Democrats dropped from Schaumburg Township ballot
And then there were none.
The Schaumburg Township electoral board Monday voted 2-1 to strike all five Democratic candidates for township offices from the April 9 ballot, on the basis that they were slated by an acting Democratic committeeman who wasn't properly appointed himself.
The electoral board member who voted against the decision — attorney Ellen Raymond of Burr Ridge — was court-appointed to serve on the board and is not a candidate for Schaumburg Township office herself.
Raymond said she was convinced by case law cited by the candidates' attorney, Dan Johnson, that an improper procedure that didn't change the outcome of the caucus should have no effect on the ballot.
The other members of the electoral board — Schaumburg Township Supervisor Mary Wroblewski and Township Clerk Timothy Heneghan — are running for re-election and were already unopposed members of a Republican slate.
Mike Cudzik, whose questioned status as the acting Democratic committeeman of Schaumburg Township was at the heart of the ballot objection, said he was disappointed by the vote.
“I feel the decision that was made disenfranchises the voters of Schaumburg Township,” he said.
Removed from the ballot were trustee candidates Moe Patel, Mike Murray, Carolyn A. Quinn and Zuhair Nubani and highway commissioner candidate Michael Lenehan.
Cudzik said a decision on whether to appeal hasn't yet been made. The removed candidates will have five business days to appeal to the circuit court once the paperwork of the electoral board is approved at another hearing at 3 p.m. Friday, Jan. 25.
Wroblewski, Heneghan and the electoral board's attorney, Tom Bastian, were convinced by the argument of objector Chandrakant H. Pandya of Roselle that Cudzik wasn't properly appointed township committeeman after the November resignation of Rocco Terranova.
Pandya's attorney, Steven Laduzinsky, argued that the office of township committeeman is normally elected. But after Terranova's resignation, the vacancy wasn't filed with the Cook County clerk's office so that county Democrats could duly name a successor.