Green Party Candidates Seek Place on November Ballot

Illinois Republicans and Democrats chose their party's nominees last week. Third-party candidates are working to join them on the November ballot.

Before they can even think about winning a statewide election, independent candidates and those from third parties have to make it on the ballot, which requires collecting at least 25,000 valid signatures, by mid-June.

Green Party candidates are beginning their petition drive.

"I have been so annoyed, or angry even, with the way that state government has been running ... we need another alternative. And the Green Party provides that," said the Green's nominee for governor, attorney Scott Summers, who is from Harvard.

Summers is against Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn's proposal to extend the temporary income tax, calling his plans regressive. And he says the Republican nominee, private equity investor Bruce Rauner, could use some humility; he opposes Rauner's term limits initiative.

Summers said he favors a progressive income tax, in which tax rates increase with income.

The Green Party was briefly an "established" party in Illinois -- on the same level as Democrats and Republicans -- after its gubernatorial candidate got more than 10-percent of the statewide vote in 2006. But it lost that status after the party failed to get 5-percent of the vote in the next election cycle.

The Constitution Party also has a statewide slate that's collecting petition signatures. The party's website said its purpose is to restore "Constitutionally mandated and enumerated functions and boundaries," and that its nominee for governor is Springfield resident Michael Oberline.