State Rep. Welch faces primary challenger, objection to nominating papers

By Bill Dwyer For Chronicle Media

 

State Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch

State Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch

Two-term incumbent 7th District State Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch’s nominating petitions have been formally challenged before the Illinois State Board of Elections (ISBE) for allegedly being rife with improper and fraudulent signatures.

Forest Park resident Brian Kuhr’s five-page objection to Welch’s 79 pages of petitions accuses Welch of a “pattern of fraud and false swearing” and asks that Welch’s name not be allowed on the March 15 primary ballot.

Welch’s Democratic primary challenger, former Forest Park Village Commissioner Chris Harris, said Thursday that he was not playing a role in the objection process and referred a request for comment to Kuhr and Anthony Bass, who is the attorney representing Kuhr.

“I’ve read it,” Harris said of the formal objection document. “There’s some pretty serious charges in there.”

According to the ISBE website, no objection has been filed against Harris’ nominating petitions.

“I can only assume we are not being challenged,” Harris said.

Kuhr said that average citizens “have a role in inspecting petitions and flagging errors.”

“We identified what we believe are serious discrepancies and systemic problems with the petitions, or we wouldn’t have brought the challenge,” Kuhr said. “It’s up to the board of elections to decide whether they are serious enough to warrant tossing him off the ballot.”

Kuhr said his objection is scheduled to have a hearing at the ISBE’s downtown Chicago offices the afternoon of Dec. 15.

Welch responded with a prepared statement via email Friday afternoon. In that email Welch said, “This fall I walked door to door collecting petition signatures and talked to voters about their concerns. I am confident that the signatures collected will withstand the challenge against them.”

However, Bass said Friday that there is evidence that Welch did not circulate all the petitions that he signed as circulator.

“The issue with Mr. Welch is that the people who were reviewing his petitions contacted the signers, and they stated to them that Welch was not the party who presented the petitions to them for their signatures.

One of 79 pages of Emanuel Chris Welch’s nominating petition signatures that are being challenged before the Illinois State Board of Elections

One of 79 pages of Emanuel Chris Welch’s nominating petition signatures that are being challenged before the Illinois State Board of Elections

In his brief for the ISBE, Bass cites an array of grounds for disqualifying Welch and contends he is prepared to present “substantial, clear, unmistakable and compelling evidence” that will establish a “pattern of fraud and false swearing” related to signatures, addresses and names on hundreds of purported petition signatures.

Bass said the allegedly false petitions were submitted with “utter and contemptuous disregard” for the requirements in the state election code.

In all, Kuhr and Bass allege, of the 1,500 signatures allowed under Illinois election law, 1,114 should be thrown out. That would drop the number of valid signatures to 386, which is 114 below the minimum 500 required to place a candidate’s name on the ballot.

Specifically, Kuhr alleges that Welch himself and two other individuals circulating his nominating petitions allowed false circulator signatures on 17 petition sheets. Kuhr also alleges there are numerous signatures “by the same hand” on 13 petition sheets, and that a “high percentage” of signatures gathered by nine of Welch’s circulators are not genuine.

Numerous individuals who signed a petition also allegedly failed to list their address or listed an incomplete address, making it impossible to determine whether they live in the 7th district, as required by law.

Bass argues that the scale and scope of the election law violations in Welch’s nominating petitions constitutes a “pervasive and systematic attempt to undermine the integrity of the electoral process.” He cites five legal precedents in asking the election board to “void the entire nominating petition” as illegal and void.

The legal challenge to Welch’s candidacy is a turnabout from the 2014 campaign, in which Welch, with help from House Speaker and State Central Democratic Committee Chairman Michael Madigan, successfully objected to the nominating petitions of challenger Antoinette “Toni” Gray, a Maywood businesswoman.

Welch, who first won election to the House of Representatives in 2012 after 11 years on the Proviso D209 High School Board, suffered a setback in April when all three of his candidates for the D209 board, including his wife ShaunTe, lost to a reform slate. That defeat cost Welch and his political supporters control of the school board and the many patronage jobs and contracts long cherished by some Proviso Township politicians.

Welch has fought back in recent months with a strong fundraising effort. He has a little more than $100,000 in his campaign fund after raising more than $53,000 over the past six weeks.

Welch once again appears to have Madigan’s assistance. The morning after Kuhr filed his objection, the man who helped get Gray disqualified in 2014, veteran Madigan operative Shaw Decremer, pulled copies of Welch’s petitions at the ISBE offices.

Harris said he expects Decremer to play a role in defending Welch’s petitions before the ISBE, and for Madigan to throw his financial and political muscle behind Welch as needed.

Bass agreed that Welch will push back.

“There’ll probably be motions filed by the other side,” Bass said. The ultimate resolution, he said, will be a “binder check,” in which all the contested signatures are compared to voter signatures on file with Cook County Clerk David Orr’s office.

Kuhr, who played an active role in the April victory of the D209 Proviso Together slate, said his involvement in the current state rep primary is simply more citizen activism.

“I’m happy too play a role in this and further the democratic process,” Kuhr said. “It’s up to citizens to assure that we have an honest government.”

 

 

 

 

—  State Rep. Welch faces primary challenger, objection to nominating papers ==