Gus Philpott

To obtain “Established” party status, one must have a candidate who receives five percent of the vote.

When Rich Whitney received about ten percent for Governor when he ran against Rod Blagojevich and Judy Baar Topinka, he allowed Green Party candidates to get on the ballot statewide with very, very few signatures.

To run for Sheriff, Gus Philpott only had to get 19 signatures.

Preliminary results show he got just over five percent of the total ballots cast for Sheriff.

Green Party candidate for Sheriff Gus Philpott got just over 5% of the vote, enough to qualify the party countywide for easy ballot access.

So, anyone wanting to run for county office, countywide or county board (see below for correction), won’t have to make a large effort to get on the ballot.

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Correction: I thought to check this out with the State Board of Elections, but state employees didn’t work on Veterans Day.  I have now been told that only for countywide offices is the Green Party considered an “established” party.  That means county board candidates would have to gather a much larger number of signatures, except in the 5th district.

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The problem is the Green Party has not gathered much momentum in McHenry County.

District 5 county board candidate Frank Wedig received 8.6%

Green Party candidate got 8% of the vote in 2010.

And former McHenry County College Board President Scott Summers received 4.29% in his quest for State Treasurer.

Harvard resident Scott Summers received over 4% of the vote, while his running mate for Governor only got 3.4% here.

8th District Congressional candidate received just 3% however.

But for a party to grow, one needs troops on the ground or money.

The only precinct committeemen listed in the McHenry County Yearbook are Summers and Wedig.

With the number of Environmental Defenders in McHenry County, one might have thought there was an opportunity to build a local party based on local issues, but it has not happened yet.