Rob Sherman News
The hot social and political issues of the day

Serious Journalism, Professionally Written

 Share                                               November 20, 2009                            

Daily Herald's confused coverage of
Green Party election news

Here's one for the adage, "Don't believe everything that you read in the newspaper."  That's especially true if the story is about a subject that the newspaper has openly demonstrated hostility against, such as the Green Party or me.

Yesterday afternoon, the Daily Herald published, in the internet edition of their newspaper, a story entitled Green Party challenges 10th District candidate's petitions.  (I haven't seen what they said in the newsprint edition, today.)  The story is about how officials of the Green Party are trying to get a candidate removed from the February, 2010, Green Party primary election ballot.

The 10th Congressional District of Illinois is located in the eastern half of Lake County and the north and northwest suburbs in Cook County.  Richard B. Mayers, the challenged candidate, is not a member of the Green Party, lives far from the 10th District (he lives on the South Side of Chicago), and is a neo-Nazi.  

The Daily Herald's story contained two significant errors.

In the third-to-last paragraph of their story, the Daily Herald proclaims, "Republican and Democratic primary elections are scheduled for February 2, 2010."  Hey, what about the Green Party?  The Green Party primary election is also on February 2nd, but the Daily Herald is clearly implying that only the two corporate parties will be holding primary elections on that day.

This misleading statement comes to you from a newspaper that famously stated, on September 1, 2008, in an editorial entitled State GOP needs to fix itself by 2010:  "We believe in the two-party system."  The Daily Herald certainly has a right to hold that editorial view and be a cheerleader for the Democrats and Republicans, but they shouldn't rig their news coverage to deceive their audience into thinking that those two parties, which they support, are the only parties who are holding primary elections in February.

In the last paragraph of their news story about the challenge to the neo-Nazi's nominating petitions, the Daily Herald proclaims, "If Mayers survives the challenges, he will be the lone Green Party candidate on the February 2 ballot and automatically will be on the November, 2010, general election ballot."

That simply is not true.

Green Party officials are actively searching for a member of the Green Party to run a write-in candidacy for the 10th District in the Primary Election.  I know this because I am one of the people who is being considered.  I've asked the Green Party to see if they can find somebody else, because my plate is quite full, but I'd be willing to do it if they can't find anybody else.  Walter Pituc, head of the Northwest Cook County Green Party, told me that the Party would get the word out in behalf of whomever runs in the Primary as a write-in, to try to ensure that Mayers gets defeated in the Primary, should he survive the challenge. 

The Daily Herald story was published at about 5:15 p.m., yesterday.  At about 8:30 p.m., I sent an e-mail to Russell Lissau, the Daily Herald reporter who had written the story, informing him of the two errors and explaining to him what the actual facts are, including the fact that I'm being considered for a write-in candidacy in the 10th District for the February primary ballot.  Russell replied quite promptly, at about 9:00 p.m.

Regarding the issue of the Green Party holding a primary election on February 2nd, Russell stated, in his reply, that "there will not a primary, per se, for the Greens if he's the only candidate."  Wrong!

First of all, the Green Party is going to hold a primary election on February 2nd for a whole ballot full of offices.  We have candidates competing for the nomination of the Green Party for such offices as Governor, President of the Cook County Board and many of the other offices that will be up for election in November.

Secondly, even if there is only one candidate listed on the ballot to run for nomination in one of the races on the ballot, such as Representative in Congress from the 10th District, there still will be a primary in case somebody, such as I, enters the Primary as a write-in candidate for that race.

Thirdly, there are still all of the other contested offices for which Green Party candidates are competing to be nominated, so the Green Party is going to have a Primary Election on February 2, 2010, regardless of what happens with the 10th District situation.

Regarding the issue of Mayers supposedly "automatically" being on the November ballot, if he survives the Green Party challenge to his nominating petitions, and my potential write-in candidacy in the February primary to be the Green Party nominee for 10th District Congressman, Lissau replied, "As for your second point, if you run a write-in candidacy, you won't be running as a green. Therefore, the story's correct. He'll be the only Green Party candidate on the ballot. You'd be a member of some new party, like Adlai Stevenson II was after he dropped the Dems in 1980 because of the Larouche controversy."

Wrong, again, Russell!  If a Primary Election write-in candidate wins the nomination of the Green Party in February, that person will be the one whose name appears on the November General Election ballot as the Green Party candidate for the 10th Congressional District.  That person may be somebody else or I, but the reason that the Green Party will hold a primary election on February 2nd is to determine who will be our candidates for the various offices on the November General Election ballot.

You don't have to be listed on the Primary Election ballot in order to win nomination and have your name appear in behalf of the Green Party in the November General Election.  A Primary Election write-in candidate could win, too, regardless of whether or not Russell thinks so.

I'll send a link for this story to Russell and see if he gets it, now.

Please e-mail a comment to me at rob@robsherman.com to let me know what you think, and I'll post your comments, below.

I look forward to your comments on this one.  Would you like to see me run as a write-in candidate for the nomination of the Green Party for 10th District Congressman in February?

Please tell your friends about this through your social media networks and word of mouth.

Send personal comments, comments unrelated to this story or notification of typos that you see in any of my posts to rob@robsherman.com.

Thanks for visiting Rob Sherman News.