Judge to decide Link's election fate Wed.

A Cook County judge could decide Wednesday whether veteran state Sen. Terry Link will be bumped from next month's primary ballot because signatures on his candidate paperwork may have been forged.

Judge Paul A. Karkula will consider the case -- filed by a political foe of Link's -- at 2:30 p.m. at the Daley Center in downtown Chicago.

Link, who has weathered hearings, criticisms in the media and even picketing at his Waukegan home since the complaints first arose in November, is confident he'll remain on the Feb. 5 ballot.

"I feel very good about it," said Link, who's represented the 30th District in Lake and Cook counties since 1997.

Jerry Johnson, the one-time Democratic challenger who originated the case against Link, said he's "cautiously optimistic" heading into Wednesday's hearing.

"I am not expecting anything at all," said Johnson, who last month was knocked off the ballot because of problems with his own petition. "I just have to wait and see."

The case landed in Karkula's courtroom after the Illinois elections board rejected Johnson's attempt to have the senator removed from the ballot.

Johnson has said Link's document contains the names of dead people and area residents who've denied signing the form.

Additionally, some signatures on the sheets are in alphabetical order, which is unusual for campaign petitions, Lake County State's Attorney Michael Waller has said.

Waller's office is investigating the complaints.

Link -- leader of Lake County's Democratic Party and the majority caucus chair in the Senate -- has said he did not circulate any of his candidate petition forms. Records indicate campaign workers and volunteers did. Petitions circulated by two campaign workers particularly have come under fire, officials have said.

In a split decision last month, the elections board agreed many of the signatures were invalid but didn't reject enough of them to have Link removed from the ballot.

Johnson appealed the decision Dec. 27 in Cook County circuit court, leading to Wednesday's hearing.

Adam Lasker, one of Johnson's attorneys, expects Karkula will decide the matter today. If Karkula upholds the election board's ruling, Johnson could appeal again, this time to the state appellate court, Lasker said.