While the West Side ward committeeperson races were originally shaping up to be unusually competitive, objections against candidates wiped the field clean.
The committeepersons help to organize campaigns and when an elected office held by a member of their party becomes vacant, offices vote to appoint replacements. On the West Side, those races tend to be low-stakes affairs – aldermen run unopposed for Democratic committee offices in their wards, and some wards are lucky to get even one Republican candidate. The committeepersons are elected during the regularly scheduled March 19 primary election.
Originally, the 29th Ward was competitive on both sides of the aisle, with two of Ald. Chris Taliaferro’s previous city council election opponents, C.B. Johnson and Zerlina Smith-Members, running against him on the Democratic side, and Antoine Members, Smith-Members’ husband, challenging incumbent Walter Adamczyk on the Republican side. In the 24th Ward, Larry G. Nelson challenged incumbent Ald. Monique Scott for the Democratic seat, while two Republicans competed for the 27th Ward seat. But all those candidates faced objections, and most ended up either quitting the races or getting removed from the ballot – leaving every race noncompetitive.
When a candidate files to run for office, any registered voter within the district they are running for has a right to object. There is nothing in the election code that prevents voters connected to one of the candidate’s opponents, or even the opponents themselves, from filing objections. Most of the time, objections try to invalidate signatures on the nominating petitions to bring the number below the legal minimum, which is why candidates usually try to collect at least three times more signatures than legally required.
In the 29th Ward, Johnson ran against Taliaferro for alderman in 2023, while Smith-Members ran for the seat in 2015 and 2019. Members ran for several offices as a Republican in the past, but this was his first attempt to run for a West Side office. Smith-Members has claimed that she had no idea her husband was running until he showed her the nominating petitions.
Adamczyk objected to Members’ nominating petitions, while Ollie Turner, of Austin, filed objections against both Johnson and Smith-Members. Members quit fairly early in the process, while Smith-Members withdrew her candidacy on the morning of Jan. 3. Smith-Members said that they both decided to quit to focus on her candidacy for Cook County Commissioner.
The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners voted to remove Johnson from the ballot during its Jan. 5 meeting.
Nelson’s history in the 24th ward politics is long and spans both parties. He worked for then-24th Ward Ald. Michael Chandler in 1995 to 2002 and then in 2007 to 2015, but he also served as the ward’s Republican committeeperson in 2008 to 2019. When Chandler’s successor, Michael Scott, resigned, Nelson applied to fill the vacancy, only for then-mayor Lori Lightfoot to appoint Scott’s sister, Monique Scott. Nelson ran for the seat in 2023, but he didn’t get enough votes to even make the runoff.
No one filed to run for 24th Ward Republican committeeperson this year.
Inglesa Toney, who objected to every candidate who challenged Michael Scott in 2019, objected to Nelson this time around. According to Chicago election board spokesperson Max Bever, Nelson didn’t show up for the initial Dec. 18 hearing.
“[He] has since not made any contact with the Electoral Board despite having been served with notice of the hearing,” he said.
Under the Chicago election code, this was grounds for removing the candidate from the ballot. The election board made that official Jan. 5.
Neither of the 28th Ward races is competitive, with Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) and business owner Tamiko Holt running for Democrat and Republican seats, respectively. Starr Kemp, of West Garfield Park, objected to Holt’s candidacy. But Bever said that he didn’t show up for the initial hearing or respond to the election board’s subsequent outreach – which, under the election code, rendered the objection moot. The election board made it official on Jan. 5.
In the 27th Ward, Kimberly Saunders and Stephen Boulton were running to fill the seat that has been vacant since April 2023, when incumbent Mark Spognardi died. Boulton objected to Saunders’ petitions, while Roderick R. Jones of Old Town objected to Boulton’s. The electoral board voted to side with Boulton on his objection against Saunders, kicking her off the ballot.
