Governor's Race Gets a Bit More Crowded

By Prescott Carlson in News on May 17, 2010 8:40PM

Illinois voters certainly can't complain about a lack of choices in November's gubernatorial election, even if the quality of those choices is still up for debate. William "Dock" Walls announced his run for governor in Millennium Park yesterday and if he, along with fellow independent Scott Lee Cohen, can complete the daunting task of amassing 25,000 petition signatures by June 21, the number of candidates trying to knock out incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn will rise to five. Walls and Cohen would join Republican Bill Brady, Gree Party candidate Rich Whitney and Libertarian Lex Green.

Walls, who has picked Oak Park attorney Ed Scanlan as his unofficial running mate, had previously run in the Democratic primary before dropping out last December at the same time fellow candidate Scanlan was removed from the ballot, and Walls attempted a run for Chicago mayor in 2007, but came in last behind Dorothy Brown. He was also unsuccessful in defeating U.S. Representative Bobby Rush in 2008, but that certainly isn't a predictor of future success.

The addition of yet another Democrat turned "independent" is bad news for Quinn. After barely squeaking onto the ballot after beating challenger Dan Hynes in the closest primary in Illinois history, the last thing Quinn needs is another candidate siphoning off even a tiny fraction of the Democratic votes. Supporters of Quinn were said to have challenged Walls petition signatures in the primary, and the question is if Quinn still has that same support to do it again this time around. And even if he does, Walls knows how to get people to put ink to paper -- for his mayoral race, Walls submitted 39,000 petition signatures compared to Daley's 24,000 marking the first time a candidate had gathered more signatures than the Mayor, so he might have enough wiggle room over the 25,000 signatures necessary to survive any legal battle.