Joliet City Council candidate kicked off spring ballot

The Joliet electoral board sustained objections to one candidate for next year’s City Council election and continued the hearing to Dec. 18 for the remaining two candidates.

On Wednesday, Joliet Mayor Terry D’Arcy, council member Larry Hug and City Clerk Lauren O’Hara voted to sustain the objections to Larry Crawford. The vote was made at the recommendation of Ross Secler, an attorney for the electoral board.

The action of the board means Crawford will not appear as a candidate on the April 1 ballot.

The hearing for candidates Marzell L. Richardson III and Jim Lanham was continued to Dec. 18.

Council member Cesar Guerrero was not present Wednesday to answer the objections against him because he is not seeking reelection. He plans to run for the office of Joliet Township supervisor.

Objections against Guerrero, Richardson, Latham and Crawford were filed by John Dillon, a former city Public Works Department employee, union leader and former chairman of the Joliet Plan Commission.

Chicago attorney Karman Bains is acting on Dillon’s behalf in his objections to the candidates, none of whom have their own attorney.

Lanham said Wednesday that he considered the objections unfair to candidates “who don’t have money and [a] lawyer” and “strategy people” who can “dig, dig and complain.”

During the hearing on Crawford, Bains told the electoral board that Crawford failed in a timely manner to submit a statement of candidacy and a statement of economic interest with his nomination papers.

Crawford said the objections have “technical merit,” but he asked the board to consider “no greater statement of candidacy than nearly submitting twice as many needed signatures [and] valid signatures from various qualified electors.”

“Whether intentional or unintentional, I believe the ultimate impact of these objections serve more to be about exclusive suppression as opposed to inclusive participation,” Crawford said.

Secler recommended sustaining the objections because the board doesn’t have the authority to “make exceptions, even for the best of cases.”

Hug said the issue in Crawford’s case “comes down, I think, to making an exception to the law.”

D’Arcy said the board is “bound by the letter of law,” and if it had discretion, there would be a “different conversation.”

“I wish I had discretion,” D’Arcy said.