Lake County Coroner Dr. Thomas Rudd was named 2015 Law Enforcement Officer of the Year at a Mar. 4 ceremony.

Lake County Coroner Dr. Thomas Rudd will now be forced to run as a write-in candidate for the Nov. 8 general election, as the Illinois Supreme Court denied his petition for redress on his Independent run for re-election. The Sept. 9 action upheld the circuit and appellate court rulings citing objections based on his primary candidacy and declared affiliation, which was withdrawn.

Attorneys for Rudd had filed a motion for leave to appeal along with a motion for an expedited schedule on the matter, which would result in quicker hearing. This was requested, due to the state requirement that write-in candidates must declare their intent, no later than Sept. 8.

“I will be making an announcement soon regarding a formal decision for a write-in candidacy,” said Rudd. “I believe it is somewhat duplicitous that the ruling declares my independent effort is invalid because it came in the same election cycle. But I can run as a write-in in the same election cycle. Just on the face of it … is that an inconsistent notion?”

Issues developed when Rudd gathered petitions for re-election, as the Democratic candidate, in the March 2016 primary. Objections were raised by aligned Republicans including Mark Shaw, now Lake County Republican Party Chairman, that Rudd had signed some petitions as the circulator. Rudd admitted the error and withdrew his candidacy, prior to a December 2015 Electoral Board of Review hearing.

He did not vote in the primary, and then mounted a successful independent run in filing 14,232 registered voter signatures, more than the necessary amount, by the June 27 deadline. Almost immediately, the Democratic candidate for the coroner post, Michael Donnenwirth, and community activist, Keith E. Turner, filed an objection citing gaps in sequential numbering of the petition pages, and state election law.

That law, prohibiting an independent campaign when a previous declaration of candidacy with an established party had been entered, despite a certified withdrawal, was advanced as being unconstitutional. In an Aug. 5 finding by Effingham County Circuit Judge William Becker, “The Illinois law that keeps certain individuals off the election ballot in the state is unconstitutional,” in a story posted by the Effingham Daily newspaper.

Candidate Michael DePoister was seeking re-election as a Republican, and learned the county’s Republican Central Committee was supporting another person in the March primary. He made public an intention to run for re-election as an independent candidate, yet voted in the March 16 primary using a Republican ballot. Electoral law states that voting for an established party in the primary precludes seeking office with an independent candidacy in a general election, of the same year.

Effingham County’s Electoral board ruled favorably with an objection and removed his name from the ballot. The subsequent court ruling, by Becker, placed his name back on the ballot.

Rudd’s Independent petitions and candidacy were ruled invalid, according to a July 14 Lake County Electoral Board of Review, chaired by county clerk Carla Wyckoff. A judicial review by circuit court judge Diane Winters also sided with the objectors, stating in her brief, “Consistent with the obligation to uphold statutes if there is a reasonable way to do so, the court will not consider a constitutional question if the case can be decided on other grounds.

“If a court can consider a case on non-constitutional grounds it should do so … it is unnecessary to address constitutional issues raised by the petitioner.” A McHenry County Appellate Court also ruled against Rudd in late Aug., spurring the high court appeal.

Rudd is taking a philosophical perspective on the latest outcome. “Of course, I’m saddened and disappointed, but this is the hand I’ve been dealt. What’s even more disturbing to me is that a political faction on the local level can dictate the candidate selection on a ballot, and not the voters. And this is just a coroner’s race.”