Bypassing the voters

Mid-term resignation of legislators has been used for a long time to cheat voters out of the right to select their representatives. And the practice continues today.

Illinois law directs the elected leaders of each party to name a replacement on the ballot in the event its nominated candidate (who won the primary election) or current officeholder cannot or will not serve. It exists primarily to replace a candidate who dies between the primary and the general election or who steps down for some other reason. But it’s used for other reasons.

In 1972, State Senator Robert Cherry, the House Minority Leader and an eighteen-year legislative veteran, dismissed pre-election claims that he was going to be named a Circuit Court Judge after the election.  (Associate judges were routinely appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court to fill Circuit Court vacancies and many attorneys and politicians knew who was to be chosen before the list was made public).

But shortly after winning a close primary contest he was appointed to a Judgeship and resigned his State Senate seat. Committeemen in his district then selected State Senator Ben Palmer as his replacement on the general election ballot for the full four-year term.

Coincidentally, Cherry’s newly drawn district included a peculiar “hook” that curved west from its lakefront base to include the Budlong Woods home of Palmer, who had represented a neighboring district that had been eliminated in reapportionment. Apparently, Palmer’s replacement of Cherry had been planned by party leaders all along.