After residency kerfuffle, U.S. Rep. Schneider to remain on ballot; two other candidates booted
An attempt to keep Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider off the upcoming primary ballot was rejected Thursday by the Illinois State Board of Elections.
However, congressional candidates in two other largely suburban races won't appear on ballots because of successful objections to their nominating petitions.
Schneider is seeking reelection in the 10th District, which was redrawn for the 2022 election and includes parts of Cook, Lake and McHenry counties.
Two Lake Forest residents tried to keep Schneider out of the June 28 primary, alleging he didn't live at the Highland Park address he listed as his home on nominating petition sheets and a candidacy statement, and thus shouldn't be considered a candidate.
Schneider and his wife have been in the process of moving to a Highland Park house they had built. The couple sold their Deerfield home in January, a spokesman has said.
The Highland Park house didn't seem lived-in this winter and it didn't receive a certificate of occupancy until mid-March, after Schneider submitted his candidate papers to the state.
Schneider insisted the right address was on the documents because he no longer intended to live in Deerfield by that point. His campaign has pointed to previous cases in which the intent of a candidate to have a permanent home in a city and the abandonment of a previous home were critical factors for determining residency.
Schneider also argued either address qualifies him to hold office.
A hearing officer and an attorney for the elections board said Schneider didn't intend to deceive voters by using the Highland Park address. The board agreed.
In a statement released Thursday afternoon, Schneider said he's happy the elections board "agrees that we should put this frivolous distraction behind us."
Schneider is the only Democrat running in the 10th and is set to face Republican Joe Severino of Lake Forest in the Nov. 8 general election.
Severino, who wanted Schneider removed from the ballot, expressed anger after the election board's decision, saying he doesn't believe the law was followed.
Also Thursday, the elections board removed Republican John Elleson of Arlington Heights from the ballot in the 9th District because his petition lacked enough valid signatures.
The decision leaves incumbent Democrat Jan Schakowsky of Evanston and Republican Max Rice of Northbrook as the only candidates in the 9th, which was redrawn for the 2022 election and includes parts of Cook, Lake and McHenry counties.
Rice unsuccessfully sought the GOP nomination in the 9th in 2018. He lost to Elleson, who subsequently lost to Schakowsky in the general election.
Additionally, the elections board opted to remove Kimball Ladien, a Chicago Republican candidate in the 5th District, from the ballot for several reasons. He broke state election law by notarizing his own statement of candidacy, he incorrectly identified the seat he was seeking as a Cook County Board post on some pages and he improperly included a reference to his medical degree on the paperwork, election officials said.
Ladien unsuccessfully ran for the GOP nomination in 2020.
The ruling leaves Malgorzata McGonigal of North Barrington and Tommy Hanson of Chicago as the GOP candidates in the race. Incumbent Mike Quigley is the lone Democratic candidate in the 5th, which cuts diagonally through Cook and Lake counties between Chicago's Near North Side and the Barrington area.
Quigley defeated Hanson in 2018 and 2020.