Illinois voters don’t have a chance to influence who will be the Democratic presidential nominee, but they will be punching a lot of ballots Tuesday, March 16 for local, state and federal races. John Kerry is the Dem nominee for president, but many Dems and Republicans are seeking their party’s nomination for U.S. Senate. That is perhaps the most high-profile (and expensive) race up for grabs Tuesday.
Windy City Times does not endorse in political races. In the past few weeks, we have featured interviews with candidates for office, including the three gays and lesbians running for the 8th Subcircuit judicial post (Sherry Pethers, Jon Erickson and John Erlich). There is also a gay man (Michael Harrington) running for committeeman, and several gays are running as delegates for Democratic candidates. In an effort to go to the Democratic convention this summer, the following are running: Deb Shore, David Igasaki and Mary Morten for Howard Dean; for John Edwards, Mike Bauer, Kelly Cassidy, and Renae Ogletree. For John Kerry, David Munar. For Wesley Clark, Tom Tunney, Gail Morse.
In the charts that follow (on the Windy City Times story index), we list the endorsements of various progressive organizations, as well as candidate ratings on the Windy City Times questionnaire. The WCT questions are different for each race. For judicial candidates, we also list rankings from various bar associations.
To bring a sense of history to the race, also see the interview in this issue with the state’s first openly gay judge, Tom Chiola. A record three gay people are seeking to represent the same subcircuit he first won election from 10 years ago.
Don’t forget to vote Tuesday, March 16. See windycitytimes.com for updates.