lawyers to discuss a special election
format that uses both state central committees and current nominees.
Under the proposed format, established parties such as the
Democrat, the Republican and Green parties would determine their
special election nominees through state central committees.
Independent nominees and nominees from other parties and
independent nominees who are already on the ballot would also be
transferred to the special election ballot.
Grady could finalize the special election format at a federal
district court hearing scheduled for Thursday at 3 p.m.
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By KEVIN LEE]
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