Politics: Green Party picks Senate candidate

The Illinois Green Party is holding it’s convention in Peoria this weekend. I would have loved to go down and mingle with this well-meaning left-wingers, but I have to work today. Too bad the Libertarian Party in Illinois has essentially collapsed. Anyway, they picked their senate candidate today. Good luck trying to keep her and other Greenies on the ballot.

The Illinois Green Party chose Kathy Cummings, a retired special education educator and environmental activist, as the party’s U.S. Senate candidate in 2008. Cummings will take on Senator Dick Durbin (D) and Steve Sauerberg (R).

The party made the decision at its state convention at Bradley University in Peoria. Cummings, of Chicago, was selected over Chad Koppie, of Gilberts, and Arno Sponeman, of Granite City.

“We’ve got to change — we are long overdue for change,” says Cummings. “Dick Durbin is one of the top leaders in Congress, and he continues to vote for funding for Bush’s war. The only way to stop this war is to get rid of the people who continue to enable it.”

This is Cummings’ second run for public office. In 2006, Cummings filed petitions to run for State Representative, 4th District, but despite having two and a half times the required number of signatures, was denied ballot access after a Democratic challenge. Cummings
appealed the case to the IL Supreme Court, but was denied.

The Illinois Green Party is an established political party in 2006, when Rich Whitney received 10% of the statewide vote for governor. State election law allows political parties to “slate” candidates to fill offices where no candidate appears on the ballot in the primary.
No candidate ran for U.S. Senate in the Green Party primary on Feb. 5. A record number of federal, state and local candidates will appear as Greens on ballots across the state this November.

KATHY CUMMINGS BACKGROUND

* Special education teacher, Chicago Public Schools for 23 years, retired June, 2006.

* Founding Publisher NIT&WIT Literary Arts Magazine, dealing with art, music, theatre, dance, poetry, fiction, photography, etc. in Chicago for 8 years, with monthly NIT&WIT Open Mikes for 3 years.

* 1999, founded Milk Outrage Organization, Inc. (MOO) to inform the public about recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) being injected into cows to make them make more milk (Monsanto) and what conflicting studies say rBGH might mean for our children. MOO also offered safe alternatives to products using rBGH dairy. We got rBGH milk out of the Chicago Public School system for a year, until Daley hired a Monsanto attorney for his Chief of Staff and the new contract bids came up
again.

* 1975, founded a group that became Alliance of Nonsmokers (ANS) resulting in the banning of smoking in Chicago elevators, groceries, schools, and started non-smoking sections in restaurants.

*Ran for State Rep. (4th) in 2006. Sought ballot access all the way to the IL Supreme Court and was rejected.