Having a good ballot name can go a long way to winning an election. This isn't just cynicism on my part. It's been borne out in recent Illinois political history. In our area a great example was the Democratic Primary for Congress in 1992 when party favorite Mark Weisbrot (now with a Washington think tank) lost to Charles Mattis. While Weisbrot won handily in Champaign County and had more money and organization, he wasn't able to offset the votes received by Mattis throughout the rest of the district. It was hard to find much of a reason for the loss other than the unCentral Illinois sound to the Weisbrot name.
More famous, and with far more impact, was the 1986 Democratic primary for Lieutenant Governor. George Sangmeister, a State Senator from Will County faced off against Lyndon LaRouche supporter Mark Fairchild. There probably wasn't a single Democratic elected official in the state that didn't support Sangmeister, to the point that the party organization never really worked the election. On election night, the wacko with the nice name, Mark Fairchild, beat Sangmeister. Adlai Stevenson, faced with the choice of being on the ticket with Fairchild or running as a third party, decided on the latter. It killed the Democrats that year as Jim Thompson crushed Stevenson.
After receiving yet another question today from a Republican about who to vote for in the race for U.S. Senator, I'm very concerned that we might end up with another Fairchild on our ticket. Steve Sauerberg is the Republican establshment choice for U.S. Senate. Andy Martin, aka Anthony Martin Trigona, is on the ballot as well, along with Mike Psak. Martin/Trigona has a long history of bizarre behavior, running as a candidate for various offices with both the Democratic and Republican parties and suing everyone in sight.
Sauerberg is relatively unknown outside of party circles. Are we setting ourselves up for the nice sounding Andy Martin to be our candidate against Dick Durbin?
Ah, Anthony Robert Martin Trigona – a name that will be familiar to anyone who grew up paying attention to Illinois politics in the Seventies.
Apparently in addition to filing frivolous lawsuits and running for office, Martin Trigona (d/b/a Andy Martin) was also a notorious campus landlord – but that was before my time in C-U and the details are fuzzy.
Ah, Illinois politics – seldom sane and never dull.
Ah yes, I remember Fairchild. Janice Hart also won the Dem primary that year, probably for similar reasons and sounded like a bizarre character too.
Background on Anthony R. Martin-Trigona "Andy Martin":
http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2007/03/post_285.html
Martin also has expressed anti-Semitic attitudes in the past. When he ran for Congress in Connecticut in 1986, the name of his congressional campaign committee included the phrase "to exterminate Jew power in America," Federal Election Commission records show.
In a 1983 personal bankruptcy case, he referred to a federal bankruptcy judge as a "crooked, slimy Jew, who has a history of lying and thieving common to members of his race."
In a related court filing in the case, he also expressed sympathy to the perpetrators of the Holocaust.
"I am able to understand how the Holocaust took place, and with every passing day feel less and less sorry that it did, when Jew survivors are operating as a wolf pack to steal my property," Martin wrote in an April 21, 1983, personal bankruptcy proceeding.
In 1973, the Illinois Supreme Court refused to allow Martin admission to the bar. The court's decision noted that Martin, a University of Illinois law school graduate who was previously known by the name Anthony R. Martin-Trigona, had a Selective Service record that showed he had a "moderately-severe character defect manifested by well documented ideation with a paranoid flavor and a grandiose character."
Still, the court noted that "issues raised as to [Martin's] mental stability" did not need to be considered in light of other matters it cited in deciding that Martin lacked the qualities of "responsibility, candor, fairness, self-restraint, objectivity and respect for the judicial system" required for the administration of justice.
Among issues the high court cited in denying his law license were Martin's criticism of members of a bar review panel as "emotionally ill" and "scum," his filing of a petition asking that a parking violation be lifted because it was "entered by an insane judge" and his description of an attorney as "shaking and tottering and drooling like an idiot," according to court records.
Projection.
Projection.
??
Wow. We could do even worse than Keyes?
It staggers the imagination.
Mike Psak shares the name problem of Sauerberg, the difference being one of them is the establishment candidate. I'm voting for Psak (despite his name) for the following reasons:
1) I'm tired of the Republican establishment telling me who I'm obliged to vote for (what business does the state party have endorsing a candidate in a primary, and excluding other candidates from their webpage listing of candidates in this election?);
2) Psak is pro-life. Sauerberg may also be, but since he is the state party's endorsed candidate and he is silent about it on his webpage I'm guessing he is either pro-choice or thinks its an entirely unimportant issue.
3) Psak is solidly conservative on a vast range of issues of our day. A modest internet search (which is all that regular people have the time to do) reveals very little about Sauerberg's positions except on 3-4 issues.
4) I'm willing to overlook some of Psak's idiosyncracies in light of the above 3 (ie, abolishing tolls? It's not going to happen anyway so it's not a huge deal to me).
Maybe Mike Psak should have changed his name.
Phil Psak? R. Fuller Psak?
Psak conceptually is unlikely to hold water...
How about Mike Ryan?
He could put the MIke in huge letters
and the Ryan part in tiny nano almost invisible letters.
I think we will have a much better candidate in Dr. Sauerberg.