Anita Forte-Scott: The Worst Political Candidate of All Time

Last month, towards the end of the story Topinka discusses tax dollars for religious organizations, I told you why William J. Kelly, a candidate for the nomination of the Republican Party for State Comptroller, could be the worst candidate for public office of all time. Today, I add Anita Forte-Scott to the distinguished designation of Worst Political Candidate of All Time.

Anita wants to be the next State Representative from the 56th District of Illinois. The problem is that Anita wants to be both a member of the Illinois Green Party and the nominee of the Republican Party in the November, 2010, General Election -- two political parties which are polar opposites in ideology. As a result, neither the Greens nor the Republicans want to have anything, at all, to do with her.

In 2008, Anita was the Republican candidate for State Rep from the 56th District. She lost to Democrat Paul Froehlich.

Earlier this year (2009), Anita left the Republican Party to join the Green Party, because Anita supports environmentally friendly policies, a hallmark of the Green Party. The Republican Party, on the other hand, has a reputation of often selling out the environment for corporate profits.

Five weeks ago, on Wednesday, October 21, 2009, the Northwest Cook County Greens held its monthly membership meeting and strategy session. Anita attended. I also attended, because I am a member of the Illinois Green Party and NW Cook Greens is my local party organization. It should be noted that October 21st was five days before the opening of the one-week filing period for nominating petition papers by candidates who want to be on the ballot in the February, 2010, Illinois Primary Election.

During the strategy session part of our meeting, we discussed several political races that affected the territory in which the NW Cook Greens operates. One of the races was 56th State Representative.

When we began our discussion about finding a candidate to run for 56th State Rep, Anita said that we need not do that because she was running, and would be filing her nominating papers the following week with the State Board of Elections in Springfield.

We were surprised to hear that, because Anita had never mentioned anything about that to us, previously.

The Chairman of the NW Cook Greens, Walter Pituc, asked Anita if she had filled out and turned in the Green Party General Assembly Candidate Questionnaire. Anita said, "No."

Walter then asked Anita if she was filing nominating papers to be the nominee of the Green Party. Anita said, "No. I'm filing to be the nominee of the Republican Party."

To which I replied, "Then, what are you doing at a strategy session of the Green Party, and what are you doing, trying to tell us that we shouldn't find a Green Party candidate to run against you?"

At which point I kindly informed Anita, "If you are filing as a Republican, then you have no business attending a Green Party strategy session, where we are plotting our strategy to defeat Republican candidates, like you, for public office."

Anita responded, "But, I support environmentally friendly policies, and so does the Green Party!"

I had had enough of that from her. I ordered her to leave our Green Party meeting. Anita refused, so I moved that we adjourn our meeting to a future date. The motion was seconded as passed unanimously, except for Anita.

The following week, Anita filed for to a candidate in the Republican Primary Election for State Rep from the 56th District.

Rob Sherman

Anita replied the next day with the following non-answer:

Dear Rob,

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I will contact Walter Pituc and speak to him regarding this. Have a great day!

Anita.

Huh?

I checked back with Walter, a few days ago. He said that he has heard nothing from Anita.

Since that time, Anita's nominating petition has been challenged because Anita apparently included -- in her filing for the 2010 Primary Election -- nominating petitions for the 2008 Primary Election -- a big no-no.

There is another candidate seeking the nomination of the Republican Party for 56th State Representative in the February, 2010, Primary Election. His name is Ryan Scott Higgins. I know nothing about Ryan, other than what I read about him on his web site. His web site indicates that he is "the reform candidate" for the 56th District, and that he wants to do something about the State's failed economic policies, restore fiscal discipline and end widespread political corruption in Illinois.

I asked Ryan's campaign manager, Kevin Artl, what he makes of the situation regarding Anita, who is Ryan's opponent in the February Primary (unless Anita gets knocked off the ballot as a result of the challenge to her nominating petition filing). Here's what Kevin had to say:

Anita has asked for the support of the Green Party for her campaign, the General Counsel of the Libertarian Party is defending her petitions against allegations of fraud—so while she may have filed to run as a Republican—it seems clear the only party she is not interested in working with is the Republican Party. Voters want representatives committed to integrity, honesty and good government—not political expediency and shifting principles.

Anita just doesn't get it. Anita, you can't continue to be a member of one political party if you are seeking the nomination of another political party. This shows extraordinarily bad judgment and demonstrates that you clearly don't have what it takes to hold elective office.

Filing nominating papers to get on the ballot is not something that you do every day, so when somebody does file, you would expect the candidate and her team to go over everything in their filing, four or five times, to make absolutely certain that everything is in order. To include several pages of nominating petitions for the 2008 Primary in your 2010 Primary filing shows unbelievably bad judgment and a truly shocking level of incompetence.

Anita is not somebody that I would want making decisions on how to spend tens of billions of our tax dollars each year.

Anita is not somebody that I would want crafting the laws of this State, because if she screws up that badly on her own legal papers and can't figure out which political party she belongs to, who knows how badly she would screw up attempts at correctly coming up with the wording of new state statutes?

Anita would do all of us, and herself, a big favor if she would simply withdraw her nominating papers and go away. I certainly won't tolerate having her at any future meetings of the Green Party, not after she filed as a candidate for another party while a member of our party.

I've offered Anita an opportunity to respond to this story.

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 vote for Anita if you had the opportunity?

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.