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Green Party candidates face another uphill battle in Illinois

With a Republican governor already in prison, a Democratic governor possibly headed there and no shortage of missteps by the major-party candidates for governor and U.S. Senate, Illinois seems ripe for an alternative.

Rich Whitney, the Green Party candidate for governor who got 10 percent of the vote four years ago, thinks he could be it.

"In 2006, I think to some extent I was the beneficiary of dissatisfaction with the particular individuals in the governor's race," Whitney said of then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich and GOP challenger Judy Baar Topinka. "This year, I don't think dissatisfaction with the individuals is quite as high, although it looks like both (Democratic Gov. Pat) Quinn and (GOP state Sen. Bill) Brady are working on it. But I think dissatisfaction with the parties as institutions is higher."

However, whatever voters' problems with the Democrats and Republicans, outside experts doubt that the dynamics are right for an outsider this year either.

"The last time a third party became a major party was in 1860," said David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University, referring to the Republicans overcoming the Whigs. "I just think there's too much tradition and voter behavior engrained in a two-party system.

"Yes, people are unhappy with their choices, but I think that usually takes the form of people not voting, as opposed to voting for Green candidates."

Not 'visible' enough

Brian Gaines, professor of political science at the University of Illinois, thinks a "super visible candidate," such as an Oprah Winfrey, could have had a chance this year, particularly in the governor's race.

"With all due respect to Rich Whitney, he doesn't have any of those sorts of intangibles," Gaines said.

Gaines thinks U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Highland Park, is in the strongest position in the race for U.S. Senate, where he's taking on Democratic state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias.

LeAlan Jones of Chicago, the Green Party candidate for Senate, took heart in his 14 percent showing in a June 12-13 survey by Public Policy Polling. But a survey July 7 by Rasmussen Reports showed Giannoulias with 40 percent, Kirk with 39 percent, and other candidates with only 9 percent.

As the election gets closer, voters will get more serious about their ballots, Yepsen said.

"I think people early on may tell a pollster, 'Yeah, I'm for an alternative or none of the above.'" In the end, though, he said, "I don't think they like to throw away their vote."

Siphoning off votes

But Yepsen stressed that third-party candidates do have an impact. Ross Perot's candidacy for president in 1992 and 1996, he said, "probably elected Bill Clinton twice." In 2000, Yepsen said, "Ralph Nader probably elected George W. Bush," taking votes that probably otherwise would have gone to Al Gore.

"So they do have an impact based upon who they siphon votes away from," Yepsen said.

He also said the Green Party, "as is evidenced by its name, has done a lot over the years to call attention to environmental questions."

Gaines said he thinks Quinn will be hurt most by voters who go to Whitney, while Yepsen said he thinks it's too early to tell if Whitney will be a spoiler.

Whitney said he doesn't know where his votes will come from.

"In 2006, when we looked at the numbers, it appeared that we actually got slightly more from dissatisfied Republicans than from dissatisfied Democrats," Whitney said.

He said he is in the race to win, not just cross the threshold of 5 percent to keep his party established in Illinois for another four years. Established-party candidates have much easier requirements to get on the ballot - they need only 5,000 valid signatures for statewide offices, as opposed to 25,000 for new party or independent candidates.

Still, primary voters in Illinois this February showed no trend away from Democrats and Republicans. According to the State Board of Elections, 959,521 voters, or 54.6 percent, asked for Democratic ballots, compared with 783,060, or 44.5 percent, who cast GOP ballots. Green Party ballots were cast, statewide, by only 5,830 people - about one-third of 1 percent.

Cohen - too damaged?

Some other independent and third-party candidates filed for governor and U.S. senator.

One gubernatorial candidate who apparently will be on the Nov. 2 ballot is independent Scott Lee Cohen of Chicago. Cohen won the Democratic primary election for lieutenant governor, but stepped down after party leaders told him troubling news about his past - including allegations about steroid use and domestic violence -- would dog his candidacy.

Yepsen thinks Cohen suffered too much damage in the lieutenant governor controversy to be much of a factor in the governor's race.

Gaines wrote in the January 2007 edition of Illinois Issues magazine that one way Illinois could break its culture of corruption would be for a Green or other party candidate to emerge - but even then, he said it would take a candidate in the mold of Perot or perhaps Jesse Ventura, a former professional wrestler who was elected governor of Minnesota in 1998.

"(T)here are at least hints that the voters of Illinois could be receptive to someone who seems capable of shaking up the status quo," he wrote then. "If Blagojevich's legal problems worsen, the warmth of that reception would likely grow."

