Candidates with political ambitions in Illinois, both high and low, have one thing in common today. They can start collecting signatures to get on the 2016 ballot.
Collecting signatures is the kind of thing that can end a candidacy if they aren’t valid.
Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin hopes to win the Democratic nomination to run against Republican U-S Senator Mark Kirk.
He says a candidate collecting thousands of signatures has to do three things:
One, BOYKIN says, "You have a team in place that gets good signatures."
Two, he says, one must "verify those signatures."
And, because those signatures are likely to be challenged no matter what, BOYKIN says, "you gotta make sure you have good, wise counsel."
Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth, State Senator Napoleon Harris, and former Urban League CEO Andrea Zopp are also expected to seek the Democratic nomination.