Enter the Chicago machine's lawyers and they promptly sent in an army of guys to nitpick Shelstorm's filing records and kick him off the ballot, even though he got well over the required number of signatures and had legitimately filed (something ridiculous like he had filled out page two in blue ink instead of black ink). Of course all the judges in Crook Co. are Daley-approved Chicago machine hacks, and the judge sided with the RAT lawyers. My Dem State Senator then ran for re-election unopposed on the ballot.
Shelstorm tried again two years later (my state central committeemen called me and asked for advise on whether she should slate Shelstorm or me, and I said I would agree to run but that Shelstorm would probably be a stronger candidate so I'd defer to him), and this time got himself slated by the state party AFTER the primary to surprise and RATs and eliminate the opportunity for any voter lists for the RAT lawyers to nitpick. Incredibly, they found a way to kick off the ballot AGAIN anyway, finding a technicality wrong with the state GOP's perfectly legitimate appointment paperwork (think Frank Lautenberg in reverse). Shelstorm then filed as a write-in candidate, and got a few hundred signatures, but it was a virtually insurmontable obstacle to win with the RAT unopposed on ballot.
Of course all those "abolish the 17th amendment" advocates say we should pay no attention to rigged elections, gerrymandered districts, and legal dirty tricks that ensure the outcome of our state legislature races are predetermined in most cases. Why, if we foolish voters would just pay more attention to the candidates on the ballot, we'll elect a decent limited government consitutional legislature. Sure.
The army of lawyers working for Mark Kirk is going after Randy Stufflebeam next, even though he too filed more than twice the number of signatures to get on the ballot and preemptively tried to starve off a challenge by striking out the bad signatures before he filed. But I wouldn't put it past them if they find a way in denying voters a voice in that race, too. Kirk had a conservative third party challenger for Congress in 2008 (Allen Stevo), who was promptly removed by Kirk's goons.
All of the freepers who say democracy is bad and needs to be eliminated might consider moving to King Richie Daley's monarchy in Chicago. They'd get their wish.
One of the people who copied the Constitution Party petitions was John Fogarty. When I tried to run for state rep., Fogarty was the lawyer for my objector. The objector was a next-door neighbor of my RINO opponent who was endorsed by Pat Brady, Tom Cross, and Elizabeth Coulson.