Candidate Bill Brady Wasting Taxpayer Dollars for Personal Gain

Bill Brady and the Illinois Republican Party are behind the petition challenges to several legitimate candidates who have filed to run for office in Illinois. The “binder check” process has revealed countless examples of completely bogus objections to petition signatures. Election office employees threw out tens of thousands of those bogus objections from Brady and the Republicans because the signatures were obviously valid.

“If Bill Brady is going to run this state like he is running his campaign, we are all in for big trouble,” said Jim Tobin, President of National Taxpayers United of Illinois (NTUI). “Brady is presently wasting huge amounts of taxpayer resources solely for his own benefit. With these petition challenges, Brady is showing us he is just another candidate who cares more about winning than he cares about the people of Illinois. His tactics in this campaign are eerily similar to former Governor, and convicted felon, George Ryan.”

“In Illinois the first thing politicians are taught is how to use our corrupt ballot-access system to remove competition from the ballot,” said Tobin. “Every election cycle includes wasted taxpayer dollars on frivolous petition challenges that tie up election offices across the state. There are zero consequences for candidates like George Ryan, Rod Blagojevich or Bill Brady when they make false and frivolous challenges to honest petition signatures.”

“If you really want to know why this state is full of corruption, look no further than our ballot-access laws. Politicians start out by learning how to stymie democratic elections in order to keep competitors off the ballot. They spread that lack of respect for free and equal elections in every campaign they run and every office they hold. We cannot trust any candidate who abuses our election laws for his own personal gain, and that includes Bill Brady.”

“With the large number of objections that have been overruled, it looks like Bill Brady and his Republican operatives are either incompetent, crooked, or both,” said Tobin. “Instead of abusing our flawed and biased ballot-access laws, Brady and all candidates should be offering solutions to fix our election laws. One improvement we should implement is the option of a reasonable filing fee in lieu of petition signatures. Charlie Crist in Florida only had to pay a $10,000 filing fee to be on the ballot as an independent for U.S. Senate.”

“If we did that in Illinois instead of wasting millions on these frivolous petition challenges, the state could actually bring in fees to help offset the cost of these elections. The goal of our candidates should be saving taxpayers’ money. When candidates like Bill Brady put winning at all costs ahead of taxpayers and fair elections, it only perpetuates the corruption and problems we face in Illinois. Brady needs immediately to drop these frivolous challenges.”

For additional information about this issue, please contact the writer of this release, Jeff Trigg, at jefftrigg@freeandequal.org.

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