Well, Blagojevich is feeling the heat in court, but it would be a surprise, even for Gaines, if Greens or other outsiders make inroads this year.

"It would be exciting to see a three-way race with the Greens surging," Gaines said, "but I'm not holding my breath."

Bernard Schoenburg can be reached at 217-788-1540.

Green Party

For governor

Rich Whitney, 55, is a Carbondale lawyer specializing in employment law, civil rights and criminal defense. He got more than 361,000 votes for governor in 2006, 10.4 percent of the statewide vote and more than double the 5 percent needed to make the Green Party "established" in Illinois for the next four years.

The married father of three, Whitney says he's always been involved in independent, pro-labor politics. He once belonged to the Socialist Labor Party, but quit long ago and says he no longer identifies himself as a socialist.

Whitney advocates tuition-free higher education for qualified state residents; a single-payer, Medicare-type health-care system; a higher state income tax with local property tax relief; creation of a state bank so the public could benefit from investment of public funds; and a new tax on financial transactions at Chicago-based exchanges that he says could bring the state billions of dollars.

He also would raise revenue by ending what he calls the "socially destructive war on drugs," in particular, by legalizing and taxing the sale of marijuana.

He says a vibrant public sector is needed.

"Especially during a recession, we need to be expanding public jobs, not shrinking them," he says in a working paper on the economy at his website, www.whitneyforgov.org. "We need to be improving retirement security for all workers, not attacking that of public-sector workers."

He'd also like to create a statewide public utility to compete in areas where investor-owned "utility monopolies" are the only providers of gas or electric service.

And he wants more resources going to public transportation and away from gasoline-powered autos. On guns, he is for the right of people to carry concealed weapons, with limitations.

For Senate

LeAlan Jones, 31, grew up near the old Ida B. Wells public housing complex on Chicago's South Side and broke onto the public scene at age 13, when he and fellow teen Lloyd Newman, with the help of a National Public Radio producer, made the first of two documentaries about urban life.

"Ghetto Life 101" was made in 1993. Two years later, he and Newman again collaborated on "Remorse: The 14 Stories of Eric Morse" which told the story of a 5-year-old thrown to his death from a 14th-story window by two other boys, ages 10 and 11. A book that grew from the radio work, "Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago," is in its 22nd printing. Jones has also freelanced for the BBC and been a writer for N'digo, a Chicago publication dealing with issues of interest to the black community.

Never married, Jones has custody of a 17-year-old nephew. He has a bachelor's degree from Barat College of DePaul University.

He said he's in the Green Party because "it's just an obvious maturation when you take into consideration that the Republican and Democratic party within this state have woefully neglected their responsibilities to … deliver the needs and services of the people."

Jones favors a single-payer health plan for the country, and he'd like to see government programs, such as public assistance, include incentives for people to make healthy choices, such as buying fresh vegetables and "lean, low-sodium products."

He said he would consider allowing regular people to carry firearms for protection.

"I don't think I would want to have a society where people are walking around with guns, but in the world that we live in now, all options need to be on the table," he said. "Long term, though, I wouldn't be a conceal-and-carry guy."

He said jobs are a key issue.

"Jobs are stimulated from when families and communities are living in harmony, and so the more that we can emphasize family and community, the better I think that the policies that we want to enact are going to have the optimal return on the legislative investment that we are going to make," Jones said.

Third party history

Under state law, if a new party gets at least 5 percent of the vote in a race for governor, that party enjoys the same ballot-access rules as established parties - namely, needing only 5,000 petition signatures to get on a ballot instead of 25,000.

In 1986, Adlai Stevenson III received just under 40 percent of the statewide vote under the Illinois Solidarity Party banner. Stevenson, a Democrat, formed that party to distance himself from Mark Fairchild, a follower of political extremist Lyndon LaRouche who was the surprise winner that year of the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor. Four years later, Solidarity candidate Jessie Fields got only 1 percent of the vote, and the party lost its "established" status.

In 1992, Ross Perot, running as an independent, received 16.6 percent of Illinois' votes for president. Four years later, Perot ran under the Reform Party banner and got 8 percent of the vote. According to Mark Mossman, director of election information at the State Board of Elections, that made the Reform Party "established" in 1998, but only for statewide offices.

"The Reform Party was never an established party at all levels of government (like the Green Party is now) because the Reform Party never had a governor candidate receive 5 percent or more of the vote," Mossman said.

Reform candidates were on Illinois ballots for top offices in 1998, but its best vote-getter, Don Torgersen, got only 2.2 percent for U.S. Senate, and the Reform Party lost its "established" designation.

-- Bernard Schoenburg