Bill Brady's Family Attacks Choice

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady has enlisted members of his family in his effort to knock the Libertarian party of Illinois off the November ballot, thereby wasting taxpayer dollars and reducing voter choice. According to a published report, Bill Brady’s niece Brittany is working for Andrew Heffernan, the person that signed the official objection to the petition signatures of the Libertarian Party slate of candidates along with many others. All of the work related to those petition challenges is being done on Heffernan’s behalf, according to Illinois election laws.

Brittany blogged about her experience working on the petition challenge of the Libertarian Party candidate’s filing but later locked her blog.  We have saved her account of the events in an effort to keep Illinois politicians honest. Apparently, Brittany didn’t enjoy much about the petition challenge experience.

“I did not know that I would be doing this. I did not wake up this morning and say to myself, “how I wish I could verify petitions later this afternoon.” And after an hour or two at this job, I am now very positive that thought will never run across my mind in my life. It is painful, torturous work.”

Where did Brady’s niece Brittany get the idea to go work on a petition challenge? Apparently, it’s all in the family:

“My cousin is here too, he is the one who got me into this whole mess. He called me while I was waiting for a press conference to be done and told me to get over to this building right away and to bring anyone I could.”

On June 21, 2010, John Fogarty (Republican House leader Tom Cross’s election attorney) bought a copy of the Libertarian Party candidate’s petitions at the State Board of Elections. Who paid the hundreds of dollars for those copies? Is John Fogarty working pro bono for Andrew Heffernan, or is Andrew Heffernan paying Fogarty for it? As they say, follow the money.

“We have Bill Brady’s niece Brittany, Brittany’s cousin, John Fogarty, and Andrew Heffernan all working together on a petition challenge that would remove the Libertarian Party candidates

from the ballot,” said Christina Tobin CEO of Free and Equal, Inc., a ballot access company founded in Chicago. “I don’t see where Andrew Heffernan has started a political committee in Illinois to account for his efforts and work on behalf of Bill Brady. So I have to ask if Brady and his operatives are donating their efforts to Heffernan, or if Heffernan is donating his efforts to Brady.”

“Either way, this should show up on Bill Brady’s campaign finance reports or Andrew Heffernan’s tax returns,” said Tobin. “I hope the Illinois Attorney General, the US Attorney’s office, and the IRS are paying attention to this. This is obviously campaign work and it must be accounted for, especially in a state with Illinois’ history of political corruption.”

“Illinois needs to get rid of these private petition challenges that invite funny business and needless costs to taxpayers.” said Tobin. “Instituting a filing fee system for candidates to be on the ballot makes much more sense for everyone in Illinois.”

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

Source: ArchPundit

